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Conferenc e Proceed i ng s

Back to Eden
Challenges for Contemporary Gardens
Katowice–Ustroń–Mikołów 21st–23rd May 2011
Scientific reviewer prof. dr hab. Wiesław Włoch
Editing and proofreading: David Oldroyd
Technical editing: Paweł Mizia and Jacek Jaworski
Copyright © 2011 by Silesian Botanical Garden
Mikołów 2011
ISBN 978-83-933846-1-7

Silesian Botanical Garden


43-195 Mikołów , Sosnowa 5
Poland
www.sibg.org.pl
http://esdinsibg.wordpress.com
e-mail: sibg@sibg.org.pl
Conferenc e Proceed i ng s

Back to Eden
Challenges for Contemporary Gardens
Katowice–Ustroń–Mikołów 21st–23rd May 2011
4
Table of Contents
Introduction and Acknowledgements 7
Ex situ conservation 11
Suzanne Sharrock, Monitoring progress towards Target 8 13
of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
Albert-Dieter Stevens, The German Seed Bank Network Project 23
Seed Banking of Crop Wild Relatives
Magdalena Jałowska, FlorNaturLBG - ex situ conservation 33
of endangered and protected plant species
Włodzimierz Majtkowski and Gabriela Majtkowska, The Reconstruction 45
of Replacement Habitats in the Botanical Garden of the National Centre
of Plant Genetic Resources of Plant Breeding and Acclimatization
Institute in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Ludmila Vishnevska, Dace Klavina, Gunta Jakobsone, 53
Dagnija Šmite, Daina Roze, Signe Tomsone, J. Zilinš,
Latvian rare and endangered plants in ex situ collections
Magdalena Maślak, Maja Głowacka, Agata Śmieja, 71
Magdalena Bregin, Julia Góra, Community and species translocation
as a method of nature conservation: A case study of “Katowice” Airport
Paweł Kojs, The Silesian Botanical Garden Network – an introduction to the idea 79
Marta Jańczak, Wojciech Pikuła Department of Scientific 95
and Conservation Collections, Silesian Botanical Garden (SiBG)
Education for Sustainable Development 99
David Oldroyd, The Challenge of Education for Sustainable 101
Development in Botanical Gardens
Bogdan Ogrodnik, The botanical garden as a place for integral 113
education for sustainable development
Jacek Jaworski, Agnieszka Szyszka Department of Ecological 131
and Environmental Education of Silesian Botanical Garden
Plant Collections and Expositions 135
Jože Bavcon, Can natural plants make a horticultural surprise? Spring Bulbs. 137
Magnus Lidén, ToL – IRL (Tree of Life – In Real Life) 157
Green Katowice 163
Conference program 167

5
6
Introduction and Acknowledgements

This year for the first time the Council of Botanical Gardens in Poland had the
privilege of organizing a meeting of the European Consortium of Botanical Gardens.
The meeting arose from the initiative of Professor Jerzy Puchalski, Director of the
Polish Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden – Centre for Biodiversity Conserva-
tion in Powsin, delegate of the Council of Botanical Gardens in Poland in the Eu-
ropean Consortium of Botanical Gardens and former Chairman of the Council of
Botanical Gardens in Poland. His efforts and activity assembled eminent delegates
from botanical gardens all around Europe.
The gathering of the European Consortium of Botanical Gardens took place at
The University of Silesia in Katowice. The meeting offered a pretext to organize an
international conference “Back to Eden: Challenges for Contemporary Gardens” for
the Council of Botanical Gardens in Poland which was held in Ustroń and Mikołów
in Upper Silesia, Poland from the 21st to 23rd of May 2011.
The conference and the European Consortium of Botanical Gardens meeting
was organized under the honorary patronage of Mr. Stanisław Zalewski, Deputy
Minister of Environment, Chief Conservator of Nature in Poland.
This meeting was possible thanks to many institutions which helped us organi-
zationally and financially and would not have been possible without the financial as-
sistance of The Provincial Fund for Environment Protection and Water Management
in Katowice, the city of Katowice, the State Forest in Poland Regional Forest Admin-
istration in Katowice, the University of Silesia in Katowice, the Silesian Botanical
Garden in Mikołów and the city of Mikołów.
I would like to express my special thanks to The Provincial Fund for Environ-
ment Protection and Water Management in Katowice, the City of Katowice and the
Silesian Botanical Garden for sponsoring this publication.
I would like to express my gratitude to all participants which actively took part in
this event enriching it with their knowledge and experience.
The conference proceedings are a product of the conference “Back to Eden:
Challenges for Contemporary Gardens”. The conference was attended by 70 partici-
pants from 23 countries. The papers covered both broad strategic themes as well as
accounts of specific research and projects reflecting a wide range of challenges which
botanical gardens face and with which they are dealing within the broader interna-
tional context of nature conservation. The majority of the papers were presented in
the English language but also several in Polish using simultaneous translation. Items
relating to the region in which the conference took place are also included.
The proceedings are arranged in three sections each of which represents a chal-
lenge for contemporary gardens:
Ex situ Conservation

7
Education for Sustainable Development
Plant Collections and Expositions
I am grateful to all those participants who took the time to prepare their pa-
pers for these proceedings especially those for whom English is a second language.
I would like to express my special thanks to David Oldroyd who gave valuable sup-
port in editing those papers that needed improving to a reasonable standard of Eng-
lish. I am also grateful to Jacek Jaworski who spent many hours assembling the papers
and providing technical editing.
I also thank all our volunteers who gave help during the conference sessions
and workshops. Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues from the Silesian
Botanical Garden in Mikołów who gave unstintingly of their time to prepare materi-
als for this meeting.
The organisation of the conference was itself a major challenge to the relatively
new Silesia Botanical Garden and we trust that the following proceedings testify
to our success in meeting this challenge.

Dr. Paweł Kojs


Chairman of the Council of Botanical Gardens in Poland
Director of the Silesian Botanical Garden in Mikołów

8
9
10
Ex situ
conservation
11
12
Monitoring progress towards
Target 8 of the Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation
Suzanne Sharrock

Author note
Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Descanso House, 199 Kew Road,
Richmond, TW9 3BW, UK

Abstract
Target 8 for the GSPC called for 60% of threatened plants to be conserved in
ex situ collections by 2010. Botanic gardens are recognised as the institutions most
concerned with the ex situ conservation of wild plant diversity and, as a means to
record plants in cultivation in botanic gardens, BGCI developed the PlantSearch
database. By mid 2010, over 800 botanic gardens from 110 countries (around one
third of all known gardens) had contributed data to PlantSearch and the database
included records for 261,000 taxa related to nearly 105,000 species. PlantSearch is
linked to a number of other databases, including the IUCN Red List of threatened
plants. By comparing the data in PlantSearch with the IUCN Red List, it was
possible to identify just over 9,000 (23%), of the 40,000 known globally threatened
plant species in botanic garden collections. This indicates that there is still some way
to go to achieve Target 8 at the global level. Challenges that exist in achieving the
revised target for 2020 (75%) include increasing the rate of identification of globally
threatened species and obtaining more complete data from botanic gardens in
biodiversity-rich countries such as China, Mexico and Brazil.

Introduction
Plants are an essential part of the world’s biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems, based
on plant diversity, provide the conditions and processes that sustain life and are
essential to the well-being and livelihoods of all humankind. Despite the importance
of plants, estimates suggest that up to 100,000 species may be in danger of extinction,
and rates of loss are likely to increase as global temperatures continue to rise. Plants
are endangered by a combination of factors: over-collection, intensive agriculture
and forestry, urbanisation and other land use changes, pollution, the spread of alien
invasive species, and increasingly, climate change.
In 2002, in the face of the global plant extinction crisis, the Global Strategy
for Plant Conservation (GSPC) was adopted by the Parties to the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD). The 16 output-oriented targets of the GSPC were the
first internationally agreed targets for biodiversity conservation, and the Strategy was
therefore seen by many as a valuable pilot exercise towards the eventual wider adoption

13
of targets in other areas of the CBD’s work. Achievement of the GSPC requires
action by a broad range of stakeholders across sectors as well as implementation both
nationally and internationally.
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) played a key role in the
development and subsequent promotion and implementation of the GSPC, acting
as lead facilitating agency for the targets related to ex situ conservation (Target 8)
and education and public awareness (Target 14). Over the last eight years, the
botanic garden community as a whole has embraced the GSPC and it has provided
a clear focus for conservation action at all levels. Botanic gardens are helping to
implement all the GSPC targets, although as they retain a particular interest in the ex
situ conservation of wild plant resources, special efforts have been made towards the
implementation of GSPC Target 8.

The importance of ex situ conservation.


Ever since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, in situ conservation has been recognised as the
dominant strategy for biodiversity conservation. Ex situ conservation has therefore been
relegated to a supportive role, with the main focus being to facilitate the rehabilitation and
reintroduction of threatened species into their native habitats. However, with the threats
to biodiversity increasing and action on the ground being inadequate, a re-assessment of
the role and importance of ex situ conservation is now due.

The implications of climate change


Recent studies predict that a temperature rise of 2-3oC over the next century could
result in as many as half of the world’s plant species being threatened with extinction
(Bramwell, 2007). Ecosystems are already rapidly and demonstrably shifting as
individual species respond differently to environmental changes and the range areas
of species move (Hawkins et al., 2008). Given this, a number of protected areas may
soon no longer harbour the species for which they were originally designated and the
fixed concept of ‘natural habitats’ may be approaching meaningless for a number of
species (Pritchard and Harrop, 2009). Moreover, migration processes are jeopardised
by ongoing habitat fragmentation which inhibits the ability of species to re-colonise in
new ranges, or even adjoining areas. Given this, conservation strategies, predominated
as they are on the management of habitats and species within specific geographical
locations, need to be reviewed. As well as protecting and restoring ecosystems, increased
efforts should also be focused on ensuring that all wild plant species are backed-up in
well-documented ex situ collections as an insurance against extinction, and that such
material is available for use in research, restoration and adaptation to climate change.

