Botanical Gardens
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Botanical Gardens
Botanical gardens have evolved far beyond their traditional role as places for displaying unusual, beautiful, or economically important plants. Modern botanical gardens are increasingly important scientific and conservation institutions that maintain living collections, seed banks, herbaria, laboratories, databases, horticultural expertise, and educational programs. Together, these resources allow gardens to study plant diversity, conserve threatened species, support ecological restoration, monitor environmental change, and introduce millions of visitors to the importance of plants.
The worldwide network of botanical gardens represents one of the largest existing infrastructures devoted to the study and conservation of plant diversity. Collections maintained by individual gardens can preserve species that are declining or disappearing in the wild, while coordinated networks allow plants, seeds, genetic material, scientific information, and horticultural knowledge to be shared among institutions.
Conserving Plants Outside Their Natural Habitats
One of the most important functions of modern botanical gardens is ex situ conservation—the protection of plants outside their natural habitats. Threatened plants may be maintained as living specimens, stored as seeds, preserved through tissue culture or cryogenic techniques, or distributed among several institutions as conservation collections.
Living collections can serve as insurance populations when wild plants are threatened by habitat destruction, climate change, invasive species, disease, illegal collecting, development, or other pressures. In extreme cases, botanical gardens may hold some of the last surviving individuals of a species.
Simply keeping a species alive in cultivation, however, does not necessarily constitute effective conservation. Conservation collections are most valuable when they preserve sufficient genetic diversity, maintain accurate records of geographic origin, and contain enough individuals to support future research, propagation, restoration, or reintroduction.
Increasingly, gardens are cooperating through metacollections in which genetically diverse individuals of threatened species are distributed among several institutions. This reduces the danger that a single disease outbreak, natural disaster, institutional failure, or other local event could eliminate an entire conservation collection.
Seed Banks and Genetic Conservation
Seed banking has become one of the most powerful conservation tools associated with botanical gardens. Seeds collected from wild populations can often be dried and stored at low temperatures for decades, providing a relatively inexpensive means of conserving large amounts of plant genetic diversity.
Major botanical institutions maintain extensive seed collections representing thousands of wild species. Regional gardens also operate seed banks designed to protect locally rare plants and provide material for habitat restoration and species recovery.
Seed collections can support far more than emergency conservation. Scientists use stored seeds to study germination, genetics, adaptation, plant physiology, restoration ecology, and responses to environmental change. Native seeds stored by botanical institutions can also provide essential material for rebuilding damaged ecosystems.
Not every plant can be conserved through conventional seed banking. Some species produce seeds that cannot survive drying or freezing, while others produce few viable seeds or reproduce primarily through vegetative means. These exceptional species may require living collections, tissue culture, cryopreservation, or other specialized conservation methods.
Botanical Gardens and the Extinction Crisis
The accelerating loss of plant diversity has made botanical gardens increasingly important components of global efforts to prevent extinction. Gardens can identify threatened species, collect seeds and living material, develop propagation techniques, maintain backup populations, conduct genetic research, and provide plants for eventual reintroduction.
Botanical scientists also help determine which species are most threatened. Herbarium specimens, field surveys, living collections, genetic research, artificial intelligence, geographic data, and international databases can be combined to evaluate extinction risk and identify major gaps in conservation.
Many endangered plants are poorly represented in cultivation, and some entire groups or geographic regions remain inadequately protected. Expanding conservation collections therefore requires strategic decisions about which species and populations should receive priority.
Botanical gardens are particularly valuable because conservation does not end when a plant enters a collection. Horticulturists must determine how difficult species germinate, grow, flower, reproduce, and respond to environmental conditions. That accumulated practical knowledge may eventually determine whether a threatened plant can be restored to the wild.
Ecological Restoration
Botanical gardens increasingly apply their expertise beyond garden boundaries. Their knowledge of seed collection, propagation, native plants, genetics, soils, horticulture, and plant establishment can directly support ecological restoration.
Gardens participate in projects involving forests, grasslands, wetlands, deserts, prairies, urban habitats, and other ecosystems. Seed banks can supply native material for restoration, while living collections can provide plants for propagation when wild populations are too small to supply adequate seed.
Successful restoration requires more than simply planting vegetation. Conservation programs increasingly recognize the importance of maintaining genetic diversity and using plant material appropriate to particular environments. Botanical gardens can help determine which populations and species are best suited for restoration under both present and future climatic conditions.
Some gardens have therefore become bridges between ex situ and in situ conservation. Plants may be collected from the wild, studied and propagated in cultivation, maintained as backup populations, and eventually returned to protected or restored habitats.
Climate Change Research and Adaptation
Botanical gardens are exceptionally useful laboratories for understanding climate change. Many maintain detailed records of flowering, leaf emergence, fruiting, growth, and other biological events extending over decades.
Because gardens often grow many species together under the same climatic conditions, scientists can compare how different plants respond to warming temperatures, drought, altered rainfall, extreme weather, and changing seasons. International networks of gardens can extend these comparisons across continents and climate zones.
Climate change also threatens botanical gardens themselves. Plants that have survived for generations in historic collections may no longer be suited to future local climates. Gardens must therefore consider which species are likely to survive coming environmental conditions and how their collections should change.
Research conducted in botanical collections can also help cities select more climate-resilient trees and other plants. Botanical gardens can test species under drought, heat, flooding, and other stresses before those plants are widely introduced into urban landscapes.
Living Collections as Scientific Infrastructure
A botanical garden's living collection is not simply an exhibition. Properly documented collections can function as scientific infrastructure containing plants of known identity, origin, history, and genetic background.
Researchers use these collections to investigate taxonomy, evolution, genetics, plant physiology, ecology, phenology, horticulture, pests, diseases, and adaptation. Living plants also provide research opportunities that preserved herbarium specimens alone cannot offer.
Long-term collections allow scientists to observe biological processes over years or decades. When observations are standardized among institutions, botanical gardens can form global research networks capable of detecting large-scale environmental change.
Digital databases are making these collections even more valuable. Systems that allow researchers to determine which species are maintained at particular gardens can help identify conservation gaps, locate research material, coordinate collections, and prevent unnecessary duplication.
Herbaria, Digitisation, and Artificial Intelligence
Many major botanical gardens maintain enormous herbarium collections containing preserved plants collected over centuries. These specimens provide historical evidence of where species occurred, when they flowered, how their distributions changed, and what plant diversity existed in places that have since been transformed.
Large-scale digitisation is making these collections accessible to researchers around the world. High-resolution imaging, hyperspectral scanning, automated identification, and artificial intelligence can extract information from millions of specimens that previously could only be examined individually.
Artificial intelligence is also being used to estimate extinction risk, identify specimens, organize collection data, and discover patterns in extremely large botanical datasets. The combination of historic specimens, living collections, field observations, genetics, and computational tools is transforming botanical research.
Food Security and Useful Plants
Botanical gardens also conserve plants important to human societies. Collections contain medicinal plants, wild food plants, crop wild relatives, timber species, culturally important plants, and species with potential future economic uses.
Crop wild relatives are especially significant because they may possess genetic characteristics that cultivated crops have lost, including resistance to drought, disease, heat, salinity, or pests. Conserving these wild relatives can therefore contribute to long-term food security.
Botanical gardens can also work with local and Indigenous communities to preserve traditional knowledge associated with useful plants. Ethnobotanical collections may conserve both biological diversity and the cultural knowledge connected with cultivation, food, medicine, and traditional ecological practices.
