Conservation Strategies for Globally-Rare Endemic Jesup’s Milk Vetch

In the past 5-years, the work of over 12-years of monitoring and applied conservation has realized many successes and struggles on the globally-rare, New England endemic Jesup’s milk vetch (Astragalus robbinsii var. jesupii). Experimental augmentation from grown plants, augmentation with seed, and genetic analysis for use of seeds in augmentation across genetically-isolated provenances. We will discuss methods for in situ and ex situ conservation used for this extremely rare and habitat-specific taxon, and how this may apply to future species’ restoration projects.