Ex situ conservation
Ex situ conservation of plants –in the form of seed banks, in vitro collections, field
gene banks and the living collections of botanic gardens and arboreta – has proliferated
in recent years. For example, in the area of plant genetic resources for food and
agriculture, a mere half million samples of plant genetic material were stored in less than

14
Ex situ conservation

ten genebanks in the 1970s. This has risen to more than 7.4 million samples in more
than 1,750 gene banks in the present day (FAO, 2009). In relation to the conservation
of wild plants, the main institutions involved are botanic gardens, and the number of
such gardens has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Today their collections include
nearly 105,000 species, almost one third of all known flowering plants.

The value of living collections


Ex situ collections are vitally important as an insurance policy against extinction
in the wild. Furthermore, species held as well-documented, genetically-representative
living collections have additional value, providing material for:
• Horticultural and field-based research (propagation, growth requirements etc.);
• Propagation to remove or reduce pressure from wild harvesting;
• Taxonomic and systematic research and reference for identification;
• Display, education and community engagement activities;
• Species reintroduction and habitat restoration activities; and
• Identification of taxa for introduction into the nursery trade, local agriculture and
crop breeding programmes, amenity planting, local forestry etc.

Monitoring progress towards GSPC Target 8


Target 8 of the GSPC calls for 60% of threatened plants to be conserved ex
situ, preferably in the country of origin. Botanic gardens were recognised as the
institutions most concerned with the ex situ conservation of wild plants. However, in
2002, a global review of ex situ conservation, noted that “Botanical gardens maintain
the largest assemblage of plants species outside nature, but no overall assessment of
the diverse array has been conducted. Even though they contain a large proportion
of the world’s flora, the gardens have traditionally not been integrated, and their
holdings have been known only locally”. (Keller et al., 2002).
During the development and adoption of the GSPC, BGCI was invited to
become one of the two lead facilitating agencies for Target 8, focusing specifically
on wild plant species. In response to this, as well as to address the concerns raised by
Keller et al., the PlantSearch database was developed to record plants in cultivation in
botanic gardens. BGCI has also worked with national and regional botanic gardens
to promote the target and support its implementation.

A moving target
In 2002, when the GSPC was adopted, a consolidated list of the world’s flora did
not exist, but it was believed that the number of known flowering plants stood at around
270,000. Similarly, information on the number of threatened plants was also lacking,
but this was estimated at around one third of all species, or some 90-100,000 species. It
was therefore predicted that in order to meet Target 8, around 60,000 threatened species
would need to be included in ex situ collections, from an estimated baseline of 10,000
species. Today, the number of known flowering plants is estimated at 350,000 (Paton
et al., 2008), meaning that some 120,000 species could be under threat, and to meet

15
the target, 72,000 threatened species would need to be in ex situ collections. However,
as the IUCN Red List for plants still only includes 10,174 threatened species (IUCN,
2010), it is impossible to know which are the globally threatened species that should be
conserved. Furthermore, as the effects of climate change start to have an impact on plant
species survival in the wild, the estimate of 30% of plants being under threat may also
need to be adjusted. Against this backdrop, measuring progress presents a challenge.

PlantSearch as a monitoring tool


BGCI’s PlantSearch database is an on-line, publically accessible searchable database
of the living collections of botanic gardens around the world. Data is provided by the
participating gardens and is compiled into a single list linked to a range of other relevant
databases, including the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
PlantSearch therefore provides an efficient and publically accessible tool to monitor
the cultivation of plants – including those of conservation concern - in botanic garden
collections. While the user can rapidly determine if a particular species is included in
the combined botanic garden collections and how many gardens hold that species,
public access does not allow the actual garden location of species to be identified.

PlantSearch data
There are presently around 2,800 botanic gardens around the world. Although
many of these gardens were not originally developed as conservation organisations,
the GSPC has provided a valuable focus for developing conservation action. Since
2002, with the launch of the PlantSearch database, BGCI has used the database to
gather information on the living plant collections of botanic gardens around the world.
To date 855, or nearly one-third of all botanic gardens, from over 110 countries have
contributed data to PlantSearch. The database now includes records for 261,000 taxa,
related to nearly 105,000 species in cultivation in botanic gardens.

290000 900 No of taxa and


no. of insitutions
800
240000 providing data to
700 BGCI PlantSearch
190000 database since
600 2002
140000 500
400
90000
300
No of taxa
40000 200 No of institutions
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

Figure 1: Increase in the amount of data and number of data providers to


PlantSearch since 2002

16
Ex situ conservation

While the total number of species records in PlantSearch is impressive (647,532),


collecting data remains a challenge. Despite the anonymity of data in PlantSearch,
some gardens are still reluctant to share information on the location of rare plants in
cultivation, in case these become a target for collectors or thieves, or because of issues
related to intellectual property. Furthermore, many of the smaller, less well-resourced
gardens do not have the electronic data management systems in place to allow them
to generate plant lists in a format compatible with PlantSearch. For others, language
remains a major barrier to contributing data to a database, which is presently only
available in English.
Collating the data also presents a challenge and over recent years, BGCI has
devoted increasing efforts to removing duplicate and misspelt plant names and
liaising with botanic gardens to clarify plant nomenclature issues.

Meeting the target – global assessments


Monitoring progress towards Target 8 at the global level is constrained by the
lack of progress in plant conservation assessments. Less than 4% of the world’s
known plant species have been assessed using the internationally accepted criteria
established by the IUCN in 2001 (IUCN, 2010) although a somewhat larger
number had previously been assessed (Walter and Gillett, 1998). In the absence of
a comprehensive list of globally threatened plants, measurements of progress towards
Target 8 are necessarily based on estimates and extrapolation.
Using the data that is available however, we can at least develop a reliable baseline
for moving forward. Some 40,000 plant species have so far been recorded as globally
threatened (Walter and Gillett, 1998 and IUCN, 2010). Of these, just over 9,000 are
recorded in cultivation in botanic gardens. This means that at the global level, at least
23% of globally threatened plant species are known to be in the ex situ collections of
the world’s botanic gardens, clearly indicating that Target 8 has not yet been achieved
globally. However, as noted above, this figure must be treated with caution and it is
possible that significantly more of the species recorded in PlantSearch may prove to
be globally threatened when further assessments are carried out.
Furthermore, a much more encouraging picture emerges when national and
regional efforts are taken into account. Mega-diverse countries such as China,
Brazil and Mexico have set national targets for ex situ conservation which reflect
Target 8, and are progressing well towards these targets. These three countries
collectively hold at least 25% of the world’s plant diversity, and many of their
species are endemic. Little of the data for ex situ collections in these countries
is so far included in PlantSearch. Once this data is combined with the global list,
the figure for globally threatened plant species in ex situ collections will be much
higher than 23%.
Increasing the amount of data provided by botanic gardens to PlantSearch is also
an important factor in being able to accurately assess progress towards the target.
A recent focus on North America by BGCI resulted in a 5-fold increase in the number

17
of institutions providing data. Similar initiatives in other countries, such as Russia
and Indonesia, where BGCI has worked closely with botanic garden networks, have
also yielded further increases in data.

The importance of having a target


Progress towards the implementation of any target can be monitored not only in
terms of the degree to which the target itself has been met, but also in assessing the
impact the existence of the target has had on stimulating and catalysing action. In the
case of Target 8, it is clear that major progress has been made and advances achieved
that were unlikely without the adoption of the target. Setting the target has brought
botanic gardens together around a common cause at both global and national levels.
It has provided a framework for action at various levels, as well as a reference point
for monitoring progress. It has also helped to shape expectations and to stimulate
a more focused approach to plant conservation, highlighting those species that
require urgent action. It has stimulated botanic gardens to think critically about their
plant collections and examine the conservation value of such collections, and has
resulted in the development of a range of tools, manuals and best practice examples
to guide ex situ conservation practice in the future (e.g. ENSCONET, 2009; Offord
and Meagher, 2009). Finally, it has provided a much-needed entry-point for botanic
gardens to engage with the wider biodiversity conservation agenda and for their work
to be recognised as an important contribution to the implementation of the CBD as
a whole.

Conclusions
There is clearly still much work to be done to achieve Target 8 at the global level.
However, our review indicates that despite this, Target 8 has been successful in many
ways, most notably in mobilizing botanic gardens and stimulating conservation
action at the national level in many countries.
BGCI’s PlantSearch database, developed as a direct response to Target 8, is now
in place and increasingly being used in a variety of ways. It has been shown to provide
an efficient tool for measuring progress towards Target 8 with respect to the living
collections of botanic gardens. Resources are now being sought to further develop
the database, improving its compatibility with regional and national databases and
to increase the capacity of individual gardens to exchange data through BGCI.
Furthermore, seed bank data is presently not routinely included in PlantSearch and
this needs to be addressed to ensure such collections are included in future ex situ
assessments.
Without knowing how many and which species are under threat, monitoring
progress towards Target 8 at the global level will continue to be challenging. There is
therefore a need to accelerate the process of plant red listing – with particular attention
being paid to socio-economically important plants, such as medicinal plants and crop
wild relatives, as well as woody species necessary for forest restoration and carbon
sequestration projects around the world. Moreover, as the impacts of climate change

18
Ex situ conservation

accelerate, priority for ex situ conservation should also be given to species that are
potentially vulnerable, even if these are not yet considered threatened.
Target 8 consists of two elements –“60% of threatened species in ex situ
collections” and “10% of these in recovery and restoration programmes”. Monitoring
the second part of Target 8 has proved to be a greater challenge than the first part,
and relatively little progress has been made to date. However, as the GSPC enters its
second phase and greater attention is focused on the urgent need to restore the world’s
degraded ecosystems, BGCI will be giving priority to promoting and monitoring this
vitally important component of the target.
Furthermore, an analysis of the data indicates that of the 9,000 or so globally
threatened species that are in botanic garden collections, around one-third are
to be found in only one garden. If ex situ collections are considered an ‘insurance
policy’, questions must be asked if single-location collections are sufficiently secure.
In these cases particularly, it will be important to know how genetically diverse and
representative these collections are.
The proposed updated Target 8 for 2020 calls for “At least 75% of threatened
plant species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least
20% available for recovery and restoration programmes”. Genetically representative
collections are essential if they are to be used for recovery and restoration work.
The focus and challenge for the coming decade must therefore surely be not
only to increase the number of threatened plants in ex situ collections, but also
on assessing and ensuring the conservation value of such collections. Working
collectively, botanic gardens are stepping up their efforts to ensure a future for the
world’s plant diversity.

