SAVE PLANTS

This campaign has been a true testament to the power of collective action and the shared passion for preserving our planet’s most vulnerable plants. To everyone who contributed, we extend our deepest gratitude. Your generosity will not only directly support the conservation of these 44 imperiled species but also provide critical resources to the dedicated scientists and practitioners working tirelessly to save them.

Achieving More Together

The ‘40 for 40’ campaign was conceived as both a celebration of CPC’s history and a call to action for the future. Since its founding in 1984, CPC has been committed to safeguarding North America’s rare and endangered plants through collaboration, innovation, and science-based conservation best practices. Over the years, the CPC National Collection has grown to encompass over 2,650 species, each one a unique and vital piece of our planet’s biodiversity.

Through this campaign, we invited our supporters to join us in sponsoring 40 of these plants, representing the incredible beauty and diversity of North America’s rare and endangered plants—from the iconic Venus’ flytrap of the Carolinas to the towering Torrey Pines of Southern California’s coasts. Every dollar raised directly supports the ex-situ conservation and stewardship of these plants, ensuring they are safeguarded in seed banks, tissue culture labs, and botanical gardens. Additionally, these funds bolster the critical work of the scientists who are developing innovative techniques and strategies to address the complex challenges facing these species’ survival.

A Campaign Built on Generosity

The success of the ‘40 for 40’ campaign would not have been possible without the incredible support of CPC’s Board of Trustees, who donated over $270,000 in matching funds to inspire others to give. Their leadership and generosity set the tone for the campaign, motivating donors across the country to contribute.

The response from our community was overwhelming and every gift made is a powerful statement of commitment to saving plants. Together, we exceeded our goal, raising over $478,000 between Board matching funds and general donations, and surpassing our original target of 40 sponsored species to reach 44—including reaching the Premium sponsorship level for several species. Every dollar raised through the ‘40 for 40’ campaign will have a lasting impact.

These funds will enable CPC Conservation Partners to:

• Conduct essential seed banking and propagation efforts to safeguard genetic diversity.
• Research and develop innovative restoration techniques to support plant recovery in the wild.
• Monitor and manage wild populations to address threats such as habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change.
• Train and support the next generation of plant conservationists to carry this critical work forward.

Among the 44 sponsored species are plants with incredible stories of resilience and hope—from orchids that rely on complex fungal relationships to survive to wildflowers teetering on the brink of extinction due to habitat fragmentation. Your support ensures that these species have a fighting chance, and your contributions fuel the work of conservationists across the CPC network who dedicate their careers to saving them.

Looking Ahead

While the ‘40 for 40’ campaign has come to an end, the mission of the Center for Plant Conservation is far from complete. With over 4,400 rare and endangered North American plant taxa targeted for inclusion in the National Collection, our work continues to ensure every one of these species is secured in conservation collections.

As we embark on the next chapter of CPC’s journey, we invite you to stay engaged—whether by sponsoring additional plants, joining us at the 2025 National Meeting, or spreading the word about the vital importance of plant conservation. To every donor who contributed to the ‘40 for 40’ campaign: thank you. Your generosity has made this milestone anniversary truly unforgettable.

We are grateful to all our partners and supporters who make up our broader conservation community. You have not only honored CPC’s history but have also paved the way for an even brighter future for plant conservation. Together, we are proving that when we unite around a shared purpose, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

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Learn more about CPC’s ’40 for 40′ campaign and the rare and endangered plant species sponsored from this special anniversary campaign.

Southern Milkweed (Asclepias viridula)

Southern Milkweed is a G2-Imperiled species native to wet prairies in Alabama and Florida, where it thrives in habitats influenced by periodic burns. As part of their efforts through the Florida Plant Rescue initiative, the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s Gulf Coast conservation team monitored a population of 97 blooming plants at the St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve, noting the critical role of fire in triggering flowering after no blooms were observed the previous year. Widely dispersed or loosely clustered, many plants at the site faced significant herbivory, with over 60% experiencing damage to flowering structures. To mitigate this threat, flowers and developing pods were bagged for protection. Seed collection efforts yielded 212 seeds from 11 maternal lines for long term storage, with 90% of bagged seeds returned to the wild to ensure the population persists for years to come.