Education and Public Engagement
Botanical gardens occupy an unusual position between research institutions and public attractions. Millions of people visit gardens primarily for recreation, yet those same visitors can encounter information about biodiversity, climate change, extinction, restoration, sustainable horticulture, food security, and ecological relationships.
This makes botanical gardens important centers of environmental education. Living plants allow visitors to experience biodiversity directly rather than encountering it only through photographs, books, or digital media.
Interpretive displays, demonstration gardens, exhibitions, school programs, citizen-science projects, guided tours, and community activities can connect scientific research with everyday experience. Gardens can also demonstrate practical approaches to native gardening, water conservation, sustainable landscaping, pollinator protection, and climate adaptation.
Citizen scientists increasingly contribute observations of flowering, rare plants, invasive species, wildlife interactions, and other ecological information. These programs allow public participation to become part of the scientific and conservation mission of botanical institutions.
Botanical Gardens in Cities
Many botanical gardens are located within large urban areas, where they provide benefits beyond their formal scientific missions. Their trees and vegetation can reduce extreme heat, store carbon, absorb stormwater, provide habitat, support pollinators, and create refuges for biodiversity.
Urban botanical gardens may preserve native species even when surrounding habitats have largely disappeared. They can also serve as experimental sites for testing plants capable of surviving increasingly hot, dry, or unpredictable urban climates.
Their recreational and cultural functions are also significant. Botanical gardens provide access to nature, education, tourism, community gathering places, and opportunities for psychological and physical well-being.
As cities become larger and denser, botanical gardens may increasingly function as ecological infrastructure as well as cultural and scientific institutions.
International Cooperation
Plant extinction is a global problem that cannot be addressed by individual gardens working independently. Botanical gardens increasingly cooperate through national, regional, and international networks.
Organizations and databases connect institutions involved in living collections, seed banking, research, restoration, education, and species recovery. These networks allow gardens to determine where threatened plants are maintained, identify species absent from collections, share expertise, coordinate collecting, and distribute conservation material.
International grants and partnerships are especially important for botanical gardens in biodiversity-rich regions where conservation needs may greatly exceed institutional resources. Strengthening local botanical institutions can protect plants close to their natural habitats while building long-term scientific and horticultural capacity.
Collaboration also reduces the risks associated with isolated collections. A threatened species represented in several well-managed institutions is generally more secure than one maintained at a single location.
Challenges Facing Botanical Gardens
Botanical gardens face significant limitations despite their conservation potential. Maintaining large living collections requires land, skilled horticulturists, scientific expertise, accurate records, infrastructure, and sustained financial support.
Living plants die, collections change, seeds lose viability, and cultivated populations can gradually become genetically different from their wild ancestors. Small collections may capture only a fraction of the genetic diversity found in natural populations.
Climate change creates additional difficulties by altering the environmental conditions under which long-established collections must survive. War, extreme weather, energy disruptions, pests, disease, theft, illegal plant trafficking, and institutional instability can also threaten valuable collections.
Gardens must therefore continually evaluate why plants are being maintained, how genetically representative collections are, whether material remains viable, and whether collections genuinely contribute to conservation rather than merely displaying rare species.
The Changing Role of Botanical Gardens
The history of botanical gardens includes medicinal gardens, scientific classification, imperial collecting, economic botany, horticultural experimentation, and public display. Their contemporary role is increasingly shaped by biodiversity loss, climate change, ecological degradation, and the need to preserve plant genetic resources.
This transition has also prompted institutions to reconsider historical collecting practices, colonial relationships, Indigenous knowledge, ownership of biological material, data sovereignty, and equitable international partnerships.
The modern botanical garden is consequently becoming less defined by the number of unusual plants it displays and more by how effectively its collections contribute to science, conservation, restoration, education, and society.
Conclusion
Botanical gardens have become important components of the world's biodiversity conservation system. Their living collections, seed banks, herbaria, laboratories, databases, horticultural expertise, research programs, and international partnerships provide tools that few other institutions possess in combination.
Their importance is likely to increase as habitat destruction, climate change, invasive species, illegal collecting, and other pressures place more plants at risk of extinction. Botanical gardens cannot replace the protection of plants in their natural ecosystems, but they can provide crucial backup populations, scientific knowledge, genetic resources, propagation expertise, restoration material, and public support.
The future role of botanical gardens therefore extends well beyond maintaining attractive landscapes. Increasingly, they function as conservation centers, research networks, ecological laboratories, educational institutions, seed repositories, restoration partners, and living archives of the world's plant diversity.
Plant Conservation, Threatened Species, and Species Recovery
Last of Its Kind: Critically Endangered Tree Finds Hope at Kew and Logan Botanic Garden
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | May 29, 2026
Seeds from the last known wild Dendroseris neriifolia tree reached Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, illustrating how botanical gardens can intervene when a species approaches extinction.
Nature on the EDGE of Extinction
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | May 7, 2026
Kew and collaborating scientists identify thousands of evolutionarily distinctive threatened flowering plants, showing how botanical research can guide global conservation priorities.
Bolstering Bryophytes
| Catherine Martin | Discover + Share / Missouri Botanical Garden | December 11, 2025
Missouri Botanical Garden scientists are building information and conservation infrastructure for mosses, liverworts and hornworts, groups frequently overlooked in conservation planning.
Rescuing the Forgotten Flora
| Various authors | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | October 20, 2025
A proposed native ornamental collection in Mexico examines how botanical gardens in heavily urbanized areas can combine ex situ conservation, restoration and environmental education.
Finding Flora Fit for the Front Range and Further
| Brooke Washburn | Denver Botanic Gardens | October 9, 2025
Denver Botanic Gardens describes plant trials designed to identify species capable of thriving under demanding regional soils, drought and increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions.
Collecting Data on Rare Plants to Address the Global Biodiversity Crisis
| Michelle DePrenger-Levin | Denver Botanic Gardens | September 17, 2025
Long-term demographic monitoring helps Denver scientists estimate extinction risk and understand how climate, population size and genetic diversity affect rare plants.
Ex Situ Conservation of Two Endangered West African Species
| BGCI Member | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | September 17, 2025
A botanical garden project in Côte d’Ivoire is developing propagation methods and living collections for two endangered West African plants.
The Guardians Between Plants and Extinction
| Cassidy Villeneuve | Chicago Botanic Garden | August 8, 2025
Community scientists monitoring rare plant populations provide data that land managers can use to detect declines and improve species recovery.
A Tiny Botanical Garden Is a Haven for Critically Endangered Plants
| Wiida Fourie-Basson | Nature Africa | July 28, 2025
Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden demonstrates how even a small institution can propagate critically endangered plants and support reintroduction into the wild.
Preserving Plant Species in Botanical Garden Metacollections
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | March 25, 2025
The Wollemi pine and other threatened plants illustrate how coordinated collections across multiple botanical gardens can provide insurance against extinction.
A Rude Awakening
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | January 27, 2025
BGCI examines evidence that threatened plants remain insufficiently prioritized across global botanical-garden living collections despite accelerating extinction risks.
Conserving Threatened Species
| Michelle DePrenger-Levin | Denver Botanic Gardens | December 11, 2024
Denver researchers test transplantation techniques for a federally listed Penstemon, showing how botanical science can inform mitigation and species recovery.
