Collecting and Conserving

This fall, The Arboretum at Flagstaff has been preparing packets of Packera franciscana propagules, a critically impaired or G1 listed endangered species found only on the San Francisco Peaks in northern Arizona, for seed banking at the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation Laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado. With funding provided by the USDA USFS Region 3 Forests Project and the Bureau of Land Management’s Seeds of Success Program, the Arboretum has collected eight species from 12 populations (totaling over 73,000 seeds!) that are important for conservation and research. Collecting trips have ranged from western Arizona, dipping into the Mohave Desert and north to the Arizona Strip, as well as to the top of Agassiz Peak just outside Flagstaff.