• Growing the number of rare plant species in the National Collection with 180 new species added in 2021, raising the total number of species in the Collection to 2,208. Many of these new accessions were the result of the California Plant Rescue.
• Introducing the Florida Plant Rescue – a statewide seed collections and resiliency initiative that aims to secure and safeguard all remaining Florida rare plant species in conservation collections to prevent their extinction. To date, partners have made 8 collections of species that have never been previously seed banked and are set to make 18 more collections in the 2022 growing season.
• Collaborating with 13 PIs (and counting!) on the development of the online Applied Plant Conservation course. To date, 56 hours of content on topics such as rare plant genetics, conservation of exceptional species, seed collections, and more are under development.
• Launching new Individual Conservation Partner categories for Students, Emerging Professionals, and Plant Conservation Professionals, with the goal to broaden and grow our network in support of our shared mission to Save Plants.
• Reinvigorating the Plant Sponsorship program to support rare species in the National Collection and the teams working to conserve them.

In addition to sharing program updates, we welcomed CPC’s newest team member, Office Manager Krysta Nunn, and three new Institutional Conservation Partners to the CPC network: Institute for Regional Conservation, Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, and United Plant Savers.

The 2022 National Meeting served as a welcome opportunity to share conservation milestones and connect with fellow plant conservation practitioners and partners – both in person and virtually – to exchange ideas and learn from each other in our shared mission to Save Plants from extinction.