The Noah’s Ark for plants. The roles of botanic gardens in plant diversity conservation

Abstract

With continuing loss of natural habitat and climate change events underway, ex situ strategies has gained more attention as a valuable approach for plant diversity conservation. It is estimated that at least one third of all known plant species and over 40% of threatened species is conserved in botanical gardens worldwide. European seed banks as a consortium of native seed banks (ENSCONET) holds 62.7% of European threatened species. Botanical gardens house facilities including seed banks, herbaria, greenhouses, nurseries, laboratories and living plant collections as the core of ex situ resources and have immensely contributed towards the ex situ conservation of the vascular plants and therefore are described as ‘Noah’s Ark for plants’. The ex situ holdings of wild plant cover  one third of  native Polish flora and 58% of threatened plant species in Poland at an individual institutional level represented by PAS Botanical Garden Center for Biological Diversity Conservation. This paper provides an overall image of the progress of ex situ conservation implementation by single-institution and makes recommendations on integrated ex situ efforts to effective conservation of plant diversity.