Genetic Resources Conservation: Ex Situ

Introduction...................................................................................................101

Centers for Education...................................................................................101

Centers for Research and Discovery..........................................................102

Centers for Plant Protection.......................................................................103

A New Era of International and National Collaboration........................103

Mary T. Burke Conclusions...................................................................................................104

University of California References......................................................................................................105

Introduction

Botanical gardens and arboreta are collections of living plants used for research, study, and education. Arboreta traditionally focus on collections of large trees and shrubs (woody plants) while botanical gardens include research and display collections of both herbaceous (bulbs, biennials, perennials) and woody (trees and shrubs) plants. In actual practice, the boundaries between these two collection types have become less clear during the past century; for instance, many arboreta have expanded their collections to include herbaceous plants but retain their historical names. Both botanical gardens and arboreta are distinguished from public parks and other recreational landscapes by collection policies that emphasize wild-collected plants, by collections organized for scientific and educational purposes, and by extensive documentation; that is, a plant record system that includes information on provenance, nomenclature, and other taxonomic and cultural information of interest to researchers. A herbarium (herbaria, pi.) is a collection of dried, pressed, or preserved plant specimens with associated relevant collection information. Many herbaria are associated with botanical gardens and arboreta; others are associated with universities and other plant science research facilities. Some botanical gardens also maintain or are closely associated with seed banks, facilities where seeds are stored under cold and dry conditions in order to preserve the seed viability for future use.¹'¹ As extinction rates for plant species have increased, these institutions have begun to play important roles in ex situ conservation, or conservation outside the native habitat.