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Happy Native Plant Month!
Happy Native Plant Month!
Here at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden we value our native plants and encourage and inspire our visitors to care about them, too. It’s more important now than ever to plant native.
The Plant Research Division at CREW is dedicated to protecting native plant species that need a helping hand. Below are a few of the endangered species our scientists have worked with, or are currently working with, and how CREW is using tissue culture techniques to micropropagate these plants quickly and efficiently. The goal: to grow, bank, restore and monitor their populations in the wild.
Status: State Endangered
CREW’s plant scientists have collaborated with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to analyze the genetic diversity that still exists in both the protected introduced populations and the surviving natural populations of Lakeside daisies to ensure healthy populations for years to come. CREW currently has Lakeside Daisy growing in their endangered species garden.
Status: Rare and Endangered
Kentucky Clover is a newly discovered species of clover. As part of an ongoing restoration project, CREW has micropropagated approximately 1,500 individual plants in vitro for reintroduction into their natural habitats. On April 16th, scientists joined Kentucky Nature Preserves for a large-scale outplanting mission. CREW will continue to propagate Kentucky clover and keep a portion of this endangered species for cryobanking and display in the Endangered Species Garden.
Status: Federally Endangered
Northern Wild Monkshood, also known as wolfsbane, is an endangered species in Ohio, largely due to its specific habitat requirements and salt runoff from a nearby road impacting its population. For many years, the Plant Division at CREW has partnered with Summit Metro Parks to support the restoration of this rare plant by cultivating and propagating it in culture. Currently, CREW is exploring various acclimatization methods to better replicate the plant’s natural environment, with the goal of developing hardier individuals capable of surviving outplantings.
Want to help support the CREW Plant Division? CREW has a stock of native plants in culture for sale at A Toast to the Wild events and Barrows lectures. All donations go directly to conservation research!