Slender-stemmed Monkeyflower (Erythranthe filicaulis)

Slender-stemmed Monkeyflower is a G2-Imperiled California endemic plant native to the High Sierra Nevada region of the California Floristic Province. It’s found in Mariposa and Tuolumne counties, near and around Yosemite National Park. This species is threatened by logging, reforestation activities involving herbicides, and possibly also by grazing and human recreation. The California Native Plant Society ranks this species as 1B—rare or endangered in California and elsewhere. Conservation scientists with California Botanic Garden (CalBG) made a wild provenance seed collection of Erythranthe filicaulis at Stanislaus National Forest this summer through the California Plant Rescue initiative. CalBG staff noted the population to be fairly small, but still managed a conservation collection now stewarded in long term storage at their seed bank.

Mogollon Thistle (Cirsium parryi ssp. mogollonicum)

Mogollon Thistle is a T1-Critically Imperiled subspecies endemic to Arizona, with a highly restricted range on the Mogollon Rim in Coconino County. Found in the understory of Ponderosa Pine forests, its habitat is often overgrown with other species and difficult to access, as observed by the team at The Arboretum at Flagstaff during a 2024 seed collecting excursion in the Coconino National Forest which identified just seven individuals, though more may exist in inaccessible locations. This rare plant is a target species of CPC’s agreement with the USDA Forest Service (USFS) to safeguard rare plant populations on Region 3 USFS lands in the Southwest. Through collaboration with CPC’s network of Conservation Partners, this initiative aims to secure material of rare taxa from USFS land in conservation-quality seed collections.

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Explore even more rare and endangered plant species in the CPC National Collection using the Rare Plant Finder tool.

Meet CPC’s New and Returning Trustees

Ruth Evans | Del Mar, CA

Since retiring from private medical practice in internal medicine and geriatrics, Ruth has been an active and founding member of the Rancho Santa Fe Literary Society and the Rancho Santa Fe Women’s Fund and has served as president of the Rancho Santa Fe Art Guild Board. She has served previous terms as a trustee for the Center for Plant Conservation and also served on the board of a CPC Participating Institution, the San Diego Botanic Garden, chairing a committee that envisioned and created a popular children’s garden, Seeds of Wonder. She designed and developed a small organic farm and served on the board of the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club. She is also an award-winning artist and illustrator and has published two children’s books.

Dr. M. Patrick Griffith | Coral Gables, FL

Dr. M. Patrick Griffith has led Montgomery Botanical Center, a CPC Participating Institution, since 2005 – developing the team, focusing resources, and setting priorities to meet the mission. Patrick has worked in leadership, living collections, herbaria, rare plant survey, floristics, lab research, and land management, and for botanic gardens, universities, government, and private interests. Patrick’s research has been in plant systematics and conservation. Compelling palms and cycads have called Patrick to six continents and countless islands, but he is still not quite finished looking for them.

Thomas Lloyd-Butler | San Francisco, CA

Thomas Lloyd-Butler is an investor and 7th generation California rancher. He is a director at Grand-Jean Capital Management and a manager of Rancho Santa Clara del Norte, a 200-year-old family farming business. Thomas’s experience with plant conservation is personal. A self-taught gardener with the support and imagination of his partner, Dan Zelen, he manages the ranch’s 1,250 working acres with an additional six acres of historic grounds and gardens, all supporting a broad and historic plant a tree collection of nearly 1,000 taxa, 57 of which are documented on the IUCN red list. Thomas is overseeing the ranch’s transition from traditional to regenerative farming in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley and other partners, planting habitat gardens of native plants that support the ranch’s 126 documented species of native pollinators.

Thomas graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1982, and began his career in the investment business at Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. in New York City soon after. He has been a principal with Grand-Jean Capital Management since 2011 where he analyzes investments in a variety of industries and manages client portfolios.

