Oaks are critical to the health and function of forest and shrubland habitats in the United States, but many native oaks are threatened with extinction in the wild.

In a pollen supplementation experiment, fruit or seed production by flowers exposed to natural pollination is compared to that following hand pollination either by pollen supplementation (i.e.

October 17 Morning Sessions at University of British Columbia:  

As multidisciplinary institutions at the interface between people and plants, botanic gardens are prime centres for botanical research and plant conservation.

Although only a minority of plant species have a specific human use, many more play important roles in natural ecosystems and the services they provide, and rare species are more likely to have unusual traits that could be useful in the future.