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Making Progress Towards GSPC Target 8 Volume 12 • Number 1 EDITORIAL BOTANIC GARDENS and SEED BANKS Sara Oldfield CLICK & GO 02

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Making Progress Towards GSPC Target 8 Volume 12 • Number 1 EDITORIAL BOTANIC GARDENS and SEED BANKS Sara Oldfield CLICK & GO 02 Journal of Botanic Gardens Conservation International Volume 12 • Number 1 • January 2015 Botanic gardens and seed conservation: making progress towards GSPC Target 8 Volume 12 • Number 1 EDITORIAL BOTANIC GARDENS AND SEED BANKS Sara Oldfield CLICK & GO 02 EDITORS SEED BANKING IN BOTANIC GARDENS: CAN BOTANIC GARDENS ACHIEVE GSPC TARGET 8 BY 2020? CLICK & GO 03 Katherine O’Donnell and Suzanne Sharrock INCREASING EX SITU CONSERVATION EFFORTS IN CALIFORNIA Evan Meyer CLICK & GO 09 SEEDS FOR TOMORROW’S WORLD Kay Evelina Lewis-Jones CLICK & GO 12 Suzanne Sharrock Sara Oldfield DESIGNING SEED BANKS FOR IN SITU CONSERVATION Director of Global Secretary General Programmes PURPOSES: MORE SPECIES OR BETTER QUALITY? CLICK & GO 15 Cover Photo : Kate, a Chicago Botanic Garden Conservation Philippe BARDIN & Stéphane BUORD & Land Management intern, making a Seeds of Success collection of Nevada sumpweed ( Chorisiva nevadensis ) for the Bureau of Land Management's Carson City District Office HAWAI’I ISLAND NATIVE SEED BANK in Nevada (BLM Carson City District Office, Seeds of Success) Jill Wagner and Paul Ponthieux CLICK & GO 19 Design : Seascape www.seascapedesign.co.uk SEED CONSERVATION OF CHINA’S FLORA THROUGH THE GERMPLASM BANK OF WILD SPECIES Jie CAI CLICK & GO 22 BGjournal is published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) . It is published twice a year and is sent to all BGCI members. Membership is open to all interested SEED BANKING IN THE CARPATHIAN BASIN: THE PANNON SEED individuals, institutions and organisations that support the BANK PROJECT aims of BGCI (see inside back cover for Membership Krisztián Halász, Géza Kósa, Gergely Lunk, CLICK & GO 25 application form). Éva Szakács, Tünde Thalmeiner, Katalin Török, Vince Zsigmond Further details available from: • Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Descanso NASSTEC: A EUROPEAN PROJECT TO PROMOTE THE USE OF NATIVE House, 199 Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 3BW SEEDS FOR GRASSLAND RESTORATION CLICK & GO UK. Tel: +44 (0)20 8332 5953, Fax: +44 (0)20 8332 5956 Costantino Bonomi 28 E-mail: [email protected], www.bgci.org • BGCI-Russia, c/o Main Botanical Gardens, Botanicheskaya st., 4, Moscow 127276, Russia. Tel: +7 (095) 219 6160 / 5377, Fax: +7 (095) 218 0525, E-mail: [email protected], www.bgci.org/russia • BGCI-Netherlands, c/o Delft University of Technology Julianalaan 67, NL-2628 BC Delft, Netherlands Tel: +31 15 278 4714 Fax: +31 15 278 2355 E-mail: [email protected] www.botanischetuin.tudelft.nl • BGCI-Canarias, c/o Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo, Apartado de Correos 14, Tafira Alta 35017, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Gran Canaria, Spain. Tel: +34 928 21 95 80/82/83, Fax: +34 928 21 95 81, E-mail: [email protected] • BGCI-China, 723 Xingke Rd., Guangzhou 510650 China. Tel:(86)20-37252692. email: [email protected] www.bgci.org/china • BGCI-Colombia, c/o Jardín Botánico de Bogotá, Jose Celestino Mutis, Av. No. 61-13 – A.A. 59887, Santa Fe de Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. Tel: +57 630 0949, Fax: +57 630 5075, E-mail: [email protected], www.humboldt.org.co/jardinesdecolombia/html/la_red.htm • BGCI(US) Inc, c/o Chicago Botanic Garden, 1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe, Illinois 60022, USA. E-mail: [email protected], www.bgci.org/usa BGCI is a worldwide membership organisation established in 1987. Its mission is to mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the well-being of people and the planet . BGCI is an independent organisation registered in the United Kingdom as a charity (Charity Reg No 1098834) and a company limited by guarantee, No 4673175. BGCI is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation in the USA and is a registered non-profit organisation in Russia. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Boards or staff of BGCI or of its members 1 BGCI • 2015 • BGjournal • Vol 12.1 editorial BOTAnic GArdens And seed BAnks eed banking is a vital component of regional and national levels. The report plant conservation. Many botanic also notes the need for ex situ collections Sgardens around the world maintain to be more genetically representative effective seed banks for wild plant with greater emphasis given to seed species, contributing to the long term and conservation. The paper by Halász and efficient storage of plant diversity. Seed colleagues in this issue notes how quickly banking is particularly important at a time progress can be made to meet GSPC of rapid global change both for threatened Target 8 with appropriate resourcing Seed ready to be banked (Germplasm Bank of Wild species and, increasingly, for more and focussed national activity. Through Species, China) common species that may be essential the Pannon Seed Bank project over 60 in