Transforming the South Carolina Botanical Garden Amy Blackwell Clemson University, [email protected]
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Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations 5-2013 Transforming the South Carolina Botanical Garden Amy Blackwell Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Part of the Plant Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Blackwell, Amy, "Transforming the South Carolina Botanical Garden" (2013). All Dissertations. 1089. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/1089 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TRANSFORMING THE SOUTH CAROLINA BOTANICAL GARDEN A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Plant and Environmental Science by Amy Hackney Blackwell May 2013 Accepted by: Dr. Patrick McMillan, Committee Chair Dr. Jeff Adelberg Dr. Halina Knap Dr. Michael Dosmann (Harvard University, Arnold Arboretum) ABSTRACT This dissertation addresses the question of how to transform a small to mid-sized public garden into a botanical garden capable of making a significant contribution to science. Botanical gardens have certain features that distinguish them from pleasure gardens and public parks. These include a scientific basis for collections, an emphasis on recording data on the plants in the collection, exchanging plant materials and data with other botanical gardens, and providing educational information to visitors. Gardens often have several missions, including conservation of rare and endangered species, botanical and ecological research, and involving the public through citizen science. I describe my work with the South Carolina Botanical Garden (SCBG), in which I considered ways to make the garden more effective at research and conservation, to increase the SCBG’s interaction with Clemson University and the local community, to make the garden more visible to the larger world, and to integrate the garden into the worldwide network of botanical gardens and arboreta. This work includes revising SCBG’s curatorial practices and policies with a view to joining a national botanical garden conservation network, involving students in scientific collection-building through a hands-on plant collection class, increasing SCBG’s visibility and scholarly presence through a project that digitized and analyzed a historic plant collection, and examining the role of laws in guiding botanical gardens’ conservation efforts. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE ....................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION – A CASE STUDY .............................................................................. 1 Strengths and Weaknesses .......................................................................................2 Can SCBG measure up? ...........................................................................................4 Transforming the Garden .........................................................................................5 CHAPTER 1: WHAT ARE BOTANICAL GARDENS? A LITERATURE SURVEY ........................................................... 10 Increasing relevance – research in botanic gardens ......................................................................................12 Botanic Gardens and Conservation ........................................................................24 Botanical Garden Networks ...................................................................................31 Conclusion .............................................................................................................35 CHAPTER 2: CURATION .............................................................................................. 37 Introduction: Curation in general ...........................................................................37 Methodology ..........................................................................................................48 Results ....................................................................................................................64 Discussion ..............................................................................................................65 Conclusion – Future Directions .............................................................................69 CHAPTER 3: STUDENT INVOLVEMENT ................................................................... 71 Introduction ............................................................................................................73 Methodology ..........................................................................................................74 Results ....................................................................................................................83 Discussion ..............................................................................................................89 Conclusion .............................................................................................................98 iii Table of Contents (Continued) Page CHAPTER 4: EXPANDING A GARDEN IN VIRTUAL SPACE ........................................................................................ 100 Introduction ..........................................................................................................101 Problem: Access ...................................................................................................105 Methodology ........................................................................................................107 Results ..................................................................................................................110 Discussion ............................................................................................................114 Conclusion: Future projects .................................................................................119 CHAPTER 5: PLANT SHARING AND CONSERVATION .................................................................................... 121 Introduction ..........................................................................................................122 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ........................................................124 What ABS means to Botanical Gardens ..............................................................133 Improving the CBD ..............................................................................................141 The U.S. and the CBD .........................................................................................146 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................152 CHAPTER 6 – LOOKING TO THE FUTURE ............................................................. 155 APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 159 Appendix A: SCBG Policies ................................................................................160 South Carolina Botanical Garden Disaster Plan ..................................................166 Appendix B: SCBG Accession Procedure ...........................................................171 Appendix C: Maps ...............................................................................................174 Appendix D: Magnolias .......................................................................................176 Appendix E APGA Endorsement of the Principles of the Convention on Biological Diversity ..............................................189 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 191 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 3.1 Plants collected, 7 October 2011 .......................................................................... 84 3.2 Plants collected October 21, 2011 ........................................................................ 84 3.3 Plants collected, March 9, 2012 ............................................................................ 85 3.4 Collected plants with accession numbers and garden locations ........................... 85 3.5 Project BudBurst Data .......................................................................................... 86 D.1 Magnolias, January 2010 .................................................................................... 176 D.2 Magnolias, September 2011 ................................................................................ 183 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page C.1 Map, South Carolina Botanical Garden, Annotated ........................................... 174 C.2 Map, Shoenike Arboretum .................................................................................. 175 vi INTRODUCTION – A CASE STUDY What good is a botanical garden? Of what use is an herbarium?