Suzanne Loomis | Weston, CT

Suzanne Loomis, educated at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State University, has had a varied career as a writer and researcher, an active volunteer for community-based garden projects and as a former gallerist and museum director. She served on the board of directors of the Sonoma Botanical Garden (then Quarryhill Botanical Garden where she wrote a comprehensive history of the project) and the John Fairey Garden near Houston and served a previous terms as a Trustee of the Center for Plant Conservation. She has lived in distinctive places around the world, including Northern California; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cuernavaca, Mexico; Karen, Kenya in East Africa; and Sussex, England. Experience in these different zones has fostered a strong appreciation for the varied riches of the natural world.  At home in Weston CT, she divides her time writing and working in her wild hillside garden.

Janet Mayfield | Kalaheo, Kauai, HI

Janet Mayfield is the President and Chief Executive Officer at National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG), a CPC Participating Institution. Janet leads five geographically distinct botanical gardens whose combined mission is to enrich life by perpetuating tropical plants, ecosystems, and cultural heritage. Rare plant conservation and research is at the forefront of our science and conservation programs. Having lived on Kauaʻi for over 36 years, she has a deep appreciation for the community, the culture, and the environment. She was raised on a farm in Eastern Washington and recognizes the complexity of creating sustainable food sources and the challenges of maintaining environmentally responsible agriculture.

Janet holds a BS in Accounting from Arizona State University and began her career with NTBG as Controller in 1997. From 2003-2018 she served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Janet assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer and Director in 2019 and successfully led the organization through the pandemic and helped to ensure a thriving, sustainable future for the organization. She is currently guiding the NTBG leadership team through the creation and implementation of a new 2023 – 2027 five-year strategic plan. In addition to her role with NTBG, Janet has extensive experience in the management and finances of other non-profit organizations and continues to serve on community boards and advisory committees.

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Meet CPC’s New Conservation Partners

University of Florida, Department of Environmental Horticulture

Network Partner | Gainesville, FL

A primary mission of the University of Florida Seed Biology lab, created by UF Department of Environmental Horticulture Professor Héctor Pérez, is to advance the conservation and restoration of wild species. This is achieved by working at the intersection of seed biology and plant conservation. Projects range from field-based to laboratory investigations where the team asks questions related to how a changing climate influences plant regeneration from seeds, what enables seeds of wild species to tolerate various types of abiotic stress (e.g., desiccation, salinity, temperature, aging), and why does seed quality vary so much in seeds of wild species. The lab strives to translate research findings for the benefit of rare plant conservation.

Professor Pérez’s work in native plant conservation dates to the 1990s with an internship at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden. Later he earned a MS degree from the University of Florida working on understanding seed dormancy mechanisms of endangered plants native to Florida. Héctor earned his PhD from the University in Hawaii working on the seed biology of endemic loulu palms (Pritchardia spp.). During that time, he developed strong partnerships with Lyon Arboretum, National Tropical Botanical Garden, the US Army Natural Resources Division on Oahu, and the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Héctor created the UF Seed Biology lab as an assistant professor upon arriving at the University of Florida.

Santa Fe Botanical Garden

Participating Institution | Santa Fe, NM

The Santa Fe Botanical Garden (SFBG) celebrates, cultivates and conserves the rich botanical heritage and biodiversity of its region with the aim to significantly support and enhance the region’s botanical research and conservation efforts.

The Garden’s living collections consist of approximately 430 taxa with approximately 40% native to New Mexico. Their rare and endangered collections include cacti such as Cylindropuntia × viridiflora (Santa Fe cholla) and Escobaria sneedii var. leei (Lee’s Pincushion Cactus), and a recent wild-collected, grown from seed, collection of 27 plants of endemic Penstemon neomexicanus donated from partners at Albuquerque BioPark. SFBG also maintains an herbarium, including collections donated from the New Mexico Natural History Institute, which facilitates the documentation and study of New Mexico’s unique plants, contributing to the understanding of local biodiversity and ecological processes. It provides a vital resource for local researchers, educators, and conservationists, fostering collaborations and promoting awareness of the region’s botanical heritage.

