| |
 |
Increasingly, botanic gardens around the world have recognised
the conservation value of their plant collections. Taken together,
they can provide an enormous potential resource for securing
and supplementing plants which are greatly reduced in the
wild. In some cases, botanic gardens hold the only living
examples of otherwise extinct plants.
 |
Common spotted orchid
(Dactylorhiza fuchsii) |
Some of the plants grown at Wakehurst Place are under threat
in their native habitats. The botanical collections are being
developed to provide a practical education and conservation
resource, that will be used to make visitors aware of the threats
facing temperate woodlands. Selected threatened plants are also
being planted in larger numbers to broaden the representation
of these important species.
By propagating endangered species, either for reintroduction
to their original habitats or to produce seed for storage
in the Millennium
Seed Bank (MSB), the nursery staff behind the scenes
at Wakehurst Place are directly involved in a number of conservation
initiatives. Plants of the starfruit (Damasonium alisma),
an endangered British native, are being raised for genetic
studies and seed production. They have also been reintroduced
into various ponds in Surrey where the species once grew.
Plants of the Plymouth pear (Pyrus cordata), now found
in only a few hedgerows in the West Country, have been raised
and planted as a new experimental population in the wild. Another
project is directed at the conservation of black poplar (Populus
nigra subspecies betulifolia), also a British native,
which has been reduced to less than 3000 trees. The nursery
holds, as clipped hedges, various forms of native elms (Ulmus
species) which were propagated at the height of the Dutch elm
disease epidemic in the 1970s, when all of England’s large
elm trees were killed. Research institutes across the European
Union are collaborating on a study of elms. These hedges represent
an important genetic reservoir for potential reintroduction
of elms into the countryside and into gardens.
Page 2 of 2:Back to Wild Science index >>>
|
|
