Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world famous centre for botanical and mycological knowledge. Over the past 250 years Kew has made innumerable contributions to increasing the understanding of plants and fungi with many benefits for humankind.

Jason Irving is a writer, forager and qualified herbalist. He works at Kew Gardens on the Medicinal Plant Names Services project, developing and promoting a global resource for plant names. His passion for plants was sparked during the two years he spent working for the UK's leading supplier of wild foods, Forager Ltd. Over the last five years Jason has taught hundreds of people how to find, identify and use wild plants on his popular foraging and herbal medicine courses in London. His essay on the history of cocktail bitters was included in the book Kew's Teas, Tonics and Tipples? and he was botanical consultant for the book Edible City by John Rensten.