The fellowship provides one annual research grant of up to $4,500, regarded as compensation for work at a botanical garden by the student, who jointly serves the mission of the Center for Plant Conservation and his/her/their curricular studies through the study and conservation of rare and endangered plants.

We are now accepting applications for 2025 fellowships. Please visit CPC’s website for more information about the Beattie Fellowship and detailed application instructions. Applications are due January 31, 2025. Learn more and apply.

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Meet the 2024 Beattie Fellows

Katie Loughran, Appalachian State University

Project: “Data from the Swamp: Uncovering the Genetic Diversity of a Federally Threatened Wetland Species, Swamp Pink (Helonias bullata)”

Data from Loughran’s study of this species will be utilized to inform future management decisions in habitat conservation.

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Zachary Maggard, Eastern Kentucky University

Project: “Microsatellite Development and Population Genetics of Harrisia aboriginum”

Maggard will identify a genetic profile of this endangered native cactus that will provide important information for re-establishment and breeding.

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Please visit CPC’s website for more information about the Beattie Fellowship and detailed application instructions. Applications are due January 31, 2025. Learn more and apply.

Save the Date: 2025 National Meeting at Missouri Botanical Garden

The Center for Plant Conservation is thrilled to host its 2025 National Meeting May 7-10, at Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. This annual event unites plant conservation professionals, researchers, and advocates to exchange insights, share experiences, and build strategies for advancing rare and endangered plant stewardship.

This year’s theme, Best Practices: Proven Methods & New Perspectives in Rare Plant Conservation, highlights the tried-and-true methodologies and emerging approaches that drive successful conservation efforts. Together, we’ll explore the latest strategies in plant conservation and stewardship, delve into innovative techniques and evolving best practices, and discuss collaborative solutions to address the growing challenges—and promising solutions and opportunities—impacting imperiled plants and their ecosystems.

The conference program will feature updates from the CPC National Office on network-wide initiatives, dynamic lightning talks from CPC’s network of Conservation Partners, and presentations centered on both well-established best practices and innovative perspectives in plant conservation. Institutional and Individual Conservation Partners are invited to submit presentation abstracts that align with this year’s theme, Best Practices: Proven Methods & New Perspectives in Rare Plant Conservation, focusing on successful applications of proven strategies, creative solutions to complex challenges, lessons learned from the field, or topics that otherwise adhere to the conference theme.

Conference-goers will also have to opportunity to join a pre-conference workshop hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and Horticulture Division team on Wednesday, May 7, as well as a post-conference field trip on Saturday, May 10, to Shaw Nature Reserve, Missouri Botanical Garden’s 2,441-acre educational, research, and habitat restoration and reconstruction site. Space for both the workshop and field trip are limited and on a first come, first served basis.

Save the date to join us in St. Louis to celebrate the ingenuity, dedication, and partnerships that empower plant conservation efforts and ensure the survival of the world’s rarest plants for generations to come.

Registration for the National Meeting will launch in early 2025. Abstract proposals can be submitted at the time of registration.

Learn more about the 2025 National Meeting.

As Seen on RPA: Introduction to Exceptional Species

As you advance through CPC’s Applied Plant Conservation Course curriculum, you’ll learn the best practices for creating and maintaining a successful conservation collection — directly from leading scientists within our network of botanical institutions. In Module VII of the course, you’ll be introduced to the specialized protocols developed to best conserve exceptional species — non-orthodox species that cannot be conserved long-term using conventional seed banking methods.

In this video, Dr. Valerie Pence, Director of Plant Research with the Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife (CREW) at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden uses the case study of Oaks (Quercus spp.), discussing the challenges and showcasing the conservation science and methodology used in botanic gardens and arboreta to secure exceptional species, including living collections, field gene banks, and cryopreserved long term storage.

The Applied Plant Conservation Course is a free professional development training for those working with rare and native plants at any stage of their career. Enroll in the course.