Jim The program referred to here is part of the larger 'Seeds of Success' program (http://www.nps.gov/plants/SOS/index.htm) designed to 'save' many plants. Here at Berkeley, we are involved in collected about four dozen native Californian species as part of this program which focuses on more or less common species. In addition, we have been collecting and are now introducing several extremely endangered local species under the sponsorship of the Center for Plant Conservation.(http://www.centerforplantconservation.org/). Perhaps these efforts are at least biding us time until we solve some environmental issues that are causing all the trouble in the first place. Unfortunately, their aren't a lot of success stories with reintroducing endangered plants. Paul Paul Licht, Director Univ. California Botanical Garden 200 Centennial Drive Berkeley, CA 94720 (510)-643-8999 http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/ J.E. Shields wrote: > Another item of interest in today's Sigma Xi - American Scientist < > http://www.sigmaxi.org/ > daily e-newsletter: > > ------------------------------ > > A Hunt for Seeds to Save Species, Perhaps by Helping Them Move > > from the New York Times (Registration Required) > > CHICAGO -- Pitcher's thistle, whose fuzzy leaves and creamy pink puffs once > thrived in the sand dunes along several of the Great Lakes, was driven by > development, drought and weevils into virtual extinction from the shores of > Lake Michigan decades ago. > > But in the 1990s, seeds collected from different parts of the thistle's > range were grown at the Chicago Botanic Garden and planted with the help of > the Morton Arboretum along the lake, in Illinois State Beach Park, north of > Chicago near the Wisconsin state line. The plants from Indiana's dunes to > the south are doing well; the plants that had come from the north are failing. > > With those mixed results in mind, scientists from the botanic garden are > sending teams out across the Midwest and West to the Rocky Mountains and > Great Basin to collect seeds from different populations of 1,500 prairie > species by 2010, and from 3,000 species by 2020. The goal is to preserve > the species and, depending on changes in climate, perhaps even help species > that generally grow near one another to migrate to a new range. > > http://snipr.com/t6n8g/ > > ------------------------------ > > > Perhaps Boyce can tell us how this is working? > > Jim Shields > in sunny but chilly Westfield, Indiana > USA > > > > > ************************************************* > Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. > P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ > Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA > Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > >