An emblem of spring, magnolias are celebrated for their beautiful white and pink flowers that bloom early in the season. While common in home landscapes, half of all magnolia species are threatened with extinction in the wild. They are found around the globe, and are mainly threatened by logging activity as well as habitat loss…
Tag: Conservation
Scientific Resurrection: Bringing Extinct Plants Back from the Dead
Species in the hibiscus and sedge families, both extinct for decades but preserved at the Missouri Botanical Garden, are among those scientists want to target to bring back from the dead. Scientists from across the globe recently collaborated to create a list of plants targeted for “de-extinction.” They examined plant specimens preserved in herbaria, or…
New Species Described by Garden Scientists in 2022
Each year, the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Science and Conservation staff discover and name about 200 plant species new to science. That’s roughly 10 percent of all plant species discovered by scientists worldwide annually.
Garden Plans Restoration After Fire Burns 35 Acres of Precious Forest in Madagascar
When Dinasoa Tahirinirainy got a phone call in early October telling him there was a fire at a Missouri Botanical Garden conservation area in Madagascar, he wasn’t too worried. Tahirinirainy is the park manager of Ankafobe Forest, an area of rare highland forest where fires are common. He deals with three to four fires a…
Climate Change and Common Violets
In many Missouri backyards, a carpet of small purple or white violets is a sure sign of spring. In future springs, we’re likely to see more of these cheerful flowers earlier in the season as a result of climate change, a recent study from Garden researchers found. This may seem like an unexpected positive outcome…
Rare Beauty: New Meriania Species to be Classified as Critically Endangered
With vivid pink, purple, and magenta blooms, new species of Meriania discovered by Missouri Botanical Garden scientists and collaborators in Peru are certainly eye-catching. But since many of them are critically endangered, they’re unlikely to catch many eyes in the wild. In fact, four of them are known from just a single population. Describing these…
Critically Endangered Agave pelona Blooms in Garden Greenhouses
It was late January when Jared Chauncey, Senior Horticulturist and arid plant expert at the Missouri Botanical Garden, noticed that something extraordinary was about to happen: an Agave pelona was sending up a flowering stalk. It was about to bloom. These plants live for decades before sending up the only bloom of their lifetime—they are…
Madidi | 20 Years of Discovery
Encompassing more than 7,000 square miles, Madidi National Park in northeast Bolivia is one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. The park and its surrounding regions encompass the Andes’ snow-covered peaks, hazy cloud forests, and a portion of the tropical Amazon Rainforest. Yet until recently, relatively little was known about the plants and…
Saving the Seeds of an Endangered Christmas Tree
Two years after wild-collected Christmas tree seeds made their way from the Appalachian Mountains to St. Louis, our researchers are learning more about the challenges ahead when it comes to conserving the Fraser fir.
Lemurs of Madagascar
Lemurs are amazing animals—a diverse group of primates found only on the island of Madagascar. There are about 100 living species of lemur ranging in size from the tiny mouse lemur to the large and vocal indri. Nearly all of those species are threatened with extinction, mainly due to habitat loss and hunting, according to…
Trees for Lemurs and Lemurs for Trees
The Missouri Botanical Garden: the clue is in the name, really! We love plants – everything about them: we love unpacking their evolutionary relationships, we love to investigate how they mold themselves to their environments, we love discovering how best to propagate and grow them. But, most of all, we love simply reveling in their life-enhancing…
Rare Tree Reveals First Flower
One of the world’s rarest trees, Karomia gigas, is flowering in the greenhouses of the Missouri Botanical Garden for the first time.