Plant Hunting in the USA!

Week Two Plant hunting in the USA! In week two we collected The spruce (figure 4) was Next on the list the beautiful by Luke Wallace Juglans hindsii (northern technically the only species Pinus balfouriana ssb. Californian walnut) and not to be collected from the balfouriana, or foxtail pine, During the three and half week seed-collecting trip to the USA last year, led by Forestry Picea chihuahuana wild. In fact, it was collected which proved to be the Commission Bedgebury and funded by the Friends, a total of 88 species were collected for (chihuahuana spruce). This from a park in the middle second new pine of the trip. several different conservation organisations. Here, we look at some of the more notable walnut (figure 3) is now of a town! However, we In the process of collecting its species that were collected during that trip and what has become of their seeds. only found in the dwindling knew these trees had been seed (figure 5), we stumbled patches of riparian forests planted there 25 years upon a stunning, turquoise Week One that are left in the west earlier from seed collected glacial lake, unlike any lake The most valuable species collected during the coast states. As Westonbirt from a natural population. we had seen before. first week was Pinus albicaulis, the ‘Endangered’* Arboretum holds the As this species is at real risk whitebark pine, mainly threatened in its native range national walnut collection, of extinction in its native by a pathogen known as white pine blister rust. It our Westonbirt companion, Mexico, we were duty-bound was of particular interest to us (as a new pine for the Andy Bryce, was especially to make a collection. *IUCN classification Pinetum) and to Dr Andy Bower (a geneticist for the keen to collect this. US Forest Service and our impeccable guide for the first two weeks - figure 8) so we were all delighted to find healthy seeds (figure 1). Another species that is susceptible to white figure 1: Pinus albicaulis cone pine blister rust, Pinus monticola (western white pine), was collected a couple of days later (figure 2). As its population has continued to decline, the IUCN have listed Pinus monitcola as ‘Near Threatened’*. The Pinetum only holds one specimen of this tree at present. figure 3: The walnuts of Juglans hindsii From left to right; Luke Wallace (Friends of Bedgebury Pinetum), Daniel Luscombe (Forestry Commission, Bedgebury), Andy Bryce (Westonbirt Arboretum), John Allen (Forestry Commission, Bedgebury) and Guy Horwood (The University of Oxford Botanic Garden and figure 4: Harcourt Arboretum). figure 2: Pinus monticola Picea chihuahuana cone figure 5: Two healthy seeds in a Pinus balfouriana cone Week Three What next? The last week-and-a-half really We were only able to bring back a small proportion of the seeds collected ourselves, the took the trip to new heights, rest were shipped directly to their new UK home or need to remain in quarantine in the USA both metaphorically and for now. We brought back the recalcitrant seeds (i.e. seeds that cannot be stored). The only literally! The team had several recalcitrant seeds that we collected in the USA were those of oaks and walnuts, the latter to highly productive days in the be sown at Westonbirt Arboretum. The oaks, along with the Junipus californica, were sown Californian sunshine. The first of at Bedgebury and some of these germinated in December 2015 due to the unseasonably these days was at Tejon Ranch warm weather! where 18 species were collected, The pines will be germinated in quarantine at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew over the next year including the rarest plants of or so as they pose greater risks than most other species. Specifically, they could harbour the the trip, Eriogonum callistum (a pine pitch canker pathogen, a disastrous prospect for somewhere like the National Pinetum. type of buckwheat), and Junipus Once given the all-clear, they will be grown at Bedgebury and other UK arboreta. californica (California juniper). Luckily for us, the junipers were As for the rarest species, Eriogonum callistum, and arguably the most threatened, Picea laden with seed (figure 6) so not figure 7: Looking out over the ancient bristlecone forest at chihuahuana, they will be in the care of Royal Botanic Gardens, Wakehurst Place and only were we able to collect it for Schulman Grove, California Bedgebury Pinetum respectively. The Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst has stored the Bedgebury’s national collection, Eriogonum seeds but there are plans to germinate some seeds in the near future. And we were also able to collect it for the Picea? Well, where else would an endangered spruce be found growing other than in the Millennium Seed Bank. Bedgebury Pinetum’s plant nursery? No doubt there will be further propagation success for Bedgebury over the next few years. At the end of the trip we collected a very special species, For more information on the expedition, why not walk the Forestry Commission’s Pinus longeava, or bristlecone Spring/Summer trail at Bedgebury? Pick up your free leaflet from the information pine. These are one of the oldest office and follow the 12 photographic boards in the Pinetum to find out what a seed- known organisms on earth collecting expedition really involves! with one individual confirmed as being over 5,000 years old. Collected at the giddy altitude of 11,000ft, this was the third new pine for the Pinetum. figure 8: Dr Andy Bower of the US Forest Service This expedition and its crucial conservation collections were possible because of a grant made by the Friends to the Forestry Commission in 2015. The Friends funded this grant with your subscriptions and with donations received in memory of our late Chair, Gerald Williams OBE. We would like to thank our members for supporting Bedgebury’s international plant conservation efforts. If you want to do more, please just get in touch. figure 6: Seeds were bountiful on Juniperus californica For a detailed, day-by-day account of the 2015 expedition, visit our website: http://bedgeburypinetum.org.uk/pinetum/conservation/the-pacific-northwest/.

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