Seed banks are critical resources for ex-situ conservation and biological research, serving as one of the most effective approaches for conserving resources essential for habitat restoration. Despite their utility for research, limitations to accessibility do exist. Travel restrictions, such as time and funding, might impede researchers from accessing seed collections for in-person visits. Further, many […]
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is a field station of the University of Texas at Austin and the State Botanic Garden and Arboretum of Texas. The Wildflower Center has been banking seeds of rare and other native plant species since 2001. Management of the largest conservation seed bank in Texas has presented both challenges […]
SeppCon 2024: Conservation Collections Development Collaborative Conservation for Florida’s Rare Plant Species: Seedbanking and the Florida Plant Rescue Initiative Tina Stanley* (1), Hanna Rosner-Katz (2) (1) Center for Plant Conservation, (2) Florida Natural Areas Inventory Florida is home to over 200 species of globally rare plants, many of which have never been secured in […]
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To appreciate the scale of this endeavor, the leaf in this shot is about the size of your thumbnail! Cute as a button, you’ll need a hand lens to appreciate the flower of Lepanthes rupestris. This orchid native to Puerto Rico was recently collected and seed banked at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. […]
Understanding what percentage of a seed collection is viable is of utmost importance. Generally germination trials will be conducted on seed, however in instances where germination tests are not ideal, other methods might also be used to ascertain viability. Tetrazolium chloride is a chemical that is used to stain seed, allowing the researcher to determine […]
The goal of any conservation seed collection is to capture the genetic diversity represented within the target population and conserve it ex-situ. But it’s not always as simple as it sounds. Every population of every plant species is different. In this video we’ll discuss how we can use a species’ natural history to guide our […]
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Meg Engelhardt, Missouri Botanical Garden As a founding member of the CPC, the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) has been seed banking for decades. The seed bank contains three core collections resulting from MBG’s global field programs in plant conservation, horticulture, and ethnobotany. It currently holds over 2,400 accessions of orthodox seeds representing 1,190 different species, of […]
Holly Forbes, University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley Polygonum hickmanii (Scotts Valley polygonum) is a small annual species in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) restricted to a small area of Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz County, California. Populations have historically occurred across three privately owned properties. Population numbers were critically low in 2009 when the 5-Year Review […]
Jim Locklear, Lauritzen Gardens Lauritzen Gardens is dedicated to the conservation of plants and the biological diversity they support. Seed banking projects and rare plant surveys are major elements of our conservation program, but the subjects of this work are mostly obscure species growing in remote settings in faraway places. Having an on-site component to our […]
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David Remucal, University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum While many seedbanks avoid working with orchids, more groups are taking them on, or collecting them for groups that are. Collecting rules and protocols are not different for orchids but there are enough complexities in their biology to intimidate collectors new to orchids. Orchid seeds are the smallest in […]