restoration programmes. As Professor percent of Hungarian endangered plants a new project which aims to promote David Bramwell wrote in BGjournal in have been seed banked. the use of native seeds for grassland 2007, “if adapting to climate change restoration and increase European is to be successful, current seed bank Collaboration is essential at a local, production. partnerships need to be developed into a national and global level for seed banking worldwide network of seed banks with the to be most effective. The article by In this issue of BGjournal we present the objective of conserving the seeds of wild Evan Meyer in this issue explains how results of a survey carried out by BGCI plants on a global scale.” different organisations are gearing up to at the end of 2014 on seed banking seed bank the entire Californian flora. activities in botanic gardens. It is clear that In this issue of BGjournal, Kay Evelina The Hawai’I Island Native Seed Bank, although there is a lot more work to do Lewis-Jones notes that, “collecting seeds described by Wagner and Ponthieux, is to meet GSPC Target 8, a good baseline seems to be more than just a pragmatic also a collaborative venture that links into is in place and many of the technological and efficient solution to an uncertain a State-wide network again, conserving challenges in seed banking have been future. It builds on a long legacy between the plants of a globally important centre of overcome. Making a strong case for the humans and plants. It is a promise”. plant diversity and endemism. value of seed banking to ensure allocation of funds and building capacity around the International environmental policies At a larger geographic scale, Jie Cai world remains essential. encourages seed banking. Target describes the impressive progress in seed 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant banking in China. The Germplasm Bank This will be my farewell editorial for BGCI Conservation (GSPC) calls for “at least of Wild Species based in Kunming aims as I step down from the role of Secretary 75% of threatened plant species in ex to conserve 10,000 Chinese species by General at the end of February 2015. It situ collections, preferably in the country 2020. The centre is also working with 71 has been a huge privilege to work for of origin, and at least 20% available for organisations throughout China that are BGCI for the past ten years and I would recovery and restoration programmes”. conserving native local seed. like to thank all involved in the wonderful The Plant Conservation Report 2014: global botanic garden network for their A review of progress towards the Global As Bardin and Buord point out “frozen friendship and support. Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011-2020 seed collection is not an achievement in prepared by BGCI last year noted that at itself, but an essential tool for conservation With all good wishes for 2015. a global level, 29% of the species listed action, specifically in situ reintroduction on the 2013 IUCN Red List are known or population reinforcement”. Increasingly to be in ex situ collections. This provides the need to restore plant assemblages in only a limited representation of globally degraded vegetation is one of the factors threatened plants because progress in encouraging seed bank development. conservation assessment remains slow. In Europe there is not yet sufficient Sara Oldfield Higher percentages of threatened plants seed to meet the demand for ecological Secretary General, Botanic Gardens are recorded in ex situ collections at restoration. Costantino Bonomi describes Conservation International 2 BGCI • 2015 • BGjournal • Vol 12.1 Authors: Katherine O’Donnell and Suzanne Sharrock Seed banking in botanic gardenS Can botanic gardens Achieve GsPc TArGeT 8 By 2020? Above: Seed collecting (Barney Wilczak). Right: Collecting seeds (Bureau of Land Management - Las Vegas, Seeds of Success) Introduction Seed banking t has recently been reported that only Orthodox seeds can be collected 29% of plant species on the IUCN Red from plants, dried and stored in cool IList of Threatened SpeciesTM are in ex conditions until they are required for situ collections (Sharrock et al., 2014). research, restoration or reintroduction. Target 8 of the GSPC calls for ‘at least Seed banking is increasingly being used 75 per cent of threatened plant species as a method of ex situ conservation for a in ex situ collections, preferably in the variety of reasons: country of origin, and at least 20 per cent available for recovery and restoration • It is the most cost effective method of programmes’ by 2020. ex situ conservation; • A higher genetic diversity can be With less than 6% of the estimated sampled when collecting than for living 400,000 species of plants formally collections; assessed at the global level using IUCN • Seeds take up less room than living criteria, monitoring progress of ex situ plant collections; conservation is difficult. However it is • Seeds can survive for hundreds of clear that more needs to be done if this years in conditions of low humidity and GSPC target is to be realised.
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