*Please note – this event took place before the UK was placed into lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic*
A team of Life Sciences undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University have been crowned runners-up in the UK inter-university Botanical University Challenge 2020.
The third UK inter-university Botanical University Challenge was held at the University of Liverpool’s Ness Botanic Gardens early in March. First held at Kew Gardens in 2016, before moving to University of Reading in 2019, the event sees university teams compete for the coveted trophy by answering questions on plant-related topics.
Undergraduates Ellie Payne, Sadie McGrane and Grace Boyling from the School of Life Sciences, along with postgraduate research student Toby Irving from the Institute of Integrative Biology, made up the University’s team ‘LiverLambBanana’.
With a record seven universities competing this year, Team LiverLambBanana were worthy recipients of the runners-up trophy. They overcame stiff competition from Lancaster University in the semi-final only to be defeated by the University of Reading in the final.
Competing in front of an audience, the teams identified plant specimens and answered questions on wild and food plant names, biochemistry and ecology. Quizmaster for the day was Emeritus Professor Alan McCarthy and the event itself was coordinated by Dr Meriel Jones.
Commenting on the competition, the leader of the Plants and Photosynthesis Research Network at Liverpool, Dr James Hartwell from the Institute of Integrative Biology, said: “It was a wonderful honour for Liverpool to be able to host this year’s Challenge, which showcased beautifully the critical and pivotal role that plants and crops play in supporting humanity’s very existence. This competition also reassured me that we have some exceptional young plant scientists coming through at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, and it was very heartening to see that these students are now perfectly poised to use their knowledge to address key challenges including the global food security crisis and our need to achieve sustainable agricultural production in the face of climate change.”
Dr Raj Whitlock, leading research at Liverpool into the impact of climate change on plants, said: “Team LiverLambBanana did a brilliant job in getting to the final of this tough competition – it is a credit to them and a real achievement. The day was a fantastic opportunity for students in all of the teams to meet with each other, to develop their passion for plant sciences and to network.”