Plants in Peril

There are lots of ways to incorporate plants and plant messaging into zoo exhibits, many of which I detailed in the last blog post.  Here's yet another one - use your gardens to remind visitors that not all endangered species are animals.  There are many that are plants.

We don't often think of plants being endangered in the same way that we do animals - there aren't plant poachers out there, right?  Well, kind of, yeah, there are.  Plants become endangered for the same reasons that animals do.  There is habitat loss, both through direct methods such as deforestation, as well as indirectly, through climate change.  There are invasive species - both other plants, which can out-compete them for resources in their natural habitat, as well as animals which may eat those plants.  Humans can over-exploit and over-collect plants, whether for financial purposes or for collections and hobbies.

An endangered plant nursery at Lauritzen Gardens Botanical Park in Omaha, Nebraska

Among animals, there are a section of species which are now considered (or have been considered at some point) extinct in the wild.  Their numbers include/have included the Arabian oryx, Kihansi spray toad, and Guam rail.   Most people wouldn't think of plants being "in captivity," but there are several species which are extinct in their natural state and only exist under human care.  They include Governor Laffan's fern (formerly of Bermuda), the St. Helena rosewood, and the Franklin tree, from the US state of Georgia.  Like animals, many plants that are endangered are those that naturally had very small ranges and very specialized habitat conditions.  Often these plants supported equally specialized animals who have become imperiled by their absence.

Just as many zoos have evolved from collections of curiosities to conservation centers, so have botanical gardens begun to evolve.  Whereas they used to be places to go look at the pretty flowers, now they often serve as research and conservation hubs for endangered plants.  The video below from Botanic Gardens Conservation International says it better than I can:

Endangered plants are delicate, and probably best left under the care of specialized scientists rather than tossed as a side project to the zoo (just as rare birds or reptiles would probably thrive best under the care of zookeepers rather than under the well-meaning but less-experienced eyes of horticulturalists).  Still, zoos can support botanical gardens by highlighting endangered plants, cross-promoting with botanical gardens, and reminding visitors that saving endangered animals often means having to save endangered plants as well.