Plant story

Conservation of Dalea azurea in Chile

Dalea azurea (Fabaceae) is an endangered species restricted to only one valley in the area of Paposo, in the Atacama Region in Chile. During earlier expeditions (between July 2001 and April 2003) only a small number of seeds of this species could be collected by the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA) in Chile for the Millennium Seed Bank Project, due to the small size of its populations. In order to conserve larger, more useful seed samples of this species and four other threatened and endemic Chilean species, a joint project ‘Ex-situ conservation of threatened Chilean flora through propagation' funded by the mining company Rio Tinto PLC, was started at the beginning of 2004. After one year of the project and thanks also to the help provided by Richard Wilford from Kew's Horticulture and Public Education Department, plants of Dalea azurea have been successfully propagated by seed and cuttings. The next generation of seeds will be harvested and conserved in the seed bank for long term conservation of the species. The propagated plants will be available as a source of material critical for the species reintroduction and rehabilitation in the future.