References
• Bramwell, D., 2007. The response of botanic gardens to climate change. BGjournal
4(2): 3-8.
• ENSCONET, 2009. Seed Collecting Manual for Wild Species. European Seed
Conservation Network. Available for download at: http://www.ensconet.eu/
• FAO, 2009. The State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Second Edition. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Rome,
Italy.
• Hawkins, B., Sharrock, S. and Havens, K., 2008. Plants and climate change: which
future? Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond, UK.
• IUCN, 2010. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Available
at: http://www.iucnredlist.org/. Accessed 16 September 2010.
• Keller, T., Korn, H., Schmid, H., and Weisser, Ch.F. 2002. Chances and limitations
of ex-situ conservation of species and genetic diversity on a global perspective.
Landwirtschaftsverlag, 2002.
• Offord, C.A. and Meagher, P. F., 2009. Plant germplasm conservation in Australia:
strategies and guidelines for developing and managing ex situ collections. Australian
Network for Plant Conservation Inc., Canberra.

19
• Paton, A.J., Brummitt, N., Govaerts, R., Harman, K., Hinchcliffe, S., Allkin,
B. and Nic Lughadha, E., 2008. Towards Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant
Conservation: a working list of all known plant species—progress and prospects.
Taxon 57 (2): 602–611.
• Pritchard, D.J. and Harrop, S. R., 2010. A re-evaluation of the role of ex situ conservation
in the face of climate change. BGjournal 7(1): 3-6.

20
Ex situ conservation

21
22
Ex situ conservation

The German Seed Bank Network Project:


Seed Banking of Crop Wild Relatives.
Albert-Dieter Stevens

Author note
Albert-Dieter Stevens, Head of Collections and Elke Zippel, project coordinator,
both at Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität
Berlin, Germany.

Abstract
The need is highlighted for ex situ measures to halt the loss of plant diversity and
their sustainable use through better conservation in seed banks and their accessibility.
The situation of German germplasm and seed banks is described with special
reference to the official strategy regarding crops and crop wild relatives. Therefore,
the German agency for food and agriculture funds a network of seed banks of crop
wild relatives. The main objectives are given and the prioritisation of species for
collecting are described as well as planning and costs of collecting seeds of target
species throughout four regions in Germany.

Introduction
Climatic changes, the misuse of finite natural resources, and unbalanced social
developments have an ever more important impact on life on earth. Amongst other factors
these contribute to the biodiversity crisis, the damage and finally the extinction of species,
ecosystems, and genetic diversity. To halt this loss crucial to the livelihood of mankind
a variety of strategies and action plans for plant diversity have been developed at global,
regional and national scale. They all highlight the importance of measures to halt the loss
of biodiversity and some develop tangible objectives to be achieved in a given time.
One important measure is the storage of seeds as a complementary conservation
tool for in situ protection, for basic and applied research, for education, and for
breeding. Finally, the sustainable use of plant genetic resources in traditional and new
technologies depends on the knowledge and accessibility of plant genetic resources
kept in seeds for the future.
Crop wild relatives (CWR) are historically conserved in ex situ seed banks because
of their close genetic relationship to a crop. For a definition of CWR see Maxted et al.
2006 and the European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation
Forum. According to Maxted et al. (2010) 5.6% of total holdings in crop ex situ seed
banks are CWR which represent 6% (1,095 species) of the 17,495 CWR species found
in Europe. These data are based upon an analysis of the data in the European crop
gene bank portal (EURISCO). Maxted also states that much more CWR diversity
is held in botanic garden gene banks. 5,756 CWR species are accounting for 61.8%
of their total collections representing 33% of the CWR species of Europe. The latter

23
analysis is based on the data held by the European Native Seed Conservation Network
(ENSCONET). Clearly genetic diversity is higher in wild species but Heywood in
1999 mentioned the poor standards of many of the botanic garden accessions which
were small and genetically poorly sampled. Much has changed over recent years, not
least as a result of the EU-funded ENSCONET project which developed common
working standards in the most important European native seed banks. National
developments in ex situ conservation also increased co-operation and standards of ex
situ conservation among botanic gardens in Europe.

CWR in Germany and the project goals


In Germany ex situ plant genetic resources (PGR) data are held in a common
data base by the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (Bundesanstalt für
Landwirtschaft und Ernährung, BLE). Data are accessible through their website
plant genetic resources Germany (PGRDEU). There are approximately 155,000
samples of more than 3,000 species stored or cultivated in a few major and several
smaller institutions. Among them is the Leibniz Institute in Gatersleben (IPK) with
148,000 samples of 3,000 species, the Julius Kühn-Institute ( JKI) with 6,800 samples
of 32 Vitis species and 18 fruit species, and the Technological Center for Agriculture
(LTZ) with 800 samples of Nicotiana species.

Crop Seed Bank


IPK Gatersleben
3,000 species

148,000 accessions

Vitis Fruit
Germplasm National ex situ PGR Germplasm
bank Inventory bank
(PGRDU)

Ornamental plant
Nicotiana CWR Seed Bank
germplasm bank
Germplasm
bank
Rhododendron, Rosa... Network WEL
LTZ

Figure 1: Organisation and documentation of PGR ex-situ-conservation in Germany

24
Ex situ conservation

To cover the gap in ex situ conservation of PGR, the federal ministry is funding
germplasm banks for ornamental plants and a seed bank network for CWR which is
the German gene bank of wild plants for food and agriculture (WEL). This model
project is a network of four seed banks covering the entire area of Germany. The
project started in 2009 and will be funded until 2012. The objectives of the project
are:
• to collect seed of CWR at population level in order to get broad genetic coverage
and representation of the natural regions and priority taxa
• to process, store, and duplicate the seeds in the partner seed banks
• to offer the seeds for research, conservation, and breeding
• to organize workshops and meetings to develop and foster the use of common
protocols and to share experiences
• to disseminate information and to raise awareness
The network has distributed responsibilities for collection, processing and
storage of seeds according to the natural bio-geographical conditions because of
ecological and logistical reasons and existing expertise and infrastructure. The north-
west and north-east of Germany is covered by the Botanical Garden of the University
of Osnabrück and the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, Freie
Universität Berlin respectively. The Botanical Garden of the University of Karlsruhe
in collaboration with the University of Education Karlsruhe and the Botanical Garden
of the Regensburg University cover the south-west and south-east respectively (see
Figure 2).
Duplicates of seed lots will be stored in the facilities of the Osnabrück botanical
garden seed bank and offered through a central website catalogue. Seeds are offered
according to the international treaty on PGR for food and agriculture regulations and
the appropriate standard material transfer agreement.

Figure 2: Regional responsibilities for


collecting, processing, and storing of
CWR populations within Germany.

Blue: Botanical Garden of the


University Osnabrück, green: Botanic
Garden and Botanical Museum
Berlin-Dahlem, Freie Universität
Berlin, pink: Botanical Garden of the
University of Karlsruhe and University
of Education Karlsruhe, yellow:
Botanical Garden of the Regensburg
University.

25
Prioritisation of species for collecting
There are approximately 3,600 plant species native to Germany including
apomictic taxa. One thousand are known to be of actual or potential use. By including
ornamental species or taxa useful for breeding another 1,800 taxa are added. Thus
78% (2,800 taxa) of German flora can be regarded as CWR. For a detailed list see the
website of PGRDEU. The PGRDEU list considers 12 categories of utilisation for the
assessment of CWR in Germany:
• Medicinal plants and spices • Fruits and legumes
• Plants rich in protein • Pollen and nectar providing species
• Forestry species • Plants useful for industry
• Fodder plants • Plants to protect against wind, sun, erosion
• Plants rich in carbohydrates • Ornamental plants
• Plants rich in oil and fat • Plants of use for breeding

In order to prioritise the project collecting activities, species with multiple


uses (two to six out of the twelve categories) were extracted from the list of 2,800
CWR taxa. The remaining 1,000 taxa with multiple uses were cross-checked
with the red list in order to consider the degree of threat. The most vulnerable
and rare species have been discarded for practical considerations. The 860 species
left on the list then were checked against the holdings within the network and
against crop seed bank holdings which reduced the number to 640 species. The
most challenging task was to include biological and ecological criteria such as
invasiveness and the ease of seed handling and storability (e.g. only orthodox seeds
were considered). However, the target list should also cover a broad systematic
and ecological spectrum of the German flora. This last step resulted in a list of
300 priority species of which 170 species occur in all four regions and thus will
be collected by all partners. Each partner will collect approximately 200 species.
Between 75% and 80% of the species in this target list are widespread or common.
The list also includes 24 species which are protected by German law and 50 species
are red listed in at least one of the federal states.

Collecting Seeds
Seed collection in Germany does require authorisation by local authorities which
in some cases does influence the usability of seeds, for example, the transfer of material
to third parties. This is in contradiction with the treaty regulations that have been
applied to the project by the project funding agency (BLE). Good contacts through
existing regional networks with local authorities and other stakeholders alleviated
the process of receiving the necessary collection permits, though experiences differ
remarkably throughout the network and the regions.
Seed collecting and curation procedures are based on the ENSCONET
recommendations (ENSCONET 2009a, b). If necessary they were adapted. For
example, data from the grid system mapping of plant distribution (area-based data),

26
Ex situ conservation

which is broadly applied in Germany, is being used for seed origins instead of GIS
based methods (data based on geodetic coordinates).
One of the important objectives of the project is to collect genetically
representative samples in order to improve the quality of the seed bank accessions
for a variety of purposes. Therefore, seed samples of the entire population of typical
sites are collected, if possible seeds of more than 59 individual plants. The genetic
representation of taxa will be increased through multiple sampling of different
populations within each species and from sites in the four project regions. If possible
the number of seeds per accession should be higher than 5,000.
Following the elaboration of priority species and having agreed on common
standards and protocols, the collecting strategy for the season 2010 has been
developed independently by each regional group. Based on data from species
inventories and habitat diversity in north-east Germany, the accessibility of sites was
of major importance. This is due especially for wet meadow communities which,
next to dry grasslands, were one of the main target habitats in 2010. However,
not only inundation but also private land ownership, cattle breeding, and a range
of other factors were considered. The core areas identified for collecting in north-
east Germany are the eastern Baltic Sea coast; the Oder river valley; the Havel river
region; the eastern Harz foreland; and the Saale-Unstrut region (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: The five main collecting areas in north-east Germany (left), the Oder
river valley (upper right), and the Harz foreland (lower right).

