The Red List of Fraxinus
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The Red List of Fraxinus Megan Barstow, Sara Oldfield, Murphy Westwood, Diana Jerome, Emily Beech & Malin Rivers Published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International Descanso House, 199 Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3BW, UK. © 2018 Botanic Gardens Conservation International BOTANIC GARDENS CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL (BGCI) is the world’s ISBN-10: 1-905164-67-X largest plant conservation network, comprising more than 500 botanic gardens in over ISBN-13: 978-1-905164-67-7 100 countries, and provides the secretariat to the IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Reproduction of any part of the publication for Group. BGCI was established in 1987 and is a registered charity with offices in the UK, educational, conservation and other non-profit US, China and Kenya. purposes is authorized without prior permission from the copyright holder, provided that the source is fully acknowledged. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes is prohibited without prior written permission from the copyright holder. Recommended citation: Barstow, M., Oldfield, S., Westwood, M., Jerome, D., Beech, E. and THE IUCN/SSC GLOBAL TREE SPECIALIST GROUP (GTSG) forms part of Rivers, M. (2018) The Red List of Fraxinus . BGCI. Richmond, UK. the Species Survival Commission’s network of over 7,000 volunteers working to stop the loss of plants, animals and their habitats. SSC is the largest of the six Commissions AUTHORS of IUCN – The International Union for Conservation of Nature. It serves as the main Megan Barstow is the Red List Conservation Assistant at BGCI source of advice to the Union and its members on the technical aspects of species conservation. The aims of the IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group are to promote Sara Oldfield is the co-chair of the IUCN/SSC Global and implement global red listing for trees and to act in an advisory capacity to the Tree Specialist Group Global Trees Campaign. Murphy Westwood is the Director of Global Tree Conservation at The Morton Arboretum Diana Jerome is a Tree Conservation Research Aide at The Morton Arboretum Emily Beech is the Conservation Officer at BGCI Malin Rivers is the Head of Conservation Prioritisation THE MORTON ARBORETUM is an internationally recognized outdoor tree at BGCI museum and tree research center located in Lisle, Illinois. As the champion of trees, The opinion of the individual authors does not the Arboretum is committed to scientifically informed action, both locally and globally, necessarily reflect the opinion of either the authors or and encouraging the planting and conservation of trees for a greener, healthier, more Botanic Gardens Conservation International. beautiful world. Learn more at mortonarb.org. The authors and Botanic Gardens Conservation International take no responsibility for any misrepresentation of material from translation of this document into any other language. COVER PHOTOS Front cover: Fraxinus velutina (Ian Harvey-Brown) Back cover: Fraxinus americana (The Morton Arboretum) THE GLOBAL TREES CAMPAIGN (GTC) is undertaken through a partnership between BGCI and FFI. GTC’s mission is to prevent all tree species extinctions in the DESIGN wild, ensuring their benefits for people, wildlife and the wider environment. GTC does Seascape. www.seascapedesign.co.uk this through provision of information, delivery of conservation action and support of Printed on 75% recycled, 25% Mixed Credit FSC sustainable use, working with partner organisations around the world. certified paper. The Red List of Fraxinus January 2018 Megan Barstow, Sara Oldfield, Murphy Westwood, Diana Jerome, Emily Beech & Malin Rivers The Red List of Fraxinus cOnTEnTS Foreword . 3 PART 2 Acknowledgements . 4 A Fraxinus species evaluated as threatened . 20 Acronyms . 4 B Fraxinus species evaluated as near Threatened . 24 Executive Summary . 5 c Fraxinus species evaluated as Data Deficient . 24 D Fraxinus species evaluated as Least concern . 25 PART 1 Background . 6 APPEnDIX 1 Full list of evaluated Fraxinus species . 26 Method . 8 Taxonomic scope and concepts . 8 APPEnDIX 2 conservation assessment method . 8 Participating institutions . 27 Review and evaluation . 9 Red List report format . 9 APPEnDIX 3 IUcn Red List categories and criteria case studies . 10 (version 3.1) . 29 Red List results . 13 Threat status . 13 criteria used . 13 country analysis . 14 Major threats . 14 Population trends . 15 Uses . 15 Ex situ survey . 16 Species in ex situ collections . 16 number of ex situ collections . 17 conclusions and recommendations . 18 Policy relevance . 18 Recommendations . 18 References . 