Grand mesa beardtongue
The striking blue beauty, grand mesa beardtongue, is a rare plant found only in Colorado.
It's rarity comes from the threats its faces from road maintenance activities and invasive weeds so it needs protecting.
Thanks to the Centre for Plant Conservation (CPC) network and Denver Botanic Gardens, seeds from this precious plant have been collected and conserved for the future.
Plant description
Grand mesa beardtongue has intense blue flowers with hints of purple to pink that appear on upright stems with evergreen leaves.
Where in the world?
Our work
Our partnership
The Centre for Plant Conservation (CPC) is a network of conservation partners working together to save threatened plants in the United States and Canada.
Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is one of the CPC Participating Institutions.
Grand mesa beardtongue is a rare plant found in only seven locations in western Colorado.
As part of the Centre for Plant Conservation (CPC) network’s efforts to save plants, intrepid conservationists at Denver Botanic Gardens recently travelled over 300 miles to make the first ever conservation seed collection from the grand mesa beardtongue.
They successfully collected over 10,000 seeds from two grand mesa beardtongue populations, which will help safeguard this species from extinction.