During this preparatory phase several visits to familiar and new potential
collecting sites were helpful. Good contacts with regional botanists (professional
and non-professional experts) contributed considerably during this planning
phase. Repeated visits and the concentration on collecting areas made collecting
efforts efficient and helped to identify adequate collecting times according to

27
the phenological development in each collecting area. Optimal collecting times
differed remarkably in 2010 and 2011 both at species and collecting area level because
of increasing yearly variation of climatic conditions.
Field work load varies considerably depending on season, size of population,
target species, frequency of species in the collection area, conspicuousness of the
species during ripeness of fruits, method of seed harvesting, insect damage during
seed set, and the biology of the species (e.g. amount of produced seeds per individual),
as well as the weather conditions. Some species like Tanacetum vulgare, Artemisia
vulgare or Hypericum perforatum are very conspicuous, occur commonly in extensive
populations, and produce many seeds which are very easy to harvest. Species like
Symphytum vulgare produce only a few ripe fruits at any time. Therefore, several visits
were necessary to collect a sufficient amount of nutlets. Other species like Gentiana
pneumonanthe are very rare and inconspicuous when fruits are ripening. For such
species the time dedicated to locate the plants in the collecting area increases. The
fruits of several Fabaceae and Asteraceae are often attacked by insects, and the yield
of seeds can be very small despite a large amount of fruits and seeds collected.
In 2010 all network partners collected 85% of the 300 priority species. At least
one sample per population was collected. In the north-east region 350 accessions of
124 species in 46 families were collected, processed and stored in 2010. A mean of
one to five accessions per species were collected.
North-west North-east South-west South-east
Species collected by all partners 100 102 53 98
Accessions 253 236 222 135
Species collected by one partner 12 22 11 5
Accessions 21 34 21 7
Table 2: Number of collected seeds within the network in 2010

Table 3 gives information of the cost of collecting seed for 2010. A total of 270
accessions were collected during the season from May to November. Throughout
the year, an average of 2.03 accessions has been collected for each hour spent in the
collecting area. The number of collected accessions per trip depends on the season
of the year. Not surprisingly, most accessions have been collected in September (22.3
average number of accessions per trip) when an average of 3.1 accessions per hour
were collected in the target areas. However, collecting in June, August, October, and
November was also quite effective with approximately two accessions collected per
hour. The distance of collecting areas did not influence the collecting success but, of
course, has an influence on the costs. This is partly a consequence of concentrating on
collecting areas which minimize the time needed for localising target populations.
The travel expenses for the season 2010 total 1,547 € calculated with an allowance
of 0.3 €/km. Total staff costs are 9,630 € for the collecting and travel activities during
the collecting season. They have been calculated on the basis of 45 € staff cost per
hour. Thus collecting one accession in the field averages 41.4 €. The partners in the
other regions arrived at similar costs per accession using different cost models.

28
Ex situ conservation

2010 Travel Travel time Field col- Accessions Accessions/


(collecting distance lecting per trip field collect-
trips time ing time
per month) (km) (h) * (h) ** (n) (n/h)
May (1) 89 2.50 1.5 1 0.7
June (2) 173 2.75 3.3 6.5 2.1
July (6) 154 2.50 4.0 7.33 1.7
August (7) 263 4.57 7.3 14.6 2.0
September (3) 305 4.50 8.7 22.3 3.1
October (4) 185 2.75 4.6 9.5 2.1
November (2) 153 2.25 1.3 2.5 2.0
Total 5,157 84 130 270
Average 1.22 2.0

Table 3: Average monthly values of travel distance to collecting areas, travel time,
collecting time, and accessions collected per trip and per hour collecting
time at collecting area in 2010.

* travel time includes traffic jams, diversion routes etc.


** including collection of herbarium specimens, recording of field data, searching target species,
collecting herbarium specimen; excluding processing of herbarium specimen and entering of the
field data in the database.

References
• ENSCONET (2009a). ENSCONET Seed Collecting Manual for Wild Species.
• ENSCONET (2009b) ENSCONET Curation Protocols & Recommendations.
• Heywood, V. H. (1999). The role of botanic gardens in ex situ conservation
of agrobiodiversity. In: Gass, T., Frese, L., Begemann, F. and Lipman, E. (eds.),
Implementation of the Global Plan of Action in Europe — Conservation and
Sustainable Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
Proceedings of the European Symposium, 30 June – 3 July 1988, Braunschweig,
Germany, 102 – 107. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome.
• Maxted, N., Ford Lloyd, B.V., Jury, S.L., Kell, S.P. and Scholten, M.A., (2006).
Towards a definition of a crop wild relative. Biodiversity and Conservation, 15(8),
2673–2685.
• Maxted, N. and Kell, S.P., (2009). Establishment of a Global Network for the In
Situ Conservation of Crop Wild Relatives: Status and Needs. FAO.
• Maxted, N., Kell, S., Toledo, Á., Dulloo, E., Heywood, V., Hodgkin, T., Hunter,
D., Guarino, L., Jarvis, A. and Ford-Lloyd, B., (2010). A global approach to crop
wild relative conservation: securing the gene pool for food and agriculture, Kew
Bulletin Vol. 65, 561–576.

29
Web links
• European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum:
http://www.pgrforum.org/cwr_species.htm
• Plant genetic resources Germany PGRDEU website:
http://pgrdeu.genres.de/index.php?tpl=ex_situ
• Plant genetic resources PGRDEU list of CWR in Germany:
http://pgrdeu.genres.de/index.php?tpl=an_liste
• German gene bank of wild plants for food and agriculture WEL:
http://www.biologie.uni-osnabrueck.de/genbank-wel
• Osnabrück botanical garden seed bank catalogue:
http://www.biologie.uni-osnabrueck.de/genbank-wel/Saatgutbestellung/
• International treaty on PGR for food and agriculture:
http://www.planttreaty.org/
• Standard material transfer agreement of the treaty:
http://www.planttreaty.org/smta_en.htm

30
Ex situ conservation

31
32
Ex situ conservation

FlorNaturLBG - ex situ conservation


of endangered and protected
plant species
Magdalena Jałowska

Author note
Magdalena Jałowska, Research and Resources Protection Unit, The Kostrzyca
Forest Gene Bank

Abstract
FlorNaturLBG project is dedicated to ex situ conservation of endangered and
protected plant species. The range of activity includes the western part of Poland.
Genetic material, mostly of herbaceous plants is collected in the form of seeds and
other plant parts. The primary goal of the project is the long term conservation in
seed banks of representative samples of the genetic diversity. Genetic material will be
stored in temperatures ranging from -10° to -20°C and also in ultra-low temperatures
in liquid nitrogen or its vapours. Collected samples can then be used in research,
reintroduction and restoration of weak populations and as well as habitat restoration.
Seedlings obtained during germination tests are used by participants of the project to
initiate in- and ex-vitro cultures.

Introduction
Environmental changes, especially those induced by a man are often irremediable.
Rapid climate changes, air pollution, urbanization, land destruction all have the
great impact on the ecosystems. Changes are often severe, and then, barring further
disruption, ecosystems and species settle down for another long period of stability.
In the face of environmental transformations, conservation of all its elements,
particularly of precisely defined biological diversity seems to be very important.
Proper management and maintaining of the genetic reproductive material help to
prevent effectively the most important components of ecosystems from destruction
caused by biotic and abiotic factors.

The Kostrzyca Forest Gene Bank


In response to ecological disaster in the Sudeten Mountains the Kostrzyca
Forest Gene Bank was established. It is an organizational unit of the State Forests
National Forest Holding, which came into being in 1995. It’s main goal is active ex-
situ biodiversity conservation.

33
The institution conducts the long-term storage of forest trees and shrubs as well as
the monitoring of the quality of reproductive material, these are seeds from the most
valuable seed objects of the state forests, national parks, nature reserves as well as
nature monuments.

The activity range of the Kostrzyca Forest Gene Bank involves forests across the
whole Poland, implementing seed management programmes such as preservation
of forest gene resources and forest tree breeding, progeny testing programme, the
protection and restitution of English Yew (Taxus baccata L.) and Sorbus torminalis
Crantz. with creation of clone archives, restitution of Silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) in
the Sudeten Mountains and also FlorNaturLBG - programme concerning protection
of endangered, rare and protected plant species.
Multi-faced activity of the Kostrzyca Forest Gene Bank is an effort undertaken
according to the provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
which was opened for signature in June 1992 at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, known as the Earth Summit. The CBD was entered
to force in 1993 in 167 countries, also in Poland.

34
Ex situ conservation

FlorNaturLBG – ex situ conservation of endangered and protected


plant species

The realization of the FlorNaturLBG project (“Ex


situ conservation of endangered and protected wild plants
in the western part of Poland) is a response to a need of
biodiversity conservation.

The main goal of the project is the long term protection and storage of gene pool
of rare, endangered and protected plant species originally derived from natural sites.
Creation a bank of seeds with high ecological value is not only social but also legal
obligation arising from international biodiversity policy.
The aim is to collect seeds of 58 plant species, from 134 sites within 4 years
(2009-2012).

