News

Contributions from Kenneth R. Wood, Michael DeMotta, and Seana Walsh, and photos from Kenneth R. Wood On a small rocky island, or more accurately, an islet, jutting up off the shore of Moloka’I, eight dwarf Naupaka (Scaevola coriacea) plants cluster together at the very top. It is the second largest population of this endangered species. Lower down on [...]

PHOTO: Meads milkweed In North America, you can find tallgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, or shortgrass prairie. Tallgrass: Its main feature is tall grasses, such as indiangrass (Sorghastrum nutans), big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum). Mixed-grass: A transition area between tallgrass prairies and shortgrass prairies. Shortgrass: The two most dominant grasses are blue [...]

Missouri Botanical Garden Provided by Christy Edwards and Matthew Albrecht Missouri Botanical Garden is conducting a research project with the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) on the species Mead’s milkweed (Asclepias meadii). This species is endemic to tallgrass prairies and listed as federally threatened on the Endangered Species Act. It is a long-lived perennial plant that [...]

Lauritzen Botanic Gardens (Provided by Jim Locklear) Lauritzen Gardens has focused on the Central Grassland of North America and has been engaged in prairie work on several fronts. Three current projects are: Endemic Plants of the Central Grassland of North America, Sandsage Prairie Initiative, and Blowout Penstemon Seed Banking Project. Endemic Plants [...]

University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (MLA) (Provided by David Remucal) The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum safeguards nine species in the CPC National Collection. Three of these species, Cypripedium candidum, Platanthera praeclara, and Besseya bullii, are prairie species. The University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum has had great success growing the [...]

The Morton Arboretum (Provided by Cathy Bechtoldt and Andrew Hipp) Ecological restoration is a critical component of conservation. Unfortunately, restored sites often fall short of common restoration goals such as maintenance of biodiversity over time, increased ecosystem function, and resistance to invasion by exotic weeds. The goal of this project is to test whether considering [...]

Announcements Dr. Peter Raven awarded the National Geographic Hubbard Medal. Each year, National Geographic awards the Hubbard Medal to recognize “lifetime achievement in research, discovery, and exploration.” This year, the Hubbard Medal was awarded to Dr. Peter H. Raven for his work as a botanist and for his work as a conservation advocate. Learn more. [...]

Atlanta Botanical Garden “What’s new for Torreya taxifolia, North America’s rarest conifer?” Emily Coffey, PhD, Ron Determann, Rebecca Byrd, and Carrie Radcliffe One of the rarest conifers in the world is the Florida Torreya (Torreya taxifolia). It is endemic to northwest Florida and extreme southwest Georgia. A catastrophic decline in this species occurred in the [...]

Test your skills: determine which plants are considered weeds or invasives and which are rare plants. (The answers are at the end of the newsletter.) Answers to plant quiz above:  1. Houston Camphor daisy (Rare),  2. Ox-Eye Daisy with monarch butterfly (Weed),  3. Two-Spike Crabgrass (Rare),  4. Veldt Grass (Weed),  5. Golden Indian [...]

This month we are looking at plants that are endangered but could be mistaken for “weeds.” Both appearance and/or behavior can account for misconceptions and perceptions. What happens when there are plants that display weed-like characteristics, yet aren’t weeds? What happens when those plants are also endangered? How do we address the perception of “weed” to obtain and [...]

A problem that Charles Darwin called an “abominable mystery” was to determine how flowering plants became dominant so rapidly in ecosystems across the world. Darwin wrote to Joseph Hooker in 1879 that “the rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery.” After all, plants existed for [...]

Seana Walsh, National Tropical Botanical Garden Rappelling down cliffs on Kauai, sometimes suspended a thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean, botanists hand pollinated the critically endangered Hawaiian flowering plant, Brighamia insignis (Alula) in an attempt to save them now that its native pollinator is all but extinct. There had been speculation that the natural pollinator of both Brighamia species [...]

Highlights of Some of the Past Catherine H. Beattie Fellowship Awardees Each year, The Garden Club of America (GCA) and the CPC together award the Catherine H. Beattie Fellowship to graduate students in biology, horticulture, or a related field. The purpose of the award is “to promote conservation of rare and endangered flora in the United States, [...]

From Jennifer Possley, MS, field biologist and Conservation Team leader at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden: “One of our two Lyonia truncata var. proctorii is about to flower! These plants were grown from seed collected by CESFO staff in May 2016, and sown by Field Botanist Jimmy Lange, after he carefully researched the best germination methods. Hopefully we will [...]

New this year to the CPC website is the interactive website tool or web app to explore pollinator networks. Most plant species rely on pollinators for reproduction. Without them, plants, including rare plant species, become even more threatened with extinction. CPC received funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in order to compile a database of pollinators of rare plants. Kara Powell, [...]

BOK TOWER GARDENS “The Gardens are slowly returning to normal. Thanks to the power of Hurricane Irma, Bok Tower Gardens has a new garden feature. The Horticultural team was able to save one of the downed trees, and visitors are enjoying a wonderful arch to walk under as they stroll through the historic Olmsted design. Repairs on the greenhouse have [...]

“In early September, the high winds and storm surge from Hurricane Irma devastated The Kampong, the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s property in south Miami. I was able to go there a week after the storm and what I saw was heartbreaking. The Kampong was a war zone, and many of our iconic trees, the Baobab, Cannon Ball Tree, Yellow Royal [...]

Image: San Diego Goldenstar (Bloomeria clevelandii). Photo@Andrew Borcher After review of the collections records of CPC institutions in 2017, the number of plants in the National Collection was revised from 789 to 1406. This increase reflects the inclusion of new participating institutions and the growth of collections of existing member institutions. The largest contributors of new species included [...]