Saving Plants from Extinction with Groundbreaking Technology
| Missouri Botanical Garden | Missouri Botanical Garden | December 10, 2024
A major herbarium-digitisation project will use artificial intelligence to accelerate species identification and make millions of specimens accessible for conservation research.
How a Desert Garden Is Saving South Africa’s Endangered Plants
| Liezl Human | Mail & Guardian | November 9, 2024
South Africa’s Richtersveld Desert Botanical Garden serves as a living bank for rare succulents threatened by poaching, mining, overgrazing and climate change.
Conservation of the Threatened Rytigynia ruwenzoriensis
| BGCI Member | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | October 1, 2024
Propagation observations from Uganda demonstrate how botanical institutions can develop practical knowledge needed to conserve poorly studied threatened plants.
Rare and Extinct: Threatened Plants Displayed at Kew
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | August 27, 2024
Kew used its living collections to expose visitors to species that are critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable or already extinct in the wild.
Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden: Biodiversity Conservation in a Tropical Arboretum
| Various authors | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | July 10, 2024
Research on Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden examines how a major tropical living collection supports biodiversity conservation, scientific research and environmental education.
Botanic Gardens in Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainability
| Katja Neves | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | May 31, 2024
A broad review traces botanical gardens from colonial and scientific origins toward modern roles in biodiversity conservation, sustainability and social engagement.
Biodiversity Conservation Through Botanical Gardens and Reserves
| Shelly | Redshine Archive | May 15, 2024
The review discusses botanical gardens as repositories of biodiversity that contribute to species preservation, research, habitat restoration, education and sustainable development.
Dinosaur Tree Plantings Launch a New Era in Conifer Conservation
| Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | RBGE | May 7, 2024
Genetically diverse Wollemi pines distributed among botanical gardens form an international metacollection designed to reduce extinction risk.
World’s Botanical Garden Leaders Share Conservation Strategies for the Future
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | October 9, 2023
Botanical-garden leaders meeting in St. Louis developed collective strategies for preventing plant extinctions and supporting the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.
Genomic Research Guiding the Recovery of Threatened Flora
| Botanic Gardens of Sydney | Botanic Gardens of Sydney | September 2023
Conservation genomics is being used to manage fragmented populations, create living insurance collections and improve recovery planning for threatened Australian plants.
Ex Situ Conservation of Plant Diversity Status and Suggestions for Botanical Gardens in Guangdong Province
| Shiyu Li et al. | Biodiversity Science | June 21, 2023
Researchers evaluate Guangdong’s botanical-garden collections and propose a coordinated regional network for threatened-species conservation.
Role of Endemism in Determining Introduction Success of Rare and Threatened Species
| Sergei Volis et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | April 12, 2023
A study of 100 threatened plants grown at Tashkent Botanical Garden examines why some rare species adapt successfully to cultivation while others fail.
Vascular Plant Diversity Conserved in Botanic Gardens of China
| Lisong Wang et al. | Biodiversity Science | January 13, 2023
Researchers assess protected, threatened and endemic Chinese plants maintained across botanical-garden collections.
Botanical Gardens as Conservation Networks for Threatened Plants
BGCI’s international journal documents botanical-garden conservation projects involving living collections, seed banks, ecological restoration and public engagement.
Endangered Plants Unlike Anything Else on Earth Prioritised for Conservation Action
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | October 7, 2022
Kew and ZSL identify evolutionarily distinctive threatened gymnosperms whose loss would erase unusually large amounts of evolutionary history.
Collaborative Conservation by Botanical Gardens: Unique Opportunities for Local to Global Impacts
| Aireona B. Raschke et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | September 19, 2022
Desert Botanical Garden programs demonstrate how gardens can coordinate pollinator conservation, endangered-plant protection and regional ecological partnerships.
Botanical Gardens and Ex Situ Conservation of Wild Plant Species
| Xiangying Wen and Hongfeng Chen | Biodiversity Science | January 29, 2022
The review examines botanical gardens as a major component of ex situ conservation systems and discusses strategies for improving the protection of wild plant diversity.
Ex Situ Conservation of Threatened Higher Plants in Chinese Botanical Gardens
| Various authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2022
An analysis of 52 Chinese botanical gardens found more than 1,700 threatened species in cultivation but identified major taxonomic and geographic conservation gaps.
The Role of Urban Tropical Botanic Gardens in Biodiversity Conservation
| Eric Boateng Acheampong et al. | Biotropica | April 21, 2021
Ghana’s KNUST Botanic Garden retains diverse native vegetation and threatened species despite intense surrounding urbanization.
Botanic Garden Solutions to the Plant Extinction Crisis
| Murphy Westwood et al. | Plants, People, Planet | 2021
The authors argue that botanical gardens should become a much larger global force for preventing plant extinction through conservation science, horticulture and public engagement.
Rare Species Perform Worse Than Widespread Species Under Changed Climate
| Various authors | Biological Conservation | June 2020
Transplant experiments across Swiss botanical gardens suggest geographically rare plants can be especially vulnerable when moved into unfamiliar climatic conditions.
Tackling the Invisibility of Botanic Garden Agency in Biodiversity Conservation
| Various authors | Geoforum | January 2019
The study examines the growing social and public-engagement roles botanical gardens have adopted as part of modern biodiversity conservation.
Ex Situ Conservation of Plant Diversity in the World’s Botanic Gardens
| Ross Mounce, Paul Smith and Samuel Brockington | Nature Plants | September 25, 2017
A landmark global analysis finds botanical gardens hold roughly 30 percent of known plant species and more than 40 percent of threatened species.
Seed Banking, Cryopreservation, and Genetic Resources
Seed Banking
| Singapore Botanic Gardens | National Parks Board Singapore | April 24, 2026
Singapore Botanic Gardens describes its seed bank for conserving Southeast Asian plant diversity through drying, cold storage, viability testing, research and regional collaboration.
Kew Gardens’ First Corpse Flower of 2026
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | April 22, 2026
The endangered titan arum illustrates why living botanical collections are indispensable for species whose seeds cannot be preserved using conventional seed-bank techniques.
Growing the Seed Bank One Freezer at a Time
| University of Washington Botanic Gardens | UW Botanic Gardens | April 16, 2026
The Miller Seed Vault’s collection of rare Washington plants shows how regional botanical gardens are increasingly becoming infrastructure for restoration and extinction prevention.
Supporting Seed Banks at the Missouri Botanical Garden
| Missouri Botanical Garden | Discover + Share | November 7, 2025
Missouri Botanical Garden explains how its expanding seed bank contributes to a worldwide effort to preserve native and threatened plant diversity.
New BGjournal Issue: Seed Banking for the Future of Biodiversity Conservation
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | August 26, 2025
A special issue examines seed banking across botanical institutions and its growing importance for threatened species, restoration and long-term biodiversity security.
2024 Seed Conservation Awardees
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | August 28, 2024
International seed-conservation awards recognize botanical institutions that protect threatened, useful and difficult-to-conserve plants.
Sowing a Secure Future: Belgium’s New Ark to Nurture Biodiversity
| Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT | EurekAlert! | May 23, 2024
Meise Botanic Garden opened expanded seed-banking facilities intended to protect wild plants, crop diversity and genetic resources needed for future food security.