Table 1: The amount of seed collection (2009 – 2011)


Num- Num- Lack of
Seed col- Site ex- Lack of
Location ber ber fructifica-
lection tinction collection
of species of sites tion
Karkonosze National
20 38 38 - -
Park
Tatra Mountains
15 17 5 1 - 11
National Park
Babia Góra
6 6 5 1 -
National Park
Lower Silesia Province 16 41 9 8 23 1
Silesia Province 1 3 3 - -
Western Pomerania
8 9 4 1 4
and Lubuskie Province
Wielkopolska and
Kujawy-Pomerania 4 11 1 5 5
Province
Pomerania Province 5 9 2 1 5 1
TOTAL 75 134 67 17 37 13
The collections of seeds derive from sites of western Poland: national parks:
Karkonosze NT, Tatra Mountains NT, Babia Góra NT and Provinces: Silesia, Lower
Silesia, Western Pomerania and Lubuskie, Pomerania, Wielkopolska and Kujawy-
Pomerania.

35
Sites included
in FlorNaturLBG project

Legend
Collection: Botanical
Garden PAN in Warsaw
Sites of BG
Collection: The Kostrzyca
Forest Gene Bank
Sites of LBG

Figure 1: Range of the project

The Botanical Garden Center of Biological Diversity Sciences PAN in Warsaw has
undertaken the similar project protecting the plant species derived from natural
stands in the eastern part of Poland. Collected seeds will be stored in both institutions
and also at the Millennium Seed Bank, Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.

Plant species dedicated to FlorNaturLBG project


The adopted list of species, mostly herbaceous, is a joint effort of botanists.
Plants qualified in the project are classified among the categories and criteria of:
• the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources as
critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN) and vulnerable (VU);
• included into Bern Convention;

Figure 2: Status of species


20
• Habitat Directive; 15
• Polish Plant Red Data Book;
10
• Red List of Regions;
• classified as a endemics or sub-endemics; 5
• other, pointed by National Parks; 0
CR EN VU
• under legal protection.

36
Ex situ conservation

Table 2: The list of plant species included in FlorNaturLBG project

Polish Plant
Red List
Red Data The Red List
of plants
Book of Vascular
and fungi Under legal
Plant species (Kaźmier- Plants of
in Poland protection
czakowa, Lower Silesia
(Zarzycki,
Zarzycki (Kącki 2003)
Szeląg 2006)
2001)
1 Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb v
2 Allium sibiricum V VU VU v
3 Allium victorialis [E] CR
Angelica palustris
4 V EN v
(Besser) Hoffm.
Apium nodiflorum (L.)
5 E CR v
Lag.
Apium repens (Jacq.)
6 E EN v
Lag.
7 Arabis alpina CR
Astragalus penduli-
8 E CR
florus Lam.
9 Betula nana L. V EN EN v
*Campanula bohe-
10 mica Hruby in Polivka, EN VU/EN v
Domin & Podp.
*Campanula serrata
11 VU v
(Kit.) Hendrych
Cardamine amara L.
12 subsp. opizii (J. Presl. & NT
C. Presl) Celak.
13 Cardamine resedifolia L E CR CR
Carex magellanica
14 V CR VU v
Lam.
15 Carex parviflora Host R
Cerastium alpinum
16 R CR
L. s. s
Cochlearia tatrae
17 V VU v
Borbás
18 Corrigiola litoralis L. V CR CR v
Cotoneaster tomento-
19 R
sus (Ait.) Lindl.
Eleocharis multicaulis
20 E EN CR v
Sm.,
Elymus farctus (Viv.)
21 E CR
Runemark ex Melderis
22 Erigeron alpinus L. R CR

37
23 Euphrasia minima, R CR
*Galium sudeticum
24 R CR VU/CR v
Tausch
Galium valdepilosum
25 R EN CR v
Heinr. Braun
*Gentianella bohemica
26 CR v
Skalický
27 Gentianella campestris CR v
Gladiolus paluster
28 E CR RE v
Gaudin
29 Gnaphalium supinum CR
Kickxia spuria (L.)
30 E CR CR
Dumort.
Laserpitium archangel-
31 R CR
ica Wulfen
Linaria odora (M. Bieb.)
32 V VU v
Fisch.
33 Melica ciliata L. E CR CR
Muscari comosum (L.)
34 V CR CR v
Mill.
Pedicularis hacquetii
35 R VU v
Graf
*Pedicularis sudetica
36 E EN EN v
Willd.
Pimpinella saxifraga
37 CR
subsp. Rupestris
Pinus x rhaetica Brüg-
38 V VU VU v
ger
39 Plantago coronopus L. E CR v
Potamogeton polygoni-
40 E CR DD
folius Pourr.
Puccinellia maritima
41 E CR
(Hudson) Parl.
Pulsatilla pratensis (L.)
42 V CR v
Mill.
*Pulsatilla slavica G.
43 E VU v
Reuss
Pulsatilla vernalis (L.)
44 V VU RE v
Mill.
45 Ranunculus arvensis L. V VU
46 Ranunculus lingua L. V NT
Ranunculus oreophilus
47 [E]
M. Bieb
48 Rhodiola rosea, CR
49 Salix lapponum V EN EN v
Saussurea pygmaea
50 CR
(Jacq.) Sprengel
51 Saxifraga bryoides CR

38
Ex situ conservation

Saxifraga moschata
52 E CR
subsp. Basaltica
53 Saxifraga nivalis L. E CR CR
54 Saxifraga oppositifolia, CR
Stipa borysthenica
55 V CR v
Klokov
56 Stipa joannis Čelak. V VU v
57 Veronica alpina DD
58 Veronica praecox All. E CR

*species included in Habitat Directive


RE – Regionally Extinct
CR=E – Critically Endangered
[E] – species highly endangered on isolated sites
EN – Endangered
V=VU – Vulnerable
U1 – unsatisfactory condition
DD – Date Deficient
NT – Near Threatened
R – low risk
FV – appropriate conditions

Methods
As a member of European Native Seed Conservation network
(ENSCONET) the Kostrzyca Forest Gene Bank takes part in international working
group. ENSCONET is an international organization with an initial task to carry out
an inventory and conservation status of species with cooperation with European seed
banks. The experience of ENSCONET – collection methodology, evaluation and
storage is widely used in realization of the FlorNaturLBG project.

Seed collecting
Seed collecting is a well-defined scientific procedure, widely used for the ex
situ conservation of plant genetic resources (ENSCONET, Seed Collecting Manual
for Wild Species, 2009).
All collections are being made legally, with permission of Regional
Directorate of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Environment, land owners –
national parks, forest districts and relevant government authorities. The identity of
populations is confirmed at flowering by botanists able to do a verification of species.

39
Description of site is also included as well as the extra information from local experts.
Method of sampling and harvesting depends on species and selected sites. According
to ENSCONET manual, the general rule is that collectors aim to sample from as
many individuals as possible without interfering much into natural processes within
the population. Collecting is made at random over as wide area as possible.

Figure 3: Seed collecting – Elymus farctus

Figure 4: Seed collecting – Cardamine resedifolia

Figure 5: Seed collecting – Allium sibiricum

After harvesting collected samples are pre-cleaned and transported to the seed bank.

40
Ex situ conservation

Seed cleaning
Seed cleaning of wild seed collections requires greater skill than many
might expect. Staff need some knowledge of seed and fruit morphology at least at
the genus level and how to distinguish seed cover and other structures under the
microscope. Brand-new techniques are being applied while seed cleaning to remove
structures that are unnecessary for storage. Adapting techniques for different types
of fruit/seed is therefore the key to good seed cleaning procedures (ENSCONET,
2009. ENSCONET Curation Protocols&Recommendations).
Many species have very small weight of 1000seeds, for example Saxifraga nivalis
0,04 g (in comparison the average weight of Betula pendula is about ≈ 0,11 g) – that
causes difficulties in testing.

Table 3: Thousand – seed weight of evaluated seeds


Plant species Thousand-seed weight [g]

Saxifraga nivalis 0,040

Saxifraga moschata ssp. bazaltica 0,056

Gnaphalium supinum 0,090

Cardamine resedifolia 0,180

Arabis alpina 0,300

Allium sibiricum 0,850

Pedicularis sudetica 1,070

Allium victorialis 3,560

Determing viability
In a seed bank, it is important to know the viability of seeds that are being stored.
Seed viability is defined as the number of seeds that are alive in a seed lot, and have
the potential to give rise to a plantlet (Gosling, 2003; Rao et al., 2006). The viability
of seeds is determined through germination tests. The methods of testing are very
different, for example:
• scarification;
• stratification in 1-percentage agar solution (sometimes GA3);
• finding the optimum temperature amplitudes for germination testing;
• variety of photoperiodism;
• differences in time of lasting seed germination tests;
• sometimes there is a need to sterilize seed coats.

41
Seed drying
Humidity measurement is done with non-destructive method, using the
multi-channel humidity & water activity analyser. According to ENSCONET
recommendations seeds are dried out using the silica gel to equilibrium with about
15 % RH (approximately 3.5 – 6.5 % moisture content) at 10 - 20 °C. Then they are
placed at sub-zero temperatures (- 20 °C). Apart from the traditional methods, the
cryopreservation is also practised. It’s a guarantee of conservation of rare, endangered
or nearly-extinct plants of Poland.

Funding
The project is carried out within the 5th Priority of the Operational Programme
Infrastructure and Environment: „Environment protection and the promotion of
ecological habits”.
The value of the project exceeds 2 500 000 PLN. Nearly 2 000 000 PLN of
funding comes from the European Union (about 85%). The remaining part if funded
from the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management
(about 15%).

Coordination Center for Environmental Projects


as an implementing and managing institution

Before realization there is a need of acceptation of the CCEP, and then the
decision on financing selected project can be made. The utilization of funds is
verified as well as the degree of realization of the project, which is periodical, annual
and final reported. Controlling of the realization may last up to 3 years after the
project closing.

Summary
Plants – static and silent developed very complex lives over several hundred
million years of evolution (Stuppy, Kesseler & Harley, 2009). By mixing together
they create better combination of characteristics that is why it is so important to
conduct the biodiversity conservation. Extinction of species is a continuous process
causing diminish of biological diversity and threatening the stability of ecosystems.
Genetic material collected and cultivated during realization of FlorNaturLBG
project will be used for reintroduction programs and restoration of endangered
species. The collected genetic material will also enrich the educational collections of
botanical gardens and will allow to conduct scientific research (Gugała, 2010).

