SeppCon 2024: Conservation Collections Development
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 any ex situ conservation collection. To protect these most vulnerable representatives of our flora, ten botanical institutions working in the state have joined together to form the seed banking collaborative, Florida Plant Rescue (FLPR). Since 2021 the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC) and the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) have coordinated this team effort, seeking to safeguard all of the state’s imperiled plant species through seed collection and storage, and exploring other genebanking methods when traditional seed storage is not possible. Network-wide sharing of accessions data and integration of this combined dataset with the FNAI natural heritage database has facilitated web-based tools including a database and mapping application to help prioritize species seed collections and efficiently target populations. Work from this project has also helped to increase our understanding of the life history and ecology of Florida species via field observations, germination testing, and propagation, allowing for the potential to inform comprehensive strategies for plant conservation and recovery. Most importantly, in the last three years the FLPR initiative has led to ex situ seed or tissue preservation of over thirty species of rare plants, ranging geographically from the panhandle to the Keys and across a wide taxonomic diversity. This collaborative project may help to lay the groundwork for an even more ambitious initiative focused on the vulnerable species of the entire Southeast’s flora.
The Crataegus Challenge
Annaliese Sander* (1), Adam Black (2)
(1) Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories, (2) Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories and Arboretum
Video start time: 8:58
As an underappreciated and largely ignored genus in the Southeastern US, Crataegus seldom gets the conservation attention it deserves. This genus contains one of the largest numbers of threatened species in the region according to the SE-PCA’s Ex-Situ Gap Analysis but still very few ex-situ collections exist for Crataegus species. The reason behind this may be a concept coined “The Crataegus Problem” by Ernest J. Palmer. This term refers to the taxonomic confusion and identification difficulties we face with the genus. Hopefully we can rebrand the “The Crataegus Problem” as a challenge and inspire collaborators to work with us on taxonomic delineation and ex-situ conservation.
Filling gaps in the conservation metacollection of Magnolia pyramidata
Jean Linsky* (1), Ian Sabo (1), Joe Stockert (1), Dave Gregory (1), Lauren Eserman-Campbell (1), Martin Hamilton (2), Michele Dani Sanchez (3), Trent Miller (2), Mary Vargo (2), Allison Kelly (2), Emily Coffey (1)
(1) Atlanta Botanical Garden, (2) South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University, (3) Cooperative Extension Service, Clemson University
Video start time:
17:53
The Global Conservation Consortium for Magnolia (GCCM) aims to mobilize a coordinated network of institutions and experts to develop and implement conservation strategies for the world’s threatened Magnolia species. One longstanding taxonomic question in the genus Magnolia in the US is whether Magnolia pyramidata W.Bartram (syn. Magnolia fraseri subsp. pyramidata (W.Bartram) A.E.Murray) is truly a subspecies of Magnolia fraseri Walter or whether these represent two independently evolving lineages. Recent genetic analysis of wild and cultivated material of M. fraseri and M. pyramidata have supported the status of M. pyramidata as an independent lineage. Additional assessment of the status of M. pyramidata in the wild and in conservation collections highlights the imperilment of this species across parts of its range from South Carolina to Texas and a lack of genetically diverse material in botanic gardens. The Atlanta Botanical Garden (GCCM lead) and South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson University (GCCM Affiliate) received funding from the American Public Gardens Association/USFS Tree Gene Partnership to scout for and collect from populations of M. pyramidata in South Carolina and Georgia. The main objectives of this work are to document M. pyramidata individuals in the two states and to increase the genetic diversity of living collections via seed and tissue culture cutting collections to be shared with and propagated as a metacollection at collaborating gardens. Results from field trips in April and August 2024, lessons learned from collaborative conservation efforts and future work for this species within the GCCM will be presented.