“It was probably the largest request we’ve ever received, which really speaks to the breadth of our collection and that we can grow so many kinds of trees in our temperate climate,” says Larson.

We can now answer the question, with a high degree of confidence, of just how many Wenatchee Mountains checkermallow (Sidalcea oregana var. calva) plants there are. That’s due to a 9-year effort to count and map its largest known population at Camas Lands near Peshastin, WA. This population holds nearly 90% of all known individuals of this species; therefore, it is important to know how large this population is and how it is changing over time. 

UW Botanic Gardens welcomes Dr. Christina Owen as Director, starting September 13, and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences Professor Dr. Josh Lawler as the new Faculty Director.

Only 90 minutes south of Seattle is an exquisite but threatened habitat: the South Sound Prairies. Prior to the arrival of Euro-American settlers, the Northwest prairie ecosystem west of the Cascades thrived under management by Native Americans, from Oregon’s Willamette Valley north to the San Juan Islands and into southwestern British Columbia. Today, less than 3% of that original habitat survives, and plants dependent on the prairies’ unique soil and topography require vigorous protection.

The next time you treat yourself to a walk through the inviting grounds of UW Botanic Gardens, take a moment to appreciate that the flowers and trees play an important role in scientific research–with implications for plants and research institutions all over the world.
“We get requests for plant materials from researchers and institutions about 10 times a year,” reports Raymond J. 

Sometimes it takes a while to unravel the mystery of seeds; other times they present no mystery at all. Take showy stickseed (Hackelia venusta) seeds as an example of the former. The germination ecology of showy stickseed was for years a mystery. Traditional propagation techniques using cold stratification yielded poor germination rates. Researchers experimented with various scarification techniques (altering the seed coat by weakening or creating an opening) and gibberellic acid, a plant growth hormone, to stimulate germination. 

Last fall, the Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care) initiated a new study to investigate whether direct seeding is a viable alternative for establishing new populations of White Bluffs bladder-pod (Physaria douglasii ssp. tuplashensis). The only known population of this plant occurs at the Hanford Reach National Monument. It grows on the white bluffs along the east side of the Columbia River on a white cemented alkaline substrate rich in calcium. 

Over the summer, my fellow intern, Maya Kahn-Abrams, and I monitored twelve species of alpine plants in Olympic and Mount Rainier National Parks. These plants were chosen from a list developed by botanists from each park to describe current status and collect long-term data to develop strategies for adaption to climate change. These species are generally tracked by the Washington Natural Heritage Program, while a majority of them are endemic to Washington State. 

This year the Rare Plant Care Internship worked with the National Park Service on a project focused on establishing long term monitoring plots in alpine and subalpine ecosystems in Washington state National Parks (Olympic Mountains, Mt. Rainier (Tahoma), and North Cascades). This monitoring programs seeks to understand the effects of climate change on vulnerable alpine/subalpine communities as a whole and rare and largely endemic species in particular. 

The UW Botanic Gardens is a member of the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), a network of botanic institutions whose mission is to prevent the extinction of U.S. native plants. The CPC was founded in 1984 and operates the only national program of ex situ conservation of rare plant material in coordination with 40 leading botanic institutions. They maintain the National Collection of Endangered Plants with over 1,400 species represented and also conduct research, restoration, education, and advocacy programs.