For decades NTBG has worked to restore 1000 acres of native plant habitat in the Upper and Lower Limahuli Preserves. Controlling invasive species such as pigs, rats and weeds, has allowed many rare and endangered endemic Hawaiian plants to thrive.

Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, 2020 has given NTBG the opportunity to make a detailed inventory of the 600 acre Lower Limahuli Preserve. A team of 15 staff from Limahuli Garden & Preserve, Living Collections, and Science and Conservation, led the first day of the inventory campaign on September 22, 2020. It was incredible and rewarding to see hundreds of outplanted rare plants like a 2-year old Pittosporum napaliense thriving in its new home.

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As a bonus, the team was able to bring back a good collection of Peperomia sandwicensis for propagation in the nursery. The next planned inventory day will be in October. 

Melicope nealae (Rutaceae or orange family) was considered possibly extinct and was only known from two previous observations on the floristically diverse island of Kauai, Hawaiian Islands. This extremely rare tree species was originally discovered in 1909 around Kauai’s Kaholuamanu region, and observed on a second occasion 60 years ago in the Kauai mesic forests of Kumuwela. It is with renewed hope for the survival of Melicope nealae that the NTBG Science staff reports the recent rediscovery of one lone tree in the Kokee forests of Kahuamaa, Kauai.

Supporting Rediscovery

Over the past few decades, the NTBG Science Department has facilitated the rediscovery of four other species of Melicope with funding assistance from federal, state, and private sources. With this support, we have been successful in making conservation collections to perpetuate their unique evolutionary history and reintroduce them into restoration sites. In partnership with others, NTBG has also discovered and taxonomically described four additional species new to science from the Hawaiian Islands and French Polynesia.

Species of Melicope range from Malagasy and Indo-Himalayan regions, through Southeast Asia, Australasia, and across the Pacific Islands. The Hawaiian Islands is one of the centers of diversity for Melicope with 54 species. NTBG has teamed up with researches from the University of Gottingen, Germany, and the Smithsonian Institution to study the phylogeny and biogeography of Melicope, in addition to a recently submitted paper with researchers from the Heinrich-Heine-University, Duesseldorf, Germany, looking at molecular compounds in the leaves of the Kauai endemic Melicope barbigera. Culturally, species of Melicope are significant to the Hawaiians who gave them numerous names, including: alani kuahiwi, kukaemoa, piloula, and mokihana. In fact, the traditional lei (garland) of Kauai, mokihana, is a species of Melicope prized for its intriguing anise-like fragrance and beauty.

Propagating Melicope nealae

Last week, NTBG Science staff partnered with the Hawaii State Plant Extinction Prevention Program (PEPP) to facilitate an air-layer on one of the branches of the newly rediscovered Melicope nealae. Many of Kauai’s rarest trees have been successfully propagated and cultivated by this technique. We are grateful for the ongoing support from many of you to continue this research during such difficult environmental times and to be given the opportunity to bring back this species from the brink of extinction.

Image texts, photos: Ken Wood
Mesic forest habitat, northwest Kauai, Hawaiian Islands.
Melicope nealae, recently rediscovered on Kauai, Hawaiian Islands.

By Craig Morell, Kampong Director         

NTBG’s garden in Florida, The Kampong, is home to over a century’s worth of horticultural history and exotic plant collections. What began as a pioneer doctor’s farm in 1885, was transformed by botanist and plant explorer Dr. David Fairchild after he and his wife purchased the narrow strip of land fronting Biscayne Bay in south Miami in 1916. Over the nearly four decades Fairchild lived at The Kampong, he planted the property with many of the fruit trees, medicinal plants, and tropical ornamentals that he so famously collected from around the world during his tenure as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief plant collector.

Today, many of Fairchild’s collections survive and have been augmented by hundreds of other plants introduced by successive directors and curators. With over a thousand species and varieties, The Kampong is Miami’s garden oasis, a museum of exotic flora in the heart of Coconut Grove.