42
Ex situ conservation

References
• ENSCONET (2009) ENSCONET Curation Protocols & Recommendations.
• ENSCONET (2009) ENSCONET Seed Collecting Manual for Wild Species.
• Gosling, P.G. (2003). Viability testing. In: Smith, R.D., Dickie, J.B., Linington
S.H., Pritchard H.W. & Probert R.J. (eds). Seed Conservation: Turning Science into
Practice. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, 445-481.
• Gugała, A. (2010) Główne założenia projektu FlorNaturLBG –„Ochrona ex situ
zagrożonych i chronionych roślin, dziko rosnących w zachodniej części Polski”. Unia
Europejska dla zachowania różnorodności biologicznej polskich lasów, Rogów, 317-327.
• Kaźmierczakowa, R. and Zarzycki K. (eds.) (2001). Polska czerwona księga roślin.
Paprotniki i rośliny kwiatowe. Polish red data book of plants. Pteridophytes and
flowering plants. Instytut Botaniki im. W. Szafera PAN i Instytut Ochrony Przyrody
PAN, Kraków.
• Kącki Z. (ed.) (2003). Zagrożone gatunki flory naczyniowej Dolnego Śląska.
Endangered vascular plants of Lower Silesia. Instytut Biologii Roślin Uniwersytetu
Wrocławskiego, Polskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Przyrody „Pro NATURA”,
Wrocław.
• Stuppy, W. et al. (2009). The Bizarre and Incredible World of Plants, London.
• Zarzycki, K., Szeląg, Z. (2006). Red list of vascular plants in Poland. Czerwona lista
roślin naczyniowych w Polsce. In:Mirek, Z., Zarzycki, K., Wojewoda, W., Szeląg,
Z. Red list of plants and fungi in Poland. Czerwona lista roślin i grzybów Polski.
Instytut Botaniki im W.Szafera, Polska Akademia Nauk, Kraków.

43
44
Ex situ conservation

The Reconstruction of Replacement


Habitats in the Botanical Garden
of the National Centre of Plant Genetic
Resources of the Plant Breeding and
Acclimatization Institute in Bydgoszcz,
Poland.
Włodzimierz Majtkowski and Gabriela Majtkowska

Author note
Włodzimierz Majtkowski and Gabriela Majtkowska, Botanical Garden of the
National Centre for Plant Genetic Resources, Plant Breeding and Acclimatization
Institute - National Research Institute, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Abstract
In the Botanical Garden of the National Centre of Plant Genetic Resources of the
Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute in Bydgoszcz in 2008, the reconstruction
of a natural plant community was started in order to increase the effectiveness of ex situ
native biological diversity protection. It arose from the ‘national protective strategy
and balanced utilization system of biological diversity’ together with the Activities
Program from 2007 to 2013 (Sharrock & Jones 2009). The sites for halophytes and
the dune flora were established in 2008 and xerothermic habitat, the sites for ruderal
and efemerophytes species in 2009.

Introduction
The work on reconstruction of replacement habitats was preceded by phyto-
sociological observations and soil analysis of selected in-situ sites: Rogowo and
Włodarka near Trzebiatów (coast dune and halophyte meadow); the area near Solec
Kujawski (inland dune) and Janikowo near Inowrocław (halophilic plants site). The
plants obtained from the seeds collected in natural conditions were planted on the
reconstructed sites. The highest salinity level was observed on a halophilic plants site
with waste substrate from a soda plant in Janikowo.
The analysis of the chemistry of soil samples taken from in situ sites was
conducted in Chemical Laboratory of the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization
Institute in Bydgoszcz. In the taken samples there were marked:
• pH and salinity, in distilled H2O,
• N-NO3 – with the use of an ion-selective electrode,
• P – colorimetric method (Spekol 11 Carl Zeiss Jena),
• Ca, Mg, K, Na – by atomic absorption method (spectrophotometer PU 9100X
Philips).

45
The preparation of the obligatory halophyte site was connected with the removal
of native ground layer at a depth of approximately 1 metre, covering the pit with 1
millimetre thick PCV foil and filling a half of the basin with substrate from the salt
waste stockpile in Janikowo near Inowrocław. The soil parameters of the coastal
meadow in Włodarka were obtained by filling the second part of the basin with the
mixture of river sand, peat and soil from Janikowo in a ratio of 1:1:1. River sand of
different fractions was used to build the dune.

Result and discussions


The results of soil analyses are shown in the table 1.

Investigation pH Salinity N-NO3 P K Na Ca Mg


No.
places
in KCl g/dm³ mg/dm³ mg/dm³ mg/dm³ mg/dm³ mg/dm³ mg/dm³
In-situ sites
Rogowo
1 4,9 0,05 6 1 4 2 26 <1
maritime dune
Solec Kujawski
2 2,1 0,07 11 1 5 1 18 <1
dune
Włodarka
3 4,7 0,9 32 2 8 53 107 <1
peat meadow
Włodarka
4 mineral 4,6 0,7 40 6 5 50 54 <1
meadow
Janikowo
5 salt waste 6,5 12,00 125 6 10 267 335 <1
stockpile
Gruczno
6 xerothermic 7,1 0,28 5,6 18 50 - 2600 67
reserve
Ex-situ sites
7 Dune 6,6 0,06 10 44 10 3 551 <1
Halophyte
8 6,7 1,7 23 49 10 111 571 <1
meadow
Xerothermic
9 7,6 0,25 12 26 50 - 4050 126
habitat

Table 1. Chemical composition of soils from natural sites and reconstructed in


the Botanical Garden in Bydgoszcz

The list of the species observed on natural sites is given in the Table 2 which contains
the species that were planted in the spring 2009 on reconstructed sites in the Botanical
Garden in Bydgoszcz. During the vegetation season, systematic observations of planted
species development were made. The biggest sodding was obtained on the sites for
halophytes with the ground transferred from Janikowo. Almost 100% covering of the soil
surface by plants was possible thanks to the seeds contained in the transferred ground. The
grass planted on the dune created strong root systems, causing the stabilization of the site.

46
Ex situ conservation

Table 2. List of species observed in natural conditions and planted on reconstructed


sites in the Botanical Garden in Bydgoszcz

Observation place No. Species


1 Calamagrostis epigejos
2 Calluna vulgaris
3 Campanula rotundifolia
n. Solec Kujawski,

4 Cladonia sp.
Szwedzka Góra

inland dune

5 Corynephorus canescens
6 Deschampsia flexuosa*
7 Festuca ovina
8 Festuca tenuifolia
9 Helichrysum arenarium
10 Hieracium pilosella*
11 Jasione montana

12 Pinus sylvestris

1 Alopecurus pratensis
2 Ammophila arenaria*
3 Artemisia campestris subsp. campestris
4 Cakile maritima
5 Carex arenaria*
coastal dune

6 Corynephorus canescens
Rogowo,

7 Deschampsia flexuosa
8 Elymus arenarius*
9 Festuca rubra subsp. arenaria*
10 Hieracium umbellatum var. dunense*
11 Jasione montana var. litoralis*
12 Pinus sylvestris
13 Rosa rugosa

14 Salix sp.

47
1 Agrostis stolonifera
2 Bellis perennis
3 Cynosurus cristatus
4 Dactylis glomerata
5 Deschampsia caespitosa
6 Eleocharis palustris
7 Festuca arundinacea
8 Festuca pratensis
9 Festuca rubra
10 Glyceria fluitans
Włodarka, halophyte meadow

11 Juncus conglomeratus
12 Juncus gerardi*
13 Lolium perenne
14 Lythrum salicaria
15 Phalaris arundinacea
16 Phleum pratense
17 Plantago lanceolata
18 Plantago major subsp. winteri
19 Plantago maritima*
20 Poa pratensis
21 Polygonum hydropiper
22 Puccinellia distans*
23 Rumex crispus
24 Rumex obtusifolius
25 Scirpus maritimus*
26 Trifolium fragiferum*
27 Trifolium pratense
28 Triglochin maritima*

29 Triglochin palustre*
1 Aster tripolium*
Janikowo,
2 Atriplex prostrata subsp. prostrata*
halophilic plants 3 Puccinellia distans*
site 4 Salicornia europea*

48
Ex situ conservation

1 Avenula pratensis*
2 Calamagrostis epigejos
3 Campanula sibirica
xerothermic reserve 4 Epipactis helleborine
5 Koeleria macrantha
6 Lapulla squarrosa
Gruczno

7 Medicago minima
8 Phleum boehmeri*
9 Pulsatilla pratensis
10 Rosa agrestis
11 R. micrantha
12 Scorzonera purpurea
13 Silene chlorantha
14 Stipa joannis*
15 Veronica praecox

*species planted on reconstructed sites

Figure 1: Reconstituted halophyte meadow and dune

49
Belt (1995) turns her attention to the necessity of protecting whole sites.
Gramineous plant communities are especially exposed to degradation (Filipiak &
Kucharski, 2000). Agricultural development (the ceasing of mowing and grazing
in particular) causes meadow habitats and pastures to disappear or undergo
transformation. The effect of these changes is mass disappearance of plants. That
is the reason why there is an urgent need for the preservation of gramineous plants
from anthropogenic habitats.
Building and preserving of natural habitats is one of the most difficult tasks
undertaken by botanical gardens. The aim of their reconstructions is to create optimal
conditions for plants originating from different habitats as well as to obtain original
compositions that have important educational qualities (Łukasiewicz, 1996).

Conclusions
The increase in the effectiveness of native biological diversity in ex situ conditions
requires the building of habitats in conditions that replicate natural conditions as
nearly as possible. The re-creation of phytocenosis in artificial conditions requires
giving more attention to ecological criteria occurring in nature, such as: ground type,
humidity conditions, height above sea level, land inclination and insolation.

