Botanic gardens around the world are excellent places of education, science, and horticulture. Living plant collections are a great opportunity for botanic gardens to engage with and educate the public and communicate their scientific and horticultural expertise.
Living collections can also be used to safeguard the genetic diversity of natural plant populations giving them excellent conservation value. However, not all living plant collections in botanic gardens have scientific value. The living collections of the Royal Botanic Garden and Domain Trust have a substantial horticultural and scientific heritage with a deep-rooted history. However, many botanic gardens worldwide have shifted their focus toward conservation and education, which includes maintaining plant collections of known wild origin with significant scientific value. Yet with the pressures of maintaining a botanic garden that is visually attractive and offers themes to drive visitor numbers, the scientific and conservation value of plant collections are often lost. In this seminar we address how scientists can use and contribute to living collections by increasing their conservation and scientific value through improved collaboration between scientific and horticultural teams, and increase their overall value for conservation, science and education.
Dr James Clugston from the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney presented these ideas in an online seminar on Tuesday, 24 Aug 2021. Watch again this seminar in the video below:
For more information about our seminars and future announcements, please contact Hervé Sauquet.