2024 Seed Conservation Awards: Call for Nominations
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | April 2, 2024
The Global Seed Conservation Challenge highlights botanical gardens working beyond their boundaries to collect and safeguard threatened plant seeds.
Funds to Preserve Global Plant Biodiversity Awarded to Five Botanic Gardens
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | February 15, 2024
The Global Genome Initiative for Gardens supports botanical institutions collecting and banking tissue samples to preserve genomic plant diversity for future research.
Noah’s Ark for Plants Hits 40,000 Species at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | March 10, 2023
Kew announced that more than 40,000 wild plant species and 2.4 billion individual seeds had been secured in its global seed-conservation program.
New Native Seed Report Supported by the Chicago Botanic Garden and Collaborators
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | February 8, 2023
A national report argues that ecological restoration requires a much larger and more reliable supply of genetically diverse native plant seed.
Climate Change and Ex Situ Conservation of Recalcitrant-Seeded Species
| Various authors | Frontiers in Forests and Global Change | 2023
Species whose seeds cannot tolerate conventional storage depend heavily on botanical-garden living collections, cryopreservation and other specialized conservation techniques.
Australian PlantBank Research: Rainforest Seed Conservation Program
| Botanic Gardens of Sydney | Annual Report 2022–23 | 2023
Australian PlantBank research focuses on conserving rainforest species whose seeds cannot always survive conventional drying and freezing.
Seed Banking and the Conservation of Threatened Southeast Asian Flora
| Singapore Botanic Gardens | Gardenwise | 2023
Singapore’s botanical research programs illustrate how seed banking and living collections support tropical plant conservation and regional scientific collaboration.
South Australian Seeds Set for Conservation Success
| Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium | Government of South Australia | October 13, 2022
Adelaide Botanic Garden established a threatened-plant seed orchard to multiply rare species and provide material for reintroduction into the wild.
Establishing the National Seed Bank of Wales
| Kevin McGinn | Sibbaldia | June 1, 2022
The National Botanic Garden of Wales explains how a relatively small institution developed professional facilities for collecting, storing and restoring native Welsh flora.
BGCI and Terraformation Launch Seed-Bank Partnership
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | January 28, 2022
A partnership seeks to establish seed banks in regions lacking capacity to supply native plants for large-scale ecosystem restoration.
The Unique Role of Seed Banking and Cryobiotechnologies in Plant Conservation
| Christina Walters and Valerie Pence | Plants, People, Planet | 2021
Seed banking, tissue culture and cryogenic storage together allow botanical institutions to conserve species that cannot survive conventional freezer storage.
Conserving Orthodox Seeds of Globally Threatened Plants in the Millennium Seed Bank
| Various authors | Biodiversity and Conservation | 2020
A detailed evaluation of threatened-species collections at Kew examines seed quantity, viability, geographic representation and long-term conservation quality.
The Contribution of Botanic Gardens to Ex Situ Conservation Through Seed Banking
| Katherine O’Donnell and Suzanne Sharrock | Plant Diversity | December 2017
A global assessment shows hundreds of botanical gardens operate seed banks and collectively store thousands of threatened plant taxa.
Securing Conservation Seed Collections of Rare Plants in California and the Channel Islands
| Santa Barbara Botanic Garden | Santa Barbara Botanic Garden | 2016–ongoing
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden maintains millions of seeds from rare California plants and uses population monitoring and seed banking to support recovery and restoration.
Living Collections, Ex Situ Conservation, and Horticulture
Off the Scale! Kew Gardens’ Giant Waterlilies Hold 102kg in 2026 Waterlily Weigh-Off
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | August 19, 2026
Kew’s giant Victoria waterlilies demonstrate the horticultural expertise required to maintain extraordinary living plant collections and highlight international cooperation among botanical gardens.
Cambridge University Botanic Garden Publishes Its Living Collections Manual
| Cambridge University Botanic Garden | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | March 12, 2026
Cambridge documents how nearly 8,000 cultivated taxa are managed to support research, teaching, conservation, public engagement and botanical heritage.
Unlocking the Global Potential of Living Plant Collections
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | January 9, 2026
Researchers call for interoperable global data systems so the enormous scientific and conservation value of botanical-garden living collections can be more fully used.
Garden Horticulturists Explore and Collect Endangered Plants of the Chihuahuan Desert
| Jessika Eidson | Discover + Share / Missouri Botanical Garden | September 18, 2025
Missouri Botanical Garden horticulturists collected rare desert plants to strengthen living collections, study cultivation requirements and distribute conservation material among institutions.
Establishment of the First Orchidarium in Serbia
| Mirjana Ljubojević et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | July 22, 2025
Serbia’s first orchidarium is presented as an ex situ conservation strategy for maintaining vulnerable native orchid genetic resources.
A Framework for Long-Term Environmental Monitoring Using Living Plant Collections
| Yajima et al. | Plants, People, Planet | 2025
A global review argues that botanical-garden living collections are underused for long-term environmental and climate monitoring and describes the Witness Tree Project.
Cacti in Distress: How to Enhance Ex Situ Conservation Strategies Through Living Collections
| Various authors | Oryx | September 2024
Researchers examine how botanical-garden collections of threatened cacti can be managed more strategically to preserve genetic diversity and improve conservation outcomes.
Planting for the Future: Conservation Horticulture Blossoms at Symposium
| Gary A. Krupnick | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | July 2024
A Smithsonian symposium examines how horticultural expertise, living collections and propagation can be deliberately applied to threatened-plant conservation.
The Arnold Arboretum’s Campaign for the Living Collections
Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum provides a case study in building scientifically valuable living collections through strategic acquisition and long-term planning.
Insights from a Century of Data Reveal Global Trends in Ex Situ Living Plant Collections
| Various authors | Nature Ecology & Evolution | 2024
A century of accession records from botanical institutions reveals the enormous turnover, management demands and conservation potential of living plant collections.
Living Collections of Threatened Plants in Botanic Gardens
| Sergei Volis | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | May 20, 2023
Experience from Tashkent Botanical Garden raises important questions about when conventional ex situ cultivation is effective and when quasi-in-situ approaches may provide better conservation outcomes.
Plant Collections for Conservation and Restoration: Can They Be Adapted and Adaptable?
| Jason Bragg et al. | Molecular Ecology Resources | 2022/2023
Conservation geneticists examine how botanical and restoration collections can preserve diversity while also including traits that improve resilience to future climates.
Modern Botanical Gardens as Research and Conservation Institutions
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | 2023
BGCI resources document the transformation of botanical gardens from primarily display institutions into centers of research, conservation and ecological restoration.
Growing Roses Without Chemicals at Auckland Botanic Gardens
| Emma Bodley et al. | Sibbaldia | 2022
Long-term trials show how public gardens can reduce chemical use while maintaining major ornamental living collections.
Parasitic Plant Cultivation: Examples, Lessons Learned and Future Directions
| Chris Thorogood et al. | Sibbaldia | 2022
Botanical horticulturists review methods for cultivating difficult parasitic plants that are often poorly represented in living collections.
Ex Situ Species Conservation: Predicting Plant Survival in Botanic Gardens Based on Climatic Provenance
| Various authors | Biological Conservation | 2021
Climate-of-origin data can help botanical gardens predict which wild-collected plants are most likely to survive in a particular living collection.
Ex Situ Conservation in Botanical Gardens: Challenges and Scientific Potential
| Zsófia Kovács et al. | Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca | 2021
A review examines genetic change, phenotypic adaptation and other challenges affecting the conservation value of cultivated wild plants.
