Conservation
We believe our conservation team are champions, but this year the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made it official. In February 2011 our Rare Plant Conservation Program received the Rare Species Recovery Champion award that recognized their leadership and innovation in rare plant recovery, in particular for their work to conserve 38 imperiled plant species.
Population Monitoring
In addition to performing counts and mapping, we collected survival or demographic data for 37 rare plant populations of eight species throughout Central Florida.
Hybridization Trials
Hand-crossing of individuals were performed to look at hybridization levels between eight species and three genera.
Population Introductions
We introduced 2,206 propagated seedlings and 2,446 seeds of three species into eight protected sites to establish new rare plant populations on public lands.
Center for Plant Conservation – National Collection
We brought in hundreds of thousands of seeds from 18 species from 48 sites throughout Florida for preservation into the National Collection.
Networking and Outreach
The Rare Plant Task Force, an annual statewide meeting of conservation professionals, was held in spring 2011 at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. We organized this annual meeting along with Fairchild ecologists. Our staff provided 16 tours of the facilities to more than 200 people, manned educational displays at three venues, prepared nine lay articles, led two educational workshops, gave presentations to 14 groups, and provided expertise and support to graduate and undergraduate students at two universities.