References
• Belt, H. (1995). Założenia metodyczne ekspozycji wybranych polskich zbiorowisk
roślinnych tworzonej w sztucznych warunkach w Ogrodzie Botanicznym PAN
w Powsinie. Biul. Ogrod. Bot., Muzeów i Zbiorów 4, 21-30.
• Filipiak, E. Kucharski, L. (2000). Próba odtworzenia półnaturalnej łąki w Łódzkim
Ogrodzie Botanicznym. Biul. Ogrod. Bot., Muzeów i Zbiorów 9, 89-90.
• Łukasiewicz, A. (1996). Budowa i prowadzenie alpinariów w warunkach niżowych.
Biul. Ogrod. Bot., Muzeów i Zbiorów 5, 19-29.
• Sharrock, S. Jones, M. (2009). Conserving Europe’s threatened plants. Progress
towards Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. BGCI Richmond,
Surrey, U.K., 56.

50
Ex situ conservation

51
52
Ex situ conservation

Latvian rare and endangered plants


in ex situ collections
Ludmila Vishnevska, Dace Kļaviņa, Gunta Jakobsone, Dagnija Šmite,
Daina Roze, Signe Tomsone, J. Ziliņš

Author note
Ludmila Vishnevska, Dace Kļaviņa, Gunta Jakobsone, Dagnija Šmite and Daina
Roze, National Botanic Garden of Latvia;
Signe Tomsone, Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia;
J. Ziliņš, Kalsnava Arboretum.

Abstract
A significant target for botanic gardens in the Global Strategy for Plant Conserva-
tion until 2010 was target 8: “at least 60 per cent of threatened plant species in ex situ
collections, preferably in the country of origin...” The goal of our work was to make an
assessment of the ex situ collections of rare and endangered vascular plants in Latvia.
We have made a common list compiling together the lists of species from the Red Data
Book of Latvia, Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia, and EC Directive
92/43/EEK. The common list has been supplemented with data about species pre-
sented in the collections of the National Botanic Garden, Botanic Garden of Latvian
University and Kalsnava Arboretum. We stated that in Latvia there are 327 native vas-
cular plant species, which are included in at least one of these lists. At the end of 2010
there were 151 or 47% of these contained in ex situ collections, but according to the
Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia (the legal base for the conservation,
containing 238 species) there were, respectively, 120 or 50.4%. In ex situ collections 13
from 14 Latvian vascular plants included in EC Directive 92/43/EEK are represented.

Rare and endangered plants in ex situ collections in Latvia


The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), adopted at the Conference
of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Hague in 2002, provided
16 objectives for vascular plant conservation, which had to be reached by 2010, and
its renewed and strengthened version was adopted at the conference of the parties
at Nagoya in October 2010. One of the most significant targets for botanic gardens
in the GSPC for 2010 was target 8: at least 60 per cent of threatened plant species in
ex-situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and 10 per cent available for
recovery and restoration programmes. The new target for 2020 is 75 and 20 per cent
respectively.
The objective of our work was to clarify the question: how far are Latvian bo-
tanic gardens from the 8th objective of GSPC, or, more specifically, how many rare
and endangered plants of native flora of Latvia are conserved in Latvian ex situ col-
lections?

53
To answer this question, we first checked the IUCN Red List, but not one spe-
cies of Latvian vascular plants was found there. Then we made a list of vascular plant
species by compiling together the lists of Latvian rare, endangered or even extinct
plants included in:
• Annexes II and IV of the European Council Directive on the conservation of natu-
ral habitats and of wild fauna and flora - 14 vascular plant species are occurring in
the nature in Latvia;
• Annex of the Regulations of the Cabinets of Ministers No. 396 “Regulations of the
list of specially protected species and specially protected species of limited use” -
238 vascular plant species;
• Red Data Book of Latvia, 2003, volume 3, Vascular Plants - 319 species, some of
them, for different reasons, are not included in the Rules No.396, but some, in-
cluded in the Rules – not included to the Red Data Book.
The common list contained 327 species (Table 1).
The next step of our work was to ask the keepers of ex situ collections in Latvia, if
they have rare or endangered plants in their collections. The most likely expectation
was to find such collections in the botanic gardens. We also asked other Latvian plant
keepers (Agriculture University, nature reserves, and some private collectors), but
they did not have any rare Latvian species in their collections.
We have compiled together the plants from our common list, represented in
the collections of botanic gardens. There are 2 institutions in Latvia with the words
‘botanic garden’ in their official names: the National Botanic Garden of Latvia in
Salaspils and the Botanical Garden of Latvian University in Riga. As provided by the
Botanic Gardens Conservation International definition: „Botanic gardens are insti-
tutions holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scien-
tific research, conservation, display and education” (Wyse Jackson and Sutherland,
2000). In such context the therm “botanic garden” can be used also for arboretums
and other institutions, having special plant collections. In such case one another in-
stitution, which can be reckoned among botanic gardens is Kalsnava Arboretum. So,
in Latvia there are three botanic gardens:
• National Botanic Garden of Latvia, belonging to the Ministry of Environmental
Protection and Regional Development of Latvia, located in Salaspils, established in
1956, occupying an area of 129 ha, and having in collections about 15 000 taxa;
• Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia, belonging to the University of Latvia,
located in Riga, established in 1922, occupying an area of 15 ha, and having in col-
lections about 6200 taxa;
• Kalsnava arboretum, belonging to the Latvian State Forests, located in Jaunkal-
snava, established in 1975, occupying an area 143,9 ha, and having in collections
about 2500 taxa.
Ex situ conservation (conservation of species outside of their natural habitats) of
plants may be realized in many different ways: in artificially created model biotopes;
in beds or arboreta; in pots, hotbeds or hothouses; in sterile culture vessels (in vitro);
in seed banks. In our case, Latvia has no seed banks for rare and endangered plants,

54
Ex situ conservation

and no artificial biotopes (there were some attempts to create model biotopes for
education, but not for conservation purposes); three other ways (plants in beds, in
pots and in tubes) are represented. Some of the gardens (National Botanic Garden,
Kalsnava Arboretum) occupy relatively spacious areas, with partly natural conditions
and species, where some rare species are also growing. In such a case we can talk
about „in situ” or „almost in situ” conservation, because sometimes it is difficult to
decide whether species always grew or were planted there, or escaped from the col-
lection. The two last cases can be seen as successful reintroduction. Classic examples
of reintroduction - replanting of protected species from ex situ to in situ conditions
(natural habitats) - were not presented because of lack of a legislative basis and con-
cern about the danger of genetic diversity of natural populations.
The results of our analysis are presented in the table 1.

Table 1: Latvian rare and endangered vascular plants and their presence in ex situ
collections
Designations:
+ is (in open area);
- is not;
t is in vitro;
w is wild in the garden territory;

RDB – Red Data Book of Latvia, categories:


0 – extinct, 1 – endangered, 2 – vulnerable, 3 – rare, 4 – undetermined;
Reg. 396 – Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia No. 396
EC Dir. - European Council Directive On the Conservation of Natural Habitats and
of Wild Fauna and Flora
NBG – National Botanic Garden of Latvia
LU BG – Botanical Garden of the University of Latvia
Kalsnava – Kalsnava Arboretum
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Aconitum lasiostomum
1 Kurpīte, dzeltenā 1 + - + + -
Reichenb.
2 Agrimonia pilosa Ledeb. Ancītis, spilvainais - - + +t - -
3 Ajuga genevensis L. Cekuliņš, Ženēvas 2 + - - - -
Cekuliņš,
4 Ajuga pyramidalis L. 2 + - +t + -
piramidālais
5 Alisma gramineum Lej. Cirvene, zālainā 1 + - - - -
Alisma lanceolatum
6 Cirvene, šaurlapu 1 + - - - -
With.
Alliaria petiolata
Ķiplocene,
7 (M.Bieb.) Cavara et 3 - - + + -
ārstniecības
Grande
8 Allium schoenoprasum L. Maurloks 3 - - + + -

55
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
9 Allium scordoprasum L. Sīpols, ķiploku 3 - - + - -
10 Allium ursinum L. Laksis 3 + - + + w
11 Allium vineale L. Sīpols, vīnkalnu 3 - - +t - -
Alopecurus
12 Lapsaste, niedru 3 - - +t - -
arundinaceus Poir.
13 Alyssum gmelinii Jord. Alise, Gmelina 3 + - +t - -
Androsace filiformis Vairodzene,
14 2 - - + - -
Retz. pavedienu
15 Anemone sylvestris L. Vizbulis, meža 4 - + + -
Angelica palustris
16 Mātsakne, purva 1 + + +t - w
(Besser) Hoffm.
Anthriscus nitida Suņburkšķis,
17 2 + - - - -
(Wahlenb.) Hazlinsky spožais
Anthyllis maritima Jūrmalas
18 3 - - - - -
Schweigg. pērkonamoliņš
Arctium nemorosum Diždadzis,
19 1 + - - - -
Lej. birztalas
Arenaria procera
20 Smiltenīte, zāļlapu 2 + - +t + -
Spreng.
Armeria maritima (Mill.)
21 Armērija, jūrmalas 1 + - +t + -
Willd.
22 Armeria vulgaris Willd. Armērija, parastā 1 - - +t + -
23 Asplenium rutamuraria L. Sīkpaparde, mūru 1 + - - - -
Sīkpaparde,
24 Asplenium trichomanes L. 1 + - - - -
plūksnu
Astragalus Tragantzirnis,
25 1 + - -t - -
penduliflorus Lam. nokarenais
26 Astrantia major L. Zvaigznīte, lielā 2 + - + + -
Atriplex calotheca Balodene,
27 3 + - - - -
(Rafn) Fr. skaistaugļu
Atriplex glabruscula
28 Balodene, kailā 2 - - - - -
Edmondston
29 Atriplex longipes Drejer Balodene, garkātu 2 - - - - -
Batrachium baudotii Ūdensgundega,
30 1 + - - - -
(Godr.) F. W. Schultz jūras
Batrachium peltatum
Udensgundega,
31 (Schrank) Bercht. et 1 - - - - -
trejlapu
J.Presl
32 Betula nana L. Pundurbērzs 2 + - + + +
Blechnum spicant (L.)
33 Ēnpaparde, vārpu 1 + - - - -
Roth.
Blysmus rufus (Huds.)
34 Blizme, rūsganā 2 + - -t - -
Link