Conservation Metacollections for Exceptional Plant Species
| Various authors | Conservation Biology | 2021
Coordinated living collections across multiple botanical institutions could preserve more genetic diversity than isolated single-garden collections.
Ex Situ Cultivation Impacts on Plant Traits and Drought Stress Response
| Various authors | Biological Conservation | August 2020
Experimental evidence shows that long-term cultivation can alter traits and stress responses, creating challenges for conservation collections.
Ex Situ Collections and Their Potential for the Restoration of Extinct Plants
| Thomas Abeli et al. | Conservation Biology | April 2020
A review finds several cases where botanical-garden and seed-bank material helped restore species extinct in the wild, while emphasizing genetic and ecological limitations.
Ex Situ Collections and Their Potential for Restoration of Extinct Plants
| Thomas Abeli et al. | Conservation Biology | July 22, 2019
Botanical gardens, herbaria and germplasm banks may sometimes provide the only surviving material from species lost in nature.
How Cultivation in Botanic Gardens Can Change Genetic and Phenotypic Status
| Andreas Ensslin and Sandrine Godefroid | Sibbaldia | February 5, 2019
Long-term cultivation can cause genetic erosion, adaptation or hybridization, requiring careful management of conservation collections.
The Challenge for Botanic Garden Science
| Paul Smith | Plants, People, Planet | December 4, 2018
Botanical gardens collectively grow roughly one-third of known plant species, giving their collections exceptional potential for addressing biodiversity loss and global environmental challenges.
Conservation Utility of Botanic Garden Living Collections
| Sergei Volis | Plant Diversity | December 2017
The paper argues that conservation collections should maintain genetically representative populations rather than simply one or two display specimens per species.
The Role of Botanic Gardens in Ex Situ Conservation
| Paul Smith and Valerie Pence | Cambridge University Press | August 30, 2017
A major synthesis examines seed banking, cryopreservation, living collections and other tools botanical gardens use to conserve plants outside their natural habitats.
Ecological Restoration, Native Plants, and Landscape Conservation
Early Seed Production Observed in Glyphaea brevis in a Young Ugandan Miyawaki Forest
| BGCI Member | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | May 14, 2026
A restoration experiment in Uganda shows how botanical institutions can combine native-plant propagation, ecological restoration and seed production to rebuild degraded ecosystems.
Prairie Restoration: Saving One of the World’s Most Threatened Ecosystems in Our Backyard
| Missouri Botanical Garden | Discover + Share | January 15, 2026
Missouri Botanical Garden’s Shaw Nature Reserve demonstrates how botanical institutions can restore highly depleted native ecosystems rather than limiting conservation to garden boundaries.
Nurturing Nature Initiative: Rooted Locally, Reaching Globally
| Emma Grover | New York Botanical Garden | August 13, 2025
NYBG describes a global effort to mobilize botanical gardens as local centers for restoration, biodiversity conservation and plant-based climate resilience.
Wakehurst’s American Prairie at Five Years
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | August 5, 2025
Wakehurst’s experimental prairie combines public display with research into climate-resilient planting and awareness of one of North America’s most depleted ecosystems.
Can a Wasteland Become a Garden?
| Cassidy Villeneuve | Chicago Botanic Garden | August 2, 2025
Chicago Botanic Garden researchers explore whether highly altered landscapes can become sites for restoration and recovery of rare native plants.
Global Survey of Botanical Gardens’ Role in Ecological Restoration
| BGCI and NYBG | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | July 23, 2025
BGCI and NYBG seek to document how botanical gardens already contribute to ecological restoration and how their expertise could be deployed at larger scales.
Chicago Botanic Garden Scientists Save Local Plant Species One Seed at a Time
| Donnisa Edmonds | Medill Reports | June 4, 2025
Independent reporting examines the Dixon National Tallgrass Prairie Seed Bank and Chicago Botanic Garden’s work safeguarding plants for conservation and restoration.
Seven Hot Gardening Trends for 2025
| James McGuire | Chicago Botanic Garden | January 29, 2025
Chicago Botanic Garden experts discuss native plants, sustainable seed sourcing and nature-focused gardening practices that link home horticulture with wider biodiversity goals.
How Can an Urban Botanical Garden in a Densely Built-Up Landscape Develop Sustainably with Urban Renewal?
Shanghai Botanical Garden provides a case study of how botanical gardens can function as ecological cores while adapting to intense urban development and renewal.
Harnessing the Power of African Native Trees for Climate Action and Food Security
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | March 13, 2024
A regional initiative involving Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burkina Faso seeks to expand supplies of genetically appropriate native-tree seed for restoration.
BiodiverseCity St. Louis: An Initiative of the Missouri Botanical Garden
| Various authors | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 2024
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s urban biodiversity initiative connects conservation science with community partnerships, ecological restoration, native plants and public participation.
Seed to Forest Alliance Update
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | December 16, 2022
The Seed to Forest Alliance addresses shortages of native-tree seed that limit efforts to restore diverse forests at large scales.
Reversing Tree Diversity Decline: Why We Need All the Species We’ve Got
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | November 21, 2022
The article argues that reforestation must protect tree diversity rather than relying on a small number of commercially convenient species.
Botanic Gardens Should Lead the Way to Create a “Garden Earth” in the Anthropocene
| Charles H. Cannon and Chai-Shian Kua | Plant Diversity | December 2017
The authors argue that botanical expertise in cultivation, restoration and species management can help societies build more diverse and ecologically functional landscapes.
Climate Change, Urban Ecology, and Resilience
Kew Gardens Sees Best Spring of the Last Decade
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | April 20, 2026
Decades of flowering observations at Kew demonstrate how botanical gardens function as long-term monitoring sites for biological responses to climate change.
RBG Kew Retail to Become Peat-Free
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | December 17, 2025
Kew’s move away from peat illustrates how botanical gardens can apply their conservation mission to horticultural operations and consumer practices.
Kew Opens New Carbon Garden
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | July 24, 2025
Kew’s Carbon Garden uses thousands of plants and interpretive design to explain the carbon cycle and the potential of plants and fungi in climate action.
Why Botanical Gardens Are Key to Climate Resilience
| Emma Grover | New York Botanical Garden | July 2, 2025
Botanical gardens combine living collections, seed banks, taxonomic expertise, restoration knowledge and public engagement in ways that can make them important climate-resilience hubs.
Climate-Controlled Conservation: Remaking the Botanical Metropolis of the World
Research at Kew examines how greenhouses, artificial environments and climate-control technologies have shaped the history and future of ex situ plant conservation.
The First Botanical Garden: A Technical Design for a Sustainable City in Arequipa, Peru
| María Elizabeth Bejarano Meza et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | March 8, 2025
Researchers propose a botanical garden for arid Arequipa that would conserve hundreds of native and endemic species while supporting urban sustainability.
NYBG Partners with BGCI in Finding Solutions for Climate Resiliency
| Cosette Patterson | New York Botanical Garden | February 11, 2025
NYBG and BGCI are developing a network that connects plant conservation, restoration expertise and botanical collections with broader climate-resilience planning.
Assessing the Vulnerability of Urban Tree Species to Climate Change
| Various authors | Urban Forestry & Urban Greening | 2025
Researchers use inventories from Lisbon parks and botanical gardens to evaluate which tree species may become unsuitable as the city’s climate changes.
