Crop wild relatives, the wild progenitors and closely related cousins of cultivated plant
species, are sources of valuable genetic resources for crop improvement. Persisting gaps
in knowledge of taxonomy, distributions, and...

Interception of potential invasive species at ports-of-entry is essential for effective biosecurity
and biosurveillance programs. However, taxonomic assessment of the immature stages
of most arthropods is challenging; characters for...

Botanic gardens play major roles in plant conservation globally. Since the 1980s, the number of botanic gardens worldwide and their involvement in integrating ex situ and in situ plant conservation has increased signifi cantly, with a growing focus on...

These best practices represent a compilation of previous CPC guidelines with updated
recommendations from current research on rare plant conservation. Seed science is a rapidly growing field. To keep abreast of changes in technology and practice...

Canada is home to about 5087 species of higher plants of which 25% were introduced to Canada either deliberately or by accident. The richness of botanical species is highest in the southern, more densely settled parts of the country. About 364 native...

During the last centuries, humans have transformed global ecosystems. With their temporal
dimension,herbaria provide the otherwise scarce long-termdata crucial for trackingecological and
evolutionarychangesover thisperiodof intense global...

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a rapid rise in the mobilization of digital biodiversity data. This has thrust natural history museums into the forefront of biodiversity research, underscoring their central role in the...

Functional traits are increasingly used to understand the ecology of plants and to predict their responses to global changes. Unfortunately, trait data are unavailable for the majority of plant species. The lack of trait data is especially prevalent...

This infographic is a good illustration of the life of a tissue sample at Denver Botanic Gardens. It shows the different steps taken to collect and preserve DNA tissue and eventually publish tissue and specimen data on the Global Genome Biodiversity...

Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) refers to the way in which genetic resources
may be accessed, and how the benefits that result from their use are shared
between the people or countries using the resources (users) and the people or...

Plant breeders require genetic diversity to develop cultivars that are productive, nutritious,
tolerant of biotic and abiotic stresses, and make efficient use of water and fertilizer. The USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) is a...

Cycads are the most endangered of plant groups based on IUCN Red List assessments; all are in Appendix I or II of CITES, about 40% are within biodiversity ‘hotspots,’ and the call for action to improve their protection is longstanding. We contend that...

Selecting the geographic origin—the provenance—of seed is a key decision in restoration. The last decade has seen a vigorous debate on whether to use local or nonlocal seed. The use of local seed has been the preferred approach because it is expected...

The Standards of Excellence in Plant Collections Management developed by the Plant...

 A companion Self-Assessment Tool is now available to help you evaluate your organization’s current level of collections management. Use the results along with the...

This manual suggests standard practices that will insure the quality and preservation of the tissue and vouchers and their respective data. Although written for use by the Smithsonian Institution botanists it suggests a framework for collecting tissues...

Genomic research depends upon access to DNA or tissue collected and preserved according to high-quality standards. At present, the collections in most natural history museums do not sufficiently address these standards, making them often hard or...

As multidisciplinary institutions at the interface between people and plants, botanic gardens are prime centres for botanical research and plant conservation. With plant diversity continuing to decline worldwide, ex situ conservation at botanic gardens...

The PCA Federal Committee, chaired by the Bureau of Land Management, developed the “National Seed Strategy for Rehabilitation and Restoration 2015-2020” in cooperation with Federal and non-Federal partners. The “National Seed Strategy for...

Internationally, gardens hold diverse living collections that can be preserved for genomic research. Workflows have been developed for genomic tissue sampling in other taxa (e.g., vertebrates), but are inadequate for plants. We outline a workflow for...