Horticultural Heritage

Much of our focus at The Kampong is caring for David Fairchild’s heritage collections and preserving his horticultural legacy. Less well known, however, are our efforts to grow plants native to Florida, some of which are endangered. In doing so, we fulfill a dual role: conservation of native flora and public education.

Confined to a long, narrow eight-acre site already filled with mature plantings, limits what we can do, but we have chosen around ten species of endangered native Florida species to demonstrate the importance of local conservation. Our primary goal is to cultivate endangered species in a way that will inspire Kampong visitors and members of the community to practice plant conservation at home.

With the right education and resources, conservation can be done on a small scale in a botanical garden as well as in your own backyard. Our native conservation efforts began by working with the Institute for Regional Conservation, a local group of botanists, ecologists, and policy makers who understand how habitat loss has driven many species native to South Florida to extinction, leaving others with fewer than 50 individuals in the wild. In one notable case, the crenulate lead plant (Amorpha crenulata), a perennial shrub, has only five known wild specimens. Fortunately, several hundred exist in nurseries, available for replanting.

It’s important to note the difference between conserving plants cultivated from wild-collected stock versus cultivated stock. Classic methods of conservation call for a plant collector to gather seeds from plants in their native habitat. The collector also records details of location, soil type, altitude, and nearby plant types. That information is then databased and can be shared globally.

Ideally plants are grown and repopulated into the wild.  Seed is often stored for a long time so that wild genetic material is available to other gardens or for future outplanting. 

Wild Collected

Conservation using cultivated plants from wild collected seed is a newer tactic often practiced in areas where ethical and permitted nursery growers rescue seed of plants threatened by development and habitat loss. In Florida, this is sadly very common. Nurseries which specialize in native plant culture do a great job of introducing very rare native plants into local cultivation. Cultivating very rare species in nurseries also reduces the poaching of wild plants by offering an alternate source of planting material.

The prevention of poaching is one of the main reasons we chose to grow particular species of Everglades orchids. There’s a mystique associated with the dark, dense flooded cypress forests of the Everglades that seems to fuel the poacher’s hunger for orchids. As an avid orchid grower myself, I can testify to the interest orchid growers have in certain native species and the extraordinary demand they draw.

Orchids Acquired

With advice from the Naples Botanical Garden and help from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, we acquired half a dozen healthy cowhorn orchids (Cyrtopodium punctatum), one of our region’s most heavily-poached native species. Seeds were legally collected from wild specimens in the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, sent to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to grow to near-adult plants, and then shipped back to the Commission staff in Naples.

Commission staff then climbed thirty feet into native trees to mount the orchids securely, beyond the reach of poachers. The Kampong now has a small population of this species as well as four other native Florida orchids mounted in carefully monitored locations where we use them for native conservation education and outreach. One of our newest acquisitions is a rare leafless vanilla orchid (Vanilla barbellata), native to a small area in the heart of the Everglades.

Orchids can be hard to grow from seed, but there are expert facilities and laboratories throughout the country which do so commercially. One of our goals is to show how easily these orchids can be acquired from cultivated sources and grown at home. We emphasize the point that endangered plants are not necessarily difficult to grow, just hard to find in their habitats.

One of our best examples of a South Florida native is the red stopper tree (Eugenia rhombea) which is quite rare in the wild, but common in landscaping. Easy to find, grow and maintain, it is a superior landscape plant for a wide range of conditions, both commercial and residential, as a stand-alone or hedge. Slow growing, pest free, and suitable as wildlife habitat, red stopper is a perfect example of the conservation-by-cultivation concept.

Plant Native, Save Money

Educating our community about spending a little extra for the right plant can help save time and money later. Using endangered native species, either as an accent or as foundation plantings, can accomplish many goals at once. We strive to help visitors understand not only conservation on a regional scale, but in their home gardens as well.

One of our biggest challenges in promoting local landscaping conservation is the lack of knowledge of using the right native plant for the right location and where to find native plants.

