Endangered plants, stunted protections

Surely, one of the goals of the nation's many arboreta, public gardens and the like is to help conserve species. Especially species in trouble.

But a study released today, the North American Collections Assessment, found that only 39 percent of nearly 10,000 North American plant species threatened by extinction are maintained in collections.

Protecting these plants in controlled settings seems a no-brainer. Unlike zoos, which keep endangered animals that can't be released back into the wild, managed collections really could provide a seed bank or cache of other botanical material that could help save a species.

The good news, I suppose, is that 3,681 of 9,494 of North America's most threatened plant species are maintained in 230 collections, the report said.

Andrea Kramer, Botanic Gardens Conservation International U.S. executive director, called the assessment "a call to action. For many public gardens, this report marks the first time their potential to assist in the conservation effort has been recognized. We hope this is a watershed moment."

The report was conducted collaboratively by Botanic Gardens Conservation International U.S., the U.S. Botanic Garden, and Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum.

"One of the lessons we learned from this assessment is how important it is to curate for conservation," said Michael Dosmann, curator of living collections at the Arnold Arboretum. "Curators and horticulturists have not always considered conservation value as they go about their routines. Yet by participating in this assessment, many for the very first time saw the direct value of their plants in bolstering efforts to conserve our threatened flora. We hope this becomes a new paradigm in collections management."

You can read the full report here: www.bgci.org/usa/MakeYourCollectionsCount