19 Fraxinus sieboldiana (Arboretum Wespelaar) 2 The Red List of Fraxinus FOREWORD and trends can be documented and time stamped, to compare with future monitoring efforts. In the case of ash trees in the USA, all six of the eastern species entered the Red List for the first time in a threatened category, five of the six as critically Endangered. If this is the case for well-known, thoroughly studied, keystone species in the USA, imagine how many species are slipping away undocumented and undescribed in places like the Amazon rainforest, subtropical Africa, and southeast Asia. In a time of unprecedented globalization and climate change, it is of critical importance that we gather the baseline data on the state of the world’s tree species. The information captured in Red List assessments provides guidance for much needed ex situ and in situ Fraxinus quadrangulata (The Morton Arboretum) conservation efforts. As The Red List of Fraxinus exemplifies, the assessments ver the past decade BGcI, in eastern north America. As a native of the can also form the foundation for an early partnership with the IUcn Global state of Michigan - the epicenter of the warning system for emerging invasive OTree Specialist Group, has been emerald ash borer (EAB) invasion - I have pests and diseases. leading the way in evaluating the threat seen firsthand the rapid disappearance of status of the world’s tree species. This ash trees from forests and urban green Botanical gardens and arboreta have an monumental task - to assess all 60,065 spaces. We have lost more than 100 important role to play in the Global Tree tree species by 2020 - is known as the million ash trees in 31 states since EAB Assessment. As world leaders in botanical Global Tree Assessment (GTA), and it is arrived in the 1990s. At The Morton knowledge, well curated tree collections, urgently needed. As The Red List of Arboretum near chicago, Illinois, we have and conservation expertise, we are Fraxinus illustrates so well, tree species lost 160 accessioned Fraxinus trees from positioned to have the highest impact on are disappearing around the world at an our living collection, and 2,000 ash trees the success of the GTA. I urge my alarming rate. As of the end of 2017, from managed natural areas. More than colleagues from gardens around the world 10,237 tree species have been assessed half of the threatened Fraxinus species in to join the efforts in supporting the GTA, to globally for the IUcn Red List, 63% of this Red List report are native to eastern help advance knowledge of trees so that which are threatened with extinction. The north America. These are common trees governments, scientists, and conservation efforts of the Global Tree Specialist Group – found in native woodlands and planted practitioners have the tools needed to to complete the GTA are therefore timely widely as urban street trees – that many prevent future disasters like that of the and a critical first step toward prioritizing took for granted until now. This report eastern north American Fraxinus species. tree species for conservation action, to shows that even widespread, presumably reverse the trend of species decline secure species are potential victims of around the world. invasive pests and diseases. It illustrates how important it is for even apparently The Red List of Fraxinus has great secure species to be thoroughly Gerard T. Donnelly, PhD personal relevance for me, as it reveals evaluated for the Red List, so that President and cEO the stark truth of the state of ash trees in baseline information on population size The Morton Arboretum 3 The Red List of Fraxinus AcKnOWLEDGEMEnTS IUcn RED LIST cATEGORIES he Red List of Fraxinus was Tiago Monteiro-Henriques, Michael Moore, achieved through consultation with Dmitry Musolin, Soufiane M’sou, Katherine EX Extinct Ta wide range of experts and O’Donnell, Simone Orsenigo, Antoaneta specialists who shared expertise on this Petrova, Jung Hun Pi, Hassan Rankou, well known, important group of species. Jeanne Romero-Severson, Terhi Ryttäri, EW Extinct in the Wild Without their contributions this publication Marie-Stéphanie Samain, Alexander could not have been produced and the Sennikov, Lulezim Shuka, Kevin Smith, conservation status of many Fraxinus Sung-Won Son, Weibang Sun, Amanda CR critically Endangered species would remain unknown. Treher, Panagiotis Trigas, Angelo Troìa, Everyone’s work on these species is Dana Turonova, Kang Wang, Tan gratefully appreciated. yunhong and Habib Zare. EN Endangered Experts who provided information and helped with the conservation assessments Fondation Franklinia has generously VU Vulnerable of species include: Bhaskar Adhikari, provided financial assistance for this work. Mushtaq Ahmad, Mohamed Alifriqui, David Allen, Mora Aronsson, Ioannis All the gardens that shared their collection NT near Threatened Bazos, Pan Bo, Danka caković, Francisco information and published data on BGcI’s Barreto caldas, André carapeto, chin-