As a small garden filled with a century’s worth of mature heritage collections, we don’t have the space for larger, more ambitious conservation efforts. What The Kampong does have is a dedicated staff who know how to incorporate native flora into appropriate parts of the garden. Taking advantage of our monsoon-Arizona climate extremes, and working with local native plant nurseries, we have been successful with our efforts in Florida horticultural conservation .

Connect with Nature at the Kampong

While NTBG’s staff in Hawai‘i carry out their own horticulture and conservation of the most endangered plants in the Pacific, here at The Kampong we practice native conservation on a scale commensurate with our size. In our urban setting, we provide a peaceful oasis where visitors can connect with nature, contemplate wildlife, and learn how to counter habitat destruction, invasive species, plant disease, and the loss of biodiversity. Our goals are modest, attainable, and usable by every visitor.

At The Kampong, even as we preserve the heritage collection of the botanist who introduced many of America’s favorite edible and ornamental plants, we also understand how native plants form the backbone of ecology and the importance of conserving and appreciating them. Ensuring the survival of native plants, whether in Florida, Hawai‘i, or elsewhere is a critical task and an effort worthy of support.

Nina Rønsted Ph.D., Director of Science and Conservation

Schiedea is an endemic Hawaiian plant lineage related to carnations and the fifth-largest plant radiation in Hawaii with 34 species (3 currently considered extinct). It has evolved in habitats ranging from exposed sea-cliffs in salt-spray to remote subalpine cliffs and also in dry to wet shrublands and forests.

Species of Schiedea are also renowned for their diversity in breeding systems. NTBG is partnering on an NSF grant to study molecular markers within Schiedea to better understand trait evolution, including habitat shifts, breeding systems, pollination biology, and reproductive isolating mechanisms. Since the publication of the Manual of Flowering Plants in 1990, NTBG Science Dept. had rediscovered four species previously thought extinct and discovered a new species deep within the remote cliffs of Kalalau, Kauai.

One rediscovered Kauai species, Schiedea viscosa, is now known from around 100 plants occurring in nine subpopulations. In early August 2020, NTBG Science staff recently located ten additional individuals while conducting research in the interior forests of Waialae Canyon. Conservation collections were made from seven separate individuals and included more than 4,000 seeds.

Diane Ragone, PhD. Director, Breadfruit Institute

The Regenerative Organic Breadfruit Agroforestry demonstration in McBryde Garden on Kauai celebrates its Third Anniversary this month. This project transformed the Breadfruit Research Orchard of 24 accessioned breadfruit and breadnut trees into a biodiverse, multi-layered, productive agroforest that changes over time and space.

Four Agroforestry Themes

Shade-Grown, Heritage, Contemporary, and Regenerative, are the four agroforestry themes with the latter encompassing the entire 2-acre area. The primary goals of regeneration are improving soil health and structure and increasing carbon storage and biodiversity, which in turn advances plant health and resilience. The demonstration is actively managed and monitored. Data are recorded to quantify productivity and yield of plants as well as soil sampling to monitor carbon storage, soil biodiversity, and fertility. Noel Dickinson, Breadfruit Institute Research Technician & Agroforestry Project Manager, is responsible for oversight and direct maintenance of the demonstration. Since November 2019, she has been assisted by Graham Talaber, who participated in NTBG’s 2019 Fall Intern Program.

Working Farm

The demonstration is a dynamic, productive system, and must be managed as a “working farm” with year-round growth of plants and production of crops that must be regularly harvested. The regenerative practices implemented since the onset of the project have resulted in increased productivity of breadfruit and other crops with a commensurate increase in labor required to harvest and document yields (counts and/or weights).

Labor-intensive, short term, vegetable, and other crops are being replaced with longer-term high-value crops and plants for biomass. Every plant in the agroforest, especially fast-growing woody and semi-woody species are specifically grown to be “cut and dropped” in place, and so-called “weeds” contribute to soil regeneration by contributing biomass that is re-used as mulch. New species added to the agroforest are carefully selected using the criteria of: will they yield income for producers, enhance soil health, and/or produce labor savings?