2025 Highlights at Kew Gardens and Wakehurst
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | December 5, 2024
Kew previews projects involving trees, the Millennium Seed Bank, climate education, horticulture and a new Carbon Garden.
Planting for the Future: More Than Half of Kew’s Trees Could Be at Risk
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | July 22, 2024
Climate modeling of Kew’s extensive tree collection suggests many familiar species may become unsuitable, requiring more diverse and climate-resilient future plantings.
Half of Kew Tree Species at Risk of Death Owing to Climate Crisis
| Helena Horton | The Guardian | July 22, 2024
Climate projections suggest that large portions of Kew’s historic tree collection may become unsuitable for London’s future climate, forcing botanical gardens to rethink long-term planting strategies.
Menu of Climate Adaptation Actions for Botanical Gardens
| BGCI Member | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | March 19, 2024
An international project seeks practical climate-adaptation strategies that botanical gardens of different sizes and resource levels can use.
Urban Heat Mitigation by Green and Blue Infrastructure
| Various authors | The Innovation | March 4, 2024
A large systematic review found botanical gardens among the most effective forms of urban green infrastructure for reducing extreme heat.
Purposing Plants to Combat Extreme Urban Weather Events
| Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | RBGE | February 26, 2024
Edinburgh launched research using its botanical gardens as living laboratories for identifying plants capable of reducing heat, flooding and pollinator decline.
Botanical Gardens ‘Most Effective’ Green Space at Cooling Streets in Heatwaves
| Damien Gayle | The Guardian | February 23, 2024
Reporting on global research finds botanical gardens can produce unusually strong urban cooling effects compared with many other types of green infrastructure.
Quantifying the Carbon Stocks in Urban Trees: The Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden as an Important Tropical Carbon Sink
| Bruno Coutinho Kurtz et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 2024
Measurements from Rio’s botanical garden demonstrate that mature living collections can store substantial quantities of carbon while providing biodiversity and cultural benefits.
Plant Evaluations for Living Roofs in Auckland, New Zealand
| Emma Bodley, Robyn Simcock and Rebecca Stanley | Sibbaldia | 2022
Auckland Botanic Gardens research tests plant species for green roofs, linking botanical horticulture with climate-resilient urban infrastructure.
Using Botanic Gardens and Arboreta to Help Identify Urban Trees for the Future
| Andrew D. Hirons et al. | Plants, People, Planet | 2021
Living collections provide experimental material for identifying trees capable of surviving drought, climate change and emerging urban stresses.
Botanical Gardens as Global Climate Research Networks
| Richard B. Primack et al. | New Phytologist | 2021
Botanical gardens offer replicated collections, historical records and diverse species that make them powerful sites for detecting biological responses to climate change.
Climate-Smart Urban Trees from Botanical Collections
| Andrew D. Hirons et al. | Plants, People, Planet | 2021
Research using botanical-garden collections shows how physiological traits can guide selection of more drought-resilient trees for future cities.
Using Botanic Gardens and Arboreta to Identify Urban Trees for the Future
| American Public Gardens Association | APGA | November 9, 2020
Public gardens can act as experimental networks for evaluating which tree species are likely to tolerate future urban climate conditions.
Changes in the Bee Fauna of a German Botanical Garden
| Various authors | Oecologia | 2018
Two decades of observations at Munich Botanical Garden reveal increasing numbers of warmth-adapted bee species consistent with regional climate warming.
Sowing Common Ground: Botanical Gardens Tell the Story of Climate Change
| Eva Botkin-Kowacki | Christian Science Monitor | September 25, 2017
Botanical gardens use demonstration plantings and living collections to make climate-change impacts visible and understandable to ordinary visitors.
Plant Collection “Half-Life”: Can Botanic Gardens Weather the Climate?
| M. Patrick Griffith et al. | Curator: The Museum Journal | 2017
Research at Montgomery Botanical Center explores how collection turnover and sea-level rise may reshape botanical living collections over the coming century.
Research, Taxonomy, Data, AI, and Monitoring
AI and Digitisation Transform Fight Against Global Extinction
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | June 16, 2026
Kew’s State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report examines how digitisation, artificial intelligence and botanical collections are transforming research and conservation.
Living Collections and Data in Botanic Gardens
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | April 15, 2026
BGjournal examines how data standards, documentation and international databases can make botanical-garden living collections more valuable for science and conservation.
NYBG Science Year in Review: 2025
| Cosette Patterson | New York Botanical Garden | January 9, 2026
NYBG reviews work on climate resilience, food-plant conservation, artificial intelligence, herbarium digitisation, species discovery and ecosystem restoration.
2025 New Species Round Up
| Matthew Pace | New York Botanical Garden | January 9, 2026
NYBG scientists described dozens of previously unknown species in 2025, illustrating the continuing importance of botanical gardens and herbaria in documenting biodiversity.
Zombie Fungi and Bloodstained Orchids: New Species of 2025
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | January 8, 2026
Kew highlights newly described plants and fungi while emphasizing the connection between taxonomic discovery, botanical collections and extinction prevention.
Seeing the Light: Hyperspectral Scanning of Herbarium Specimens
| Catherine Martin | Discover + Share / Missouri Botanical Garden | November 26, 2025
Hyperspectral scanning and artificial intelligence could unlock new taxonomic, ecological and conservation information from millions of preserved botanical specimens.
Living Collections and Data in Botanic Gardens: Call for Articles
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | October 17, 2025
BGCI highlights growing interest in how botanical gardens document collections and use collection data for conservation, research, education and institutional planning.
New Insights into the Evolution of Tropical Asian Rainforests
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | March 13, 2025
Kew researchers combine fossils, DNA and botanical collections to reconstruct rainforest evolution and provide evidence useful for conservation prioritization.
In Photos: 2024 at the Missouri Botanical Garden
| Missouri Botanical Garden | Discover + Share | December 31, 2024
A year-end review highlights orchid conservation, rare-plant partnerships, living collections, botanical research and public engagement at Missouri Botanical Garden.
Top 10 Plant and Fungal Species Named New to Science in 2024
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | December 19, 2024
Kew scientists highlight newly described plants and fungi, many already facing habitat destruction and other threats before they are fully understood.
Sex Determination of South Africa’s Encephalartos: A Conservation Perspective
| James A.R. Clugston et al. | South African Journal of Botany | September 2024
Genetic sex identification in cycads at Kirstenbosch could improve management and reproductive planning for botanical-garden collections of highly threatened species.
Botanic Garden Scientists Solve a Prickly Problem
| Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | August 21, 2024
Botanical-garden expertise contributed to international genetic research identifying a common mechanism controlling prickles across widely separated groups of plants.
Outside the Cabinet and into the Garden: Vicki Funk’s Legacy
| Morgan Gostel | Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History | July 2024
The Smithsonian explores the close relationship between herbaria, living plant collections and botanical gardens in advancing research, conservation and education.
Kew Scientists Predict the Extinction Risk for All the World’s Plants with AI
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | March 5, 2024
Artificial intelligence was used to estimate extinction risk across more than 328,000 flowering plants, providing botanical gardens and conservationists with a new prioritization tool.
State of the World’s Plants and Fungi 2023
| Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh | RBGE | October 10, 2023
Edinburgh scientists discuss international research showing accelerating threats to global plant and fungal biodiversity.
