Save Plants
March 2020 Newsletter
Dig In, Sign Up, Save Plants
In this month’s Save Plants newsletter we have the pleasure of sharing good news about the rediscovery of plants once thought to be extinct and the great work our Participating Institutions are doing to recover the species in the wild. Learn how new technology is helping us explore hard to access locations, the heroic efforts required in the laboratory, and great restoration results.
Background photo: Bradshaw’s lomatium (Lomatium bradsahwii). Photo credit: Courtesy of Institute for Applied Ecology.
March 2020 Newsletter
Dig In, Sign Up, Save Plants
In this month’s Save Plants newsletter we have the pleasure of sharing good news about the rediscovery of plants once thought to be extinct and the great work our Participating Institutions are doing to recover the species in the wild. Learn how new technology is helping us explore hard to access locations, the heroic efforts required in the laboratory, and great restoration results.
Learn more in this month’s Save Plants.
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2020 Center for Plant Conservation National Meeting
Dear CPC Colleagues,
After careful consideration, we have decided to postpone the CPC National Meeting until October 8-9, 2020. We are especially grateful to Denver Botanic Gardens, who have agreed to be our host as was planned for May and are accommodating this change. We are awaiting word from the National Seed Lab (NLGRP) in Fort Collins, but anticipate that we will have a pre-conference field trip on October 7 to NLGRP.
If you have already registered and plan to attend the October meeting, you don’t need to take action. If you registered, but need a refund, please contact Jackie Tondreau (jtondreau@saveplants.org) and we will arrange to refund your money.
Our understanding is that airlines are being very reasonable to accommodate changes. We suggest contacting carriers and discussing the situation.
We are currently working with the hotel in Denver to shift the reserved rooms from May to October. It may be possible for reservations to shift, but please stay tuned for an update about that.
We will announce new deadlines for abstracts and new deadlines for registration as soon as we have worked out details.
Thank you for your understanding about this change in plans. Your health and safety is our highest priority. We hope to see you in Denver in October. Hey, maybe the aspens will be turning!
Best regards,
Joyce and the CPC National Office Team
CPC Rare Plant Academy
CPC Rare Plant Academy is a hub of learning, sharing, and discovery for the plant conservation community. CPC Rare Plant Academy brings the Center for Plant Conservation Best Practices to life by integrating instructional videos and community discourse with web-based interactive guidelines for plant conservation methods. This platform seeks to answer plant conservation’s most challenging “how to’s” by capturing the knowledge of Center for Plant Conservation’s network of expert botanists in modern, learning-friendly formats. As such, CPC Rare Plant Academy will be a training ground for the next generation of plant conservation scientists, who will be the first line of defense against plant extinction.
The Center for Plant Conservation is pleased to announce the publication of CPC Best Plant Conservation Practices to Support Species Survival in the Wild. For the first time we have consolidated our guidelines to cover plant conservation practice from soup to nuts. We urge practitioners to review the new guidelines that reflect updated knowledge about best scientific practice.
2020 Center for Plant Conservation National Meeting
You are invited to join the Center for Plant Conservation at the Denver Botanical Gardens in Denver, Colorado for our National Meeting, May 5 – 8, 2020 (Tuesday – Friday)
This conference brings together the leaders in plant conservation of the CPC Participating Institutions (PIs) to share and learn cutting-edge science and technology used to save plants. Denver Botanic Gardens offers 50 gardens for you to explore, as well as the interactive Science Pyramid, Mordecai Children’s Garden and collections of natural history, art and library holdings. The CPC National Meeting will be the first large event in the new Freyer – Newman Center.
CPC Rare Plant Academy
CPC Rare Plant Academy is a hub of learning, sharing, and discovery for the plant conservation community. CPC Rare Plant Academy brings the Center for Plant Conservation Best Practices to life by integrating instructional videos and community discourse with web-based interactive guidelines for plant conservation methods. This platform seeks to answer plant conservation’s most challenging “how to’s” by capturing the knowledge of Center for Plant Conservation’s network of expert botanists in modern, learning-friendly formats. As such, CPC Rare Plant Academy will be a training ground for the next generation of plant conservation scientists, who will be the first line of defense against plant extinction.
The Center for Plant Conservation is pleased to announce the publication of CPC Best Plant Conservation Practices to Support Species Survival in the Wild. For the first time we have consolidated our guidelines to cover plant conservation practice from soup to nuts. We urge practitioners to review the new guidelines that reflect updated knowledge about best scientific practice.
News from our Save Plants Digest
Clovers on the Rebound
Not long ago, running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) was thought by many to be extinct. Yet, this past fall, it joined a select few species considered recovered enough for delisting from the Endangered Species Act. This noteworthy event is a result of the extensive work that has gone into recovery efforts at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW).
Hanging on the Edge and Flying High
While dangling from ropes on a cliffside in Kaua’i in 1991, Research Biologist Ken Wood made an exciting discovery – a previously undescribed species of hau kuahiwi, or mountain hibiscus (Hibiscadelphus), a rare genus found only in Hawai’i. A recent drone program instituted by NTBG showed the importance of this technology in rare plant surveying when a drone flight caught the first glimpse of this species in nearly a decade.
Interview with Wes Knapp, M.S., North Carolina Natural Heritage Program
Wes Knapp is leading an important effort to assess plant extinction in North America north of Mexico. Taking up this cause of understanding extinction has opened his eyes to the extent of our knowledge, and sometimes our lack of knowledge, about rare plants.
Featured Plants from our National Collection
America’s flora is at risk, but it can be saved.
Today nearly 30% of the native flora in the United States is considered to be of conservation concern. Without human intervention, many of these plants may be gone within our lifetime. 80% of at-risk species are closely related to plants with economic value and more than 50% are related to crop species.
Plants in Peril.
CPC’s National Collection of Endangered Plants is composed of the most imperiled plants in the country. An important conservation resource, the Collection is a backup in case a species becomes extinct or no longer reproduces in the wild. Live plant material is collected from nature under controlled conditions and then carefully maintained as seed, rooted cuttings or mature plants.
BECOME A FRIEND OF CPC.
With your financial support, our future flora will be as diverse and green as future generations deserve. Please donate and join the CPC today!