Since August 2017, more than 100 species of short- and long-term crops and other plants have been planted. Nearly 9,000 lbs. of breadfruit, 7,000 lbs. of 55 species/varieties, and 1,300 ornamentals, have been given to staff, volunteers, interns, and students at NTBG. These harvest totals include 2 tons of breadfruit, bananas, and papayas donated to Kauai Food Banks.

Living Laboratory

The demonstration serves as a living laboratory for producers, agriculturists, chefs, entrepreneurs, home gardeners, community organizations, researchers, students, visitors on tours, and others interested in learning about breadfruit, breadfruit agroforestry, and regenerative organic agriculture. Since March 2020, adopted appropriate measures to respond to the realities of COVID-19 with health and safety of staff and plants foremost, and on-site educational activities have been limited. Outreach via social media has increased to continue to reach and serve this audience.

Information Resources produced to complement the demonstration—Breadfruit Agroforestry Guide, Fact Sheet, and Agroforestry Standards published in the open-access journal Sustainability—are all available as downloadable PDFs here and widely disseminated. We are grateful to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture (Year 1) and Patagonia Provisions through Patagonia’s Environmental Grants Program (Year 1-on-going) for their financial support. This project owes its success to the hard work of the Breadfruit Institute team (Noel Dickinson, Juliana Prater, Graham Talaber) and the scores of staff and volunteers who have helped in so many ways.

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)’s July 2020 issue of BGjournal includes extensive coverage of NTBG’s work with drones in rare plant conservation, support for the IUCN Seed Conservation Specialist Group’s new website, and interview with NTBG President Chipper Wichman, and more. Read the new issue here: https://www.bgci.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/BGjournal17.2.pdf

NTBG is featured in the latest issue of Directions magazine with an article and video that examine how the Garden uses the latest GIS and other technology to document, monitor, and protect rare and endangered plants and their genetic diversity. Read the article: https://www.directionsmag.com/article/10055 and watch the video: https://youtu.be/B3Aw4ryy3g8

by Nina Rønsted, NTBG Director of Science and Conservation

The United Nations has declared 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health. In recognition of this timely and timeless theme, and with the understanding that all life on this planet is dependent on plant health, Nina Ronsted, NTBG director of Science and Conservation, speaks about how NTBG contributes to protecting and advancing plant health.

This year, as the world is ravaged by a global pandemic, it may seem less urgent to worry about plant health, but in fact the health of plants, animals and humans is closely interrelated. The Hawaiian proverb, “I ola ‘oe, i ola mākou nei” (“my life depends on yours, your life depends on mine”) illustrates that interdependence.

In 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published an alarming report assembled by an international team of 455 experts and contributing authors from 50 countries.

Shrinking Ecosystems

The report concluded that ecosystems, species, wild populations, and local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. Our essential, interconnected web of life is growing smaller and increasingly frayed. The report further assessed that up to one million species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction.

The loss of biodiversity and ecosystems directly undermines efforts to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans, and land. Loss of biodiversity is therefore not only an environmental issue, but also of great developmental, economic, security, social, and moral significance.

Conservationists report that nearly half of all new zoonotic disease spillover from animals to humans since 1940 is related to changes in how we use land, practice agriculture, or hunt wildlife. 

Reasons for Hope

The IPBES report stresses that it’s not too late to reverse environmental decline, but only if we start now at every level from local to global. Scientists and policy makers are beginning to discuss how the global pandemic-induced disruption in normal human activity presents a unique opportunity to bolster our efforts to address climate and environmental crises in a meaningful way. Many of us recognize that protecting wildlife and stopping biodiversity loss is critical to finding solutions.

