United Kingdom
SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS (2001-2005)
- Kew hosted and co-organised (with JNCC and Plantlife International) a conference in 2003 concerning the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and had a major role in the preparation of the UK response, Plant Diversity Challenge (PDC), the first national response to the Global Strategy
- Bryophytes and their conservation have become a focus of activity in this period, notably in the establishment of the Francis Rose Reserve at Wakehurst Place and the Bryophyte Conservation Project in the Micropropagation Unit (Target 8 of PDC)
- The Checklist of British and Irish Basidiomycota was published in 2005 (Target 1 of PDC)
- Reintroduced seedlings of Cypripedium calceolus and Liparis loeselii produced by The Sainsbury Orchid Project have now flowered (Targets 7-8 of PDC)
KEY ELEMENTS OF FUTURE PLANS (2006 onwards)
- We are hosting and co-organising a meeting in April 2006 to assess progress against the 16 targets laid out in Plant Diversity Challenge
- We will continue to undertake propagation and genetic studies in support of the statutory conservation agencies, although the exact nature of this role is likely to evolve as a result of the imminent reorganisation of the agencies
- Subject to a suitable funding source being identified, we will submit a proposal for DNA barcoding of the flora (angiosperms, gymnosperms, pteridophytes, bryophytes and macroalgae) and fungi (lichens) in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, London, the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh and others
- Handbooks on grasses and sedges of Britain and Ireland (in the series produced by the Botanical Society of the British Isles) will be completed in 2006
- A reference guide to British clavarioid and ramarioid fungi will be prepared and published
- A 10-year programme of Rhododendron removal is taking place (with seven years to go) on the sandrock outcrops in the Francis Rose Reserve. Each stage of this is preceded by a baseline survey of cryptogams on the rocks to allow an assessment of the efficacy of this action.
- We will maintain efforts to achieve full representation of bankable seeds of the UK flora by seeking collections of unrepresented UK native species and by recollecting species represented with low seed number/viability
- We will collate and disseminate information about the traditional uses of British plants and study the medicinal properties of 300 species to support our knowledge about the British flora