largest single collection of living plants in the world, some of the specimens here collected by charles darwinimself. my guest is kew�*s director, richard deverell, who has big ambitions to put this place at the heart of the battle to avert global environmental catastrophe. butjust how realistic is that? richard deverell, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. let me begin by asking you about your vision for this remarkable place, kew. do you see it as an institution devoted to science and research? or, fundamentally, is it one of the world's great visitor attractions? kew is a bit of both. i think at the heart of kew has always been science, our scientists and our scientific collections. but we also have this extraordinary living collection in the gardens just here. we have nearly 18,000 different species at kew. and that, of course, is at the heart of the visitor attraction, along with the beautiful buildings. it's a world heritage site. my vision for kew is that, fundamentally, we try and align everything we're doing to address these enormous global challenges we face as humanity, the biodiversity

largest single collection of living plants in the world, some of the specimens here collected by charles darwinat the heart of the

largest single collection of living plants in the world, some of the specimens here collected by charles darwin heart of the battle to avert global environmental catastrophe.