Scientists Take the First Steps to Resurrect Extinct Plant Species
| BGCI Member | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | February 22, 2023
Botanical researchers develop a framework for determining which extinct-in-the-wild plants might be recoverable using herbarium and ex situ material.
Top 10 Plant and Fungal Species Named New to Science in 2023
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | 2023
Kew scientists describe newly identified plants and fungi while warning that many species are threatened even before science formally recognizes them.
Ex Situ Surveys Identify Gaps in Botanical-Garden Collections
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | 2023
PlantSearch data can reveal threatened plants absent from botanical gardens or represented in too few collections to provide meaningful protection.
Functional Traits Influence Patterns in Vegetative and Reproductive Plant Phenology
| Various authors | New Phytologist | 2022
Data from multiple botanical gardens show how plant traits help explain differences in flowering, growth and seasonal timing under changing climates.
The Growing and Vital Role of Botanical Gardens in Climate Change Research
| Richard B. Primack et al. | New Phytologist | May 30, 2021
A major review explains how botanical gardens provide long-term records, standardized collections, replicated observations and public engagement opportunities uniquely suited to climate-change research.
The PhenObs Initiative
| Birgit Nordt et al. | Functional Ecology | January 7, 2021
An international network of botanical gardens establishes standardized monitoring of flowering, leaf growth, fruiting and senescence to measure climate-change responses.
Improving Phenology Predictions Through Botanical Collections and Citizen Science
| Various authors | Environmental Data Science | 2021
Botanical-garden observations combined with citizen-science data can improve predictions for rare and understudied plant species.
The Role of Botanical Gardens in Scientific Research, Conservation, and Citizen Science
| Guangyu Chen and Weibang Sun | Plant Diversity | 2018
Botanical gardens are examined as platforms where living collections can support basic science, endangered-species conservation and citizen participation.
Education, Public Engagement, Tourism, and Social Value
Public Valuation of Multifunctional Botanical Garden Attributes
| Various authors | Sustainability | June 11, 2026
Research using South Korea’s Sejong National Arboretum examines how the public values the conservation, education, recreation, research and social functions of botanical gardens.
Learning from the Connective Power of Orchids
| Justin Kondrat | Smithsonian Magazine | March 31, 2026
A Smithsonian horticulturist reflects on three decades of collaboration with the U.S. Botanic Garden using orchid collections to connect science, horticulture, art and education.
Plants That Made Headlines in 2025
| Cassidy Villeneuve | Chicago Botanic Garden | December 18, 2025
Chicago Botanic Garden reviews notable plant stories involving orchids, fungi, naturalistic landscapes and climate-smart gardening.
Examining Tourism Valorization of Botanical Gardens
| Anđelka Štilić et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | October 21, 2025
Researchers assess botanical gardens as multifunctional tourism destinations while considering how scientific, educational and horticultural assets contribute to public value.
Botanic Gardens of Indonesia
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | October 1, 2025
Indonesia’s growing botanical-garden network illustrates how local gardens can combine conservation, research, education, tourism and ecosystem services.
Help Shape the Future of Botanic Garden Education
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | May 30, 2025
An international study examines how botanical gardens educate visitors about plants, biodiversity, sustainability and environmental challenges.
Kagera’s Botanical Garden to Help Tackle Climate Change and Support Green Tourism
| Mutayoba Arbogast | The Guardian Tanzania | January 14, 2025
A Tanzanian botanical-garden initiative links plant conservation, local microclimate benefits, biodiversity education and green tourism.
The Role of Curation in Botanic Gardens: Platforms for Environmental and Social Transition
| Various authors | The Living Lab | December 6, 2024
Botanic gardens are presented as evolving centers of knowledge whose curated living collections can support conservation, social transition, environmental education and responses to global change.
Botanic Garden Tourism, Social Value, Health, and Well-Being
The paper considers how botanical gardens can combine tourism with conservation education, public health, social value and long-term financial sustainability.
BGCI Evaluation and Impact Assessment of Botanic Gardens
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | April 17, 2024
BGCI investigates how gardens measure the effectiveness of education, interpretation, visitor engagement and public conservation programs.
You Don’t Need to Be Indoors to Enjoy a Smithsonian Museum: Try the Gardens
| Carole Ottesen / Smithsonian Books | Smithsonian Magazine | March 21, 2024
Smithsonian Gardens illustrate how urban botanical landscapes can function simultaneously as museums, educational environments, native-plant displays and models of sustainable horticulture.
Using Eye-Tracking to Create Impactful Interpretation Signage for Botanic Gardens
Eye-tracking experiments investigate how botanical gardens can design interpretive signs that visitors actually notice and use.
Educational Activities in the Ljubljana University Botanic Gardens
| Various authors | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 2024
Ljubljana University Botanic Garden illustrates how living plant collections can counter plant blindness through hands-on botanical education.
A Comprehensive Approach to Improving Endemic Plant Species Research, Conservation, and Popularization
| Various authors | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | 2023
Cooperation between the University of Pisa’s botanical garden and research laboratories demonstrates how taxonomy, seed banking, cultivation and visitor education can be integrated.
Gullele Botanic Garden, Addis Ababa: Current Status, Challenges and Opportunities
| Talemos Seta and Birhanu Belay | Sibbaldia | 2022
A profile of Ethiopia’s Gullele Botanic Garden examines its conservation collections, education role and institutional challenges.
Environmental Education Devices in the Bogor Botanical Gardens
| Various authors | EDUSAINS | June 28, 2019
Research evaluates botanical-garden educational tools designed to increase community knowledge of biodiversity conservation.
Global Networks, Policy, Funding, and Institutional Development
Global Botanic Garden Fund: Grant Application Deadlines Extended
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | June 30, 2026
Global grants help botanical gardens build seed collections, safeguard threatened species and expand conservation capacity, particularly in biodiversity hotspots and under-resourced regions.
Global Botanic Garden Fund 2026 Now Open
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | May 4, 2026
BGCI’s international grant program supports botanical gardens working on conservation, sustainability, threatened plants, institutional capacity and partnerships.
Global Botanic Garden Fund 2025 Recipients
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | September 11, 2025
Grants distributed across biodiversity-rich countries illustrate the expanding international role of botanical gardens in practical plant conservation.
Leading Through Uncertainty
| Jennifer Ramp Neale | Denver Botanic Gardens | September 11, 2025
Denver Botanic Gardens describes how research, seed collection, genetic studies and landscape restoration position botanical gardens as important conservation institutions.
Botany Fellowships: Training the Next Generation of Plant Scientists
| Missouri Botanical Garden | Discover + Share | August 18, 2025
International fellowships show how major botanical gardens contribute to conservation by training taxonomists and plant scientists from biodiversity-rich regions.
European Botanic Gardens Consortium Meeting
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | May 5, 2025
European botanical-garden networks discuss conservation strategies, material exchange, PlantSearch and implementation of international plant-conservation goals.
NYBG Science: A Year of Global Partnership and Local Action
| Cosette Patterson | New York Botanical Garden | January 24, 2025
NYBG reviews international conservation partnerships, COP16 participation, urban ecology research and efforts to make botanical gardens more central to climate resilience.
Global Partnership for Plant Conservation 2025 Conference Announcement
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | December 20, 2024
The Missouri Botanical Garden was selected to host an international conference focused on implementation of the new phase of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.
