Micropropagation of Catalina Island’s Rarest Plants

The Catalina Island Conservancy has developed a micropropagation laboratory to overcome traditional horticultural challenges and provide reliable propagules of rare and endangered taxa. The current focus of the laboratory is to develop tissue culture protocols to produce plants of the endangered Santa Catalina Island Mountain Mahogany (Cercocarpus traskiae) and the endemic Santa Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. floribundus) for conservation and germplasm storage.