Healthy plants are at the center of these issues and are the foundation of life on our planet, providing critical habitat for animals and people. The International Year of Plant Health couldn’t be more timely. Likewise, the mission of NTBG, to enrich life through discovery, scientific research, conservation, and education, is as relevant as ever. From the biodiversity hotspot of Hawai‘i where we are based, throughout the Pacific, and to our garden in Florida and beyond, we are determined to contribute to global solutions by saving plants and saving people.

NTBG Audits the Seed Bank

By Kelli Jones, KUPU Team Member

Have you ever tried to catalog, organize, and store 16 million seeds? It’s not as easy as it sounds. Working at NTBG’s Seed Bank and Laboratory as a team member with the KUPU program, I was tasked with taking the lead on conducting an inventory of NTBG’s conservation seed bank collection.

Seed Storage Capacity

At the end of 2019, it felt like the seed bank was nearing its storage capacity. Pulling from the collection had become cumbersome and needlessly complicated so, together with Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager Dustin Wolkis, we decided to restructure how cooled storage space was organized, conducting a complete inventory at the same time.

Seeds stored in the seed bank are kept at three temperatures (–80°C ,–18°C, and +5°C) and had been organized by decade, starting with the first collections from the 1990s, followed alphabetically by genus, species, then chronologically by accession^[1] number. 

Prior to this physical inventory and reorganization, when the collection was smaller, this simple scheme worked well for handling seed requests, but as the collection has grown by thousands of accessions annually, it became clear that a new system was needed to increase efficiency.

Overhauling our scheme and conducting an inventory began by creating a categorized list of every accession in the data base. The new list was reorganized so that accessions could be counted and used as a reference. Under the new system, the collection is arranged alphabetically by family, genus, species, and intra-species designations. This is followed numerically by accession number, similar to the how NTBG’s herbarium and DNA collections are organized.

By standardizing how we catalog our collections of stored plant material, we’ve created a greater sense of cohesion while making the assets in our Botanical Research Center more user-friendly.

With this year’s introduction of an additional subfreezing storage unit, we were also able to remedy overcrowded storage conditions while replacing seed containers with visible signs of wear.

Handmade Storage Solutions

In all, I spent nearly 300 hours hand-crafting materials for new storage containers and handling more than 4,000 individual accessions housed in NTBG’s seed bank. Throughout the process, I had to address numerous unanticipated complications including everything from correcting inconsistencies in old database entries to “phantom” accession numbers to the discovery of accessions once thought to be missing.

The millions of seeds NTBG stores in its seed bank include many rare and endangered taxa, including some not found in other seed banks. The seeds, representing 830 species, are regularly studied and requested for transfer to be propagated, so accurate record keeping is critical.

Part of the process of maintaining the seed bank is frequently assessing the seeds physical and physiological condition as well as regularly interacting with, and manually updating the corresponding digital records. As individual accessions are altered, their changes in condition and location are documented in the database, chronicling their life within the collection.

Closing the Information Gap

Once the physical portion of the inventory was complete, any remaining information gaps in the database had to be reconciled. Accessions which could not be found had to be removed and, along with these, the largest job in the data entry portion was updating the storage temperature entries and accompanying notes for each accession from all years prior to 2016 when those details were first added.

Updating the database added about 56 hours to the project, but the results were significant. While some plant taxa records remained unaccounted for, the seed bank still saw an overall increase of nearly 30 percent in taxa represented with an addition of 207 new accessions and a 12 percent increase in overall stored accessions.

Post-inventory, the most noticeable difference is in the interaction experience for anyone using the seed bank now that accession accountability has been improved. The task of pulling accessions, which previously took up to an hour, can now be done in minutes.

The new organization system is simpler, more logical, and more engaging, making it faster and easier to yield information and find the seeds that are needed, increasing the collection’s value to botany newcomers and seasoned researchers alike.

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[1] A specific acquisition or collection of plant material (cuttings, seeds, etc.), either wild-collected or cultivated, which bears a unique identifying number that is cataloged and remains with that material for reference in a database

August 9, 2020 is the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and National Book Lovers Day! In celebration, we are sharing botanical books by indigenous authors.

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Beyond Hawaii