The Value of Living Collection Catalogues and Catalogues Produced From the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Many botanic gardens produce catalogues of plants growing in their gardens on either a regular or ad hoc basis. These catalogues are useful for reference and archive purposes and their production has added benefits such as the necessity to stocktake the collection and clarify nomenclature prior to publication. Many now also contain interesting introductory material such as collection statistics, histories of the gardens and information about significant plants in the collection. This paper describes the value of producing catalogues, reviews four diverse approaches to catalogues (from the Arnold Arboretum, Ness Botanic Gardens, Oxford Botanic Garden and Utrecht Botanic Garden) and then describes the catalogues produced by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, before culminating in a description of Edinburgh’s 2006 Catalogue.