Has anyone ever rescued/collected and reintroduced an entire plant community?

Has anyone ever rescued/collected and reintroduced an entire plant community?  If yes, I would love to hear about your project.

Background:  over the past year, with the help of numerous partners, we have rescued over 80 species (rare and common) at a 100 acre development site and are reintroducing the entire plant community as part of a scrub restoration at a nearby natural area (protected).

Juliet Rynear
Rare Plant Specialist
Rare Plant Conservation Program
Bok Tower Gardens

Cactus question for the group

I am looking for any information on cactus restoration/revegetation/reintroduction projects of cactus from seedlings (so, not adult transplants).  Specifically, I am interested in rare Sclerocactus, but I think that good restoration information would be helpful as we develop a plan for our species.  I am open to any published and unpublished data, successful and unsuccessful projects.

If you know of someone that I should talk to, please let me know that as well.

Thanks in advance for your help!

—

Rita Reisor

Botanist

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Utah Field Office

2369 West Orton Circle, Suite 50

West Valley City, Utah 84119

Adopt-A-Seed fundraising campaign

We at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden are interested in starting an “Adopt-A-Seed” fundraising campaign to raise money for a rare plant program. It would entail different levels of funding, from adopting one seed collection of a rare plant, to the whole works of multiple seed collections, monitoring, research, and restoration. Any suggestions from you all regarding what it really costs on average to do those things? I know that there is WILD variability depending on the plant and how far away it is, but I’m looking for a workable average. Thanks for your thoughts!

Denise

Denise Knapp, Ph.D.

Director of Conservation and Research

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

Question about seed refrigerators

We need a new refrigerator for our seed collection kept at 7C.  I’d like to know what you all use for your collections. Do you have any suggestions on models?

Thanks,

Glen

Glen Bupp

Rare Plant Curator

Bok Tower Gardens

Best method to store the following?

I would like to know the best method/methodology to store the following.  Please let me know the method that has been successful for you.

Terrestrial orchids

Ferns (green spores – Botrychium, etc)

Ferns (other types)

Potamogeton

Myriophyllum

Podostemum

Bill Brumback

New England Wild Flower Society

Potassium acetate as a desiccant

I’m wanting to use Potassium acetate as my desiccant but am having a hard time finding info on what ratio of solute to water to use. Anyone have any advice on this or even a protocol with this desiccant to share?

Thanks!

—

David Remucal

Curator of Endangered Plants

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

Collecting Juniper seeds

Can anyone offer advice about collecting Juniper seeds (specifically, Juniperus osteosperma)? We found a good site this fall, but lots of berries (cones) appear to be empty. Some cones appeared to be filled but are still green. Are there more filled seeds depending on what time of year they are collected, e.g. early season cones unfilled, later ones filled? I read somewhere that Juniper seeds are often collected in the fall, but I see plenty of Juniper seeds have also been collected in the spring. When is the best time?

Any suggestions are appreciated!

Dr. Sarah De Groot

Field Botanist / Seeds of Success Coordinator, Plant Conservation Program

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

​ (CA930A)​

Claremont, California, USA

Reply off blog to: sdegroot@rsabg.org

Software for accession records

Glenn Bupp of Bok Tower Gardens asks:

I am wondering if anyone in the network uses a software program to keep accession records.  For example, the program B-G base. If so, what is the program?  Also, does anyone maintain their records in conjunction with the records of the institution they are affiliated.  For example, at Bok our conservation accessions are separate from the horticulture accessions used within the main gardens.  We are weighing the pros and cons of having a combine accession record.  Specifically, in one program like B-G base.

A blog for CPC participating institutions and partners

At the request of Margaret Clark from National Tropical Botanical Garden, CPC created this blog to ask questions and share ideas. Here is the question that Margaret asked and I sent around to the list earlier this week:

We are interested in knowing if other gardens have policies or rules of thumb for what percentage of incoming seed collections are sent to seed storage, and what percentage to germination trials, and what percentage to propagation.

All other factors being equal (which they never are!) ??

Feel free to contribute to the discussion here!