Botanic Gardens Are Vital for Delivering the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
| Stephen Blackmore | Biological Diversity | November 22, 2024
The paper argues that botanical gardens possess scientific, horticultural, conservation and public-engagement capacity essential for meeting international biodiversity targets.
Moving Toward Peace with Nature: NYBG at COP16
| Cosette Patterson | New York Botanical Garden | November 4, 2024
NYBG uses the UN Biodiversity Conference to highlight botanical gardens as centers for endangered-plant conservation, science, education and climate solutions.
2024 Forest Service Rare Plant Partnerships
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | September 18, 2024
A U.S. Forest Service partnership supports botanical gardens conducting seed banking, propagation, genetics and other conservation actions for rare plants on federal lands.
Kyiv’s Botanical Garden Staring at Disaster as Russia Targets Ukraine’s Energy Sector
| Luke Harding | The Guardian | September 15, 2024
War and energy disruptions threaten thousands of tropical and subtropical plants maintained in Kyiv’s national botanical garden, demonstrating the vulnerability of ex situ collections.
Decolonizing Botanical Gardens
| Various authors | Qualitative Research Journal | August 20, 2024
The article considers how botanical gardens can address colonial histories through collaboration, Indigenous knowledge, data sovereignty and more equitable conservation practices.
Botanic Garden Leadership in the 21st Century
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | February 14, 2024
BGCI examines the increasingly complex scientific, conservation, educational, horticultural, financial and organizational demands placed on modern botanical-garden leaders.
Padre Julio Marrero Botanic Garden of Ecuador Launches New Website
| BGCI Member | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | February 14, 2024
An Ecuadorian botanical garden focused on the Tropical Chocó demonstrates how regional institutions combine flora research, conservation and environmental education.
BGJournal: Plant Conservation and the Global Biodiversity Framework
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | February 12, 2024
Articles from botanical gardens around the world examine how institutions can contribute directly to implementation of international biodiversity commitments.
Beyond a Garden: Alignment of Sustainable Development Goals with Botanic Gardens
| Various authors | Environmental Science & Policy | February 2024
The study examines botanical gardens as institutions capable of advancing conservation, education, research, community engagement, environmental justice and Sustainable Development Goals.
Forest Service Rare Plant Partnerships 2024 Awardees Announced
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | 2024
Botanical gardens including institutions in California, Georgia and Illinois received support for orchid, alpine-plant, seed-bank and rare-species conservation projects.
Spatiotemporal Development of National Botanic Gardens Worldwide and Their Contributions to Plant Diversity Conservation from 1593 to 2023
A global historical analysis traces the growth of national botanical gardens and their increasing role in ex situ plant conservation.
National Botanical Gardens at the Forefront of Global Plant Conservation
| Hai Ren et al. | The Innovation | July 7, 2023
Researchers argue that national botanical gardens can anchor large-scale ex situ conservation systems while supporting research, education and coordinated species protection.
The Role of National Botanical Gardens to Benefit Sustainable Development
| Various authors | Trends in Plant Science | July 2023
The article examines China’s emerging national botanical-garden system as a complement to national parks and a mechanism for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.
Funds to Preserve Global Plant Biodiversity Awarded to 10 Botanic Gardens
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | April 11, 2023
International botanical gardens received funding to preserve genome-quality tissue samples from living plant collections in global biobanks.
Regional Conservation, Research, and Education: Ways Forward
| Ursula S. Bechert | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | March 17, 2023
The editorial considers how zoological and botanical institutions can use regional research, education and conservation programs to address biodiversity loss.
GardenSearch and PlantSearch as Global Conservation Infrastructure
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | 2023
Global botanical-garden databases allow institutions to identify where threatened plants are maintained and where major conservation gaps remain.
Global Botanic Garden Networks and Plant Conservation
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | 2023
International botanical-garden networks coordinate conservation expertise, living collections, seed resources and species-recovery programs across national boundaries.
The View on Functional Changes of Botanical Gardens and China’s National Botanical Garden System
| Hai Ren et al. | Biodiversity Science | April 6, 2022
The paper traces how botanical gardens evolved from medicinal and economic collections toward modern roles in conservation, science and public education.
Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens: Ex Situ Research and Conservation
| Anna Loy | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | December 5, 2020
The launch of an open-access conservation journal reflects the expanding scientific role of botanical gardens, seed banks and other ex situ institutions.
Food Plants, Ethnobotany, and Indigenous Knowledge
The International Treaty Highlights the Vital Role of Botanical Gardens
| Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew | Kew | May 14, 2026
A Kew workshop explored how botanical gardens, agricultural gene banks and policymakers can connect conserved plant diversity with food security and sustainable agriculture.
Between Conservation and Utilization: Legal Frameworks Governing Crop Wild Relatives
| Anna Rucińska et al. | Sustainability | October 22, 2025
Research involving Poland’s Botanical Garden Centre for Biological Diversity Conservation explores legal issues affecting ex situ conservation and use of wild plant genetic resources.
Survey on Food Plant Biodiversity and Botanic Gardens
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | June 17, 2024
BGCI investigates how botanical gardens conserve, research and teach the public about food plants and their wild relatives.
Co-Producing an Ethnobotanical Garden to Support the Conservation of Indigenous Crop Diversity
A collaboration with Taiwan’s Bunun community shows how ethnobotanical gardens can protect crop diversity while sustaining Indigenous ecological knowledge.
Conserving Useful Plants for a Sustainable Future
| Udayangani Liu et al. | Biodiversity and Conservation | June 19, 2023
Analysis of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank finds thousands of medicinal, food, environmental and economically useful species preserved for future research and conservation.
How Can India Leverage Its Botanic Gardens for Wild Food Plant Conservation?
| Ajay Kumar | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | November 13, 2021
India’s botanical gardens could help conserve wild food plants and the traditional ecological knowledge associated with their collection and use.
An Ethnobotanical Survey of a Dryland Botanical Garden in Kenya
| Various authors | Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine | 2020
Research at Mutomo Hill Plant Sanctuary documents medicinal-plant knowledge and illustrates the biocultural value of regional botanical gardens.
Botanic Gardens Are Important Contributors to Crop Wild Relative Preservation
| Abby Meyer et al. | Crop Science | November 1, 2019
Botanical gardens preserve wild relatives of food crops that may contain genes for disease resistance, higher yields and climate adaptation.
Biosecurity, Plant Health, Invasive Species, and Illegal Trade
Rescuing Plants from Poachers
| Marie Dillon | Chicago Botanic Garden | February 28, 2025
Chicago Botanic Garden’s care and proposed repatriation of confiscated cacti highlights the increasingly important role gardens play in confronting illegal plant trafficking.
BGjournal: Botanic Gardens and Plant Health
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | September 24, 2024
A special issue examines biosecurity, pests, pathogens and the role botanical gardens can play in detecting emerging threats to plant health.
The Importance of Botanic Gardens in Tackling the Illegal Plant Trade
| BGCI | Botanic Gardens Conservation International | September 3, 2024
BGCI examines how botanical gardens can assist with confiscated plants, conservation, public education and international responses to illegal wildlife trafficking.
The Study of Exotic and Invasive Plant Species in Gullele Botanic Garden
| Mehari Girmay et al. | Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens | January 3, 2024
Research at Ethiopia’s Gullele Botanic Garden documents invasive plants and shows why botanical institutions must manage the biosecurity risks associated with exotic collections.