56
Ex situ conservation

RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Botrychium
Ķekarpaparde,
35 matricariifolium A. 2 + - - - -
zarainā
Braun ex W.D.J.Koch
Botrychium multifidum Ķekarpaparde,
36 2 + - - - -
(S.G.Gmel.) Rupr. plūksnu
Botrychium simplex Ķekarpaparde,
37 1 + - - - -
E.Hitchc. vienkāršā
Botrychium virginianum Ķekarpaparde,
38 2 + - - - -
(L.) Sw. Virdžīnijas
Bromopsis benekenii Zaķauza,
39 2 + - + - -
(Lange) Holub. Benekena
Callitrihe
40 Ūdenīte, rudens 2 - - - - -
hermaphroditica L.
Cardamine flexuosa
41 Ķērsa, izlocītā 2 + - +t - -
With.
42 Cardamine hirsuta L. Ķērsa, pūkainā 1 + - - - -
Carex aquatilis
43 Grīslis, ūdeņu 1 + - - - -
Wahlenb.
Carex atherodes
44 Grīslis, akotainais 2 + - - - -
Spreng.
45 Carex brizoides L. Grīslis, vizuļu 2 + - - - -
Carex buxbaumii Grīslis,
46 3 + - +t - -
Wahlenb. Buksbauma
47 Carex davalliana Sm. Grīslis, Devela 3 + - +t - w
Carex demissa
48 Grīslis, zemeņu 3 - - - - -
Hornemann
49 Carex disperma Dewey Grīslis, divsēklu 3 + - - - -
50 Carex distans L. Grīslis, attālinātais 1 - - - - -
51 Carex heleonastes Ehrh. Grīslis, kūdrāja 2 + - - - -
52 Carex ligerica J. Gay Grīslis, Ligeras 2 + - -t - -
Carex mackenziei V. I.
53 Grīslis, Makenzija 1 + - - - -
Krecz.
54 Carex montana L. Grīslis, kalnu 3 - - -t + -
Carex ornithopoda
55 Grīslis, pleznveida 3 + - +t - -
Willd.
56 Carex otrubae Podp. Grīslis, Otruba 2 - - -t - -
Carex paupercula
57 Grīslis, palu 3 + - - - -
Michx.
58 Carex pilosa Scop. Grīslis, matainais 1 + - + - -
Carex reichenbachii Grīslis,
59 3 + - + - -
Bonnet. Reihenbaha
Carex rhizina Blytt ex
60 Grīslis, pēdveida 2 + - - - -
Lindblom
Carex rhynchophysa
61 Grīslis, knābja 1 + - - - -
C.A.Mey.

57
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Carex supina Willd ex
62 Zemais grīslis 1 - - - - -
Wahlenb.
Carex scandinavica Grīslis,
63 2 + - - - -
E.W.Davies Skandināvijas
Skābardis,
64 Carpinus betulus L. 2 + - + + +
parastais
Catabrosa aquatica (L.)
65 Avotene, ūdeņu 3 - - - - -
P.Beauv.
Cenolophium
66 denudatum (Hornem.) Dobspārne, kailā 3 - - + - -
Tutin
Centaurium littorale
67 Augstiņš, jūrmalas 2 + - +t - -
(Turner) Gilmour
Centaurium pulchellum
68 Augstiņš, skaistais 2 + - - - -
(Sw.) Druce
Cephalanthera Garlapu
69 0 - - - - -
longifolia (L.) Fritsch cefalantēra
Cephalanthera rubra Cefalantēra,
70 1 + - - - -
(L.) Rich. sarkanā
Ceratophyllum Pusgrimusī
71 2 - - - - -
submersum L. raglape
Chamaepericlymenum
Pundurgrimonis,
72 suecicum (L.) Asch. et 1 + - - - -
Zviedrijas
Graebn.
Chenopodium
73 Balanda, kļavlapu 3 - - - - -
acerifolium Andrz.
Cinna latifolia (Trevir.)
74 Cinna, platlapu 3 + + -t - -
Griseb.
75 Circaea lutetiana L. Raganzālīte, lielā 2 + - +t - -
Cladium mariscus (L.)
76 Aslape, dižā 3 + - +t - -
Pohl.
Cnidium dubium
77 Knīdija, mānīgā 2 + - - - -
(Schkuhr) Thell.
Coeloglossum viride (L.)
78 Dobziede, zaļā 2 + - - - -
Hartm.
Conioselinum tataricum
79 Tatārijas stobulis 3 - - - - -
Hoffm.
Corallorrhiza trifida Koraļsakne,
80 3 + - - - -
Chatel. trejdaivu
Corispermum Jūrmalas
81 3 - - - - -
intermedium Schweigg. kamieļzāle
Corydalis cava (L.)
82 Cīrulītis, dobais 1 + - +t - -
Schweigg. et Körte
Corydalis intermedia
83 Cīrulītis, vidējais 2 + - +t - -
(L.) Merat

58
Ex situ conservation

RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Corynephorus Kāpsmildzene,
84 3 - - - + -
canescens (L.) P.Beauv. iesirmā
Cotoneaster canescens
85 Klintene, iesirmā 1 - - - - -
Vestergr. ex B.Hylmo
Cotoneaster niger
86 Klintene, melnā 1 + - - - +
(Wahlb.) Fr.
Cotoneaster orientalis Klintene,
87 2 - - + - -
A.Kern. austrumu
Cotoneaster Klintene,
88 1 + - - - +
scandinavicus B.Hylmo Skandināvijas
89 Crambe maritima L. Krambe, jūrmalas 1 - - - + -
Crassula aquatica (L.)
90 Biezlapīte, ūdeņu 1 - - - - -
Schonland
Crataegus laevigata Krustabele,
91 2 + - + - +
(Poir.) DC. divirbuļu
Crataegus lindmanii Krustābele,
92 3 + - + - +
Hrabet.-Uhr. Lindmaņa
Crataegus plagiosepala Krustābele,
93 1 + - + - -
Pojark. šķībkausa
Crepis mollis (Jacq.)
94 Cietpiene, mīkstā 2 + - - - -
Asch.
Crepis praemorsa (L.)
95 Cietpiene, krūmu 3 + - + - -
Tausch.
96 Cucubalus baccifer L. Melnodzene 3 - - - - -
97 Cyperus fuscus L. Dižmeldrs, brūnais 1 + - - - -
Dzegužkurpīte,
98 Cypripedium calceolus L. 2 + + +t - -
dzeltenā
Dactylorhiza baltica Dzegužpirkstīte,
99 4 + - +wt + w
(Klinge) N.I.Orlova Baltijas
Dactylorhiza cruenta Dzegužpirkstīte,
100 4 + - + - -
(O.F.Muell.) Soo asinssarkanā
Dactylorhiza fuchsii Dzegužpirkstīte,
101 4 + - +t - -
(Druce) Soo Fuksa
Dactylorhiza incarnata Dzegužpirkstīte,
102 4 + - + - w
(L.) Soo stāvlapu
Dactylorhiza maculata Dzegužpirkstīte,
103 4 + - - - w
(L.) Soo plankumainā
Dactylorhiza ochroleuca
Dzegužpirkstīte,
104 (Wuestnei ex Boll) 4 + - +t - -
iedzeltenā
Holub
Dactylorhiza russowii Dzegužpirkstīte,
105 4 + - +t - -
(Klinge) Holub Rusova
Gaiļpiesis,
106 Delphinium elatum L. 2 + - + + -
augstais
107 Dentaria bulbifera L. Zobainīte, sīpoliņu 3 + - +t - -

59
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Dianthus arenarius L.
108 Neļķe, smiltāja - + + +t - w
subsp. arenarius
Dianthus fischeri
109 Neļķe, Fišera 1 + - - - -
Spreng.
110 Dianthus superbus L. Neļķe, krāšņā 1 + - + + -
Digitalis grandiflora Uzpirkstīte,
111 3 - - + + -
Mill. lielziedu
Diphasiastrum
Plakanstaipeknis,
112 complanatum (L.) 4 + - - - -
parastais
Holub.
Diphasiastrum
Plakanstaipeknis,
113 tristachyum (Pursh.) 4 + - - - -
trejvārpu
Holub.
114 Draba nemorosa L. Drojene, birztalas 3 - - - - -
Dracocephalum
115 Pūķgalve, Ruiša 2 + - +t - -
ruyschiana L.
Drosera intermedia
116 Rasene, vidējā 2 + - - - -
Hayne
Sīkeglīte,
117 Elatine hydropiper L. 1 + - - - -
ūdenspiparu
Eleocharis multicaulis Pameldrs,
118 1 + - - - -
(Sm.) Desv. daudzstublāju
Eleocharis parvula
119 (Roem. et Schult.) Bluff, Pameldrs, sīkais 1 + - - - -
Nees et Schauer
Elytrigia junceiformis A.
120 Vārpata, doņu 1 + - - - -
et D.Love
Epilobium collinum
121 Kazroze, pakalnu 1 + - - - -
C.C.Gmel.
Epilobium obscurum
122 Kazroze, tumšzaļā 1 + - - - -
Schreb.
Epipogium aphyllum Epipogija,
123 1 + - - - -
Sw. bezlapainā
Equisetum scirpoides
124 Kosa, meldru 1 + - - + -
Michx
Equisetum telmateia
125 Kosa, lielā 1 + - + - -
Ehrh.
126 Erica tetralix L. Sārtene, grīņa 1 + - + + -
127 Eryngium maritimum L. Zilpodze, jūrmalas 1 + - +t + -
Euonymus verrucosus
128 Segliņš, kārpainais - + + - - +
Scop.
Dievkrēsliņš,
129 Euphorbia palustris L. 2 + - +t + -
purva
Euphrasia micrantha
130 Žibulītis, sīkziedu 2 - - - - -
Rchb.
131 Festuca altissima All. Auzene, meža 3 + - - - -

60
Ex situ conservation

RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Filago minima (Sm.)
132 Pūtele, mazā 1 - - - -
Pers.
Gagea erubescens
133 (Besser) Schult. et Zeltstarīte, iesārtā 1 + - - - -
Schult.f.
Galeopsis pubescens
134 Aklis, pūkainais 1 - - - - -
Besser
135 Galium schultesii Vest Madara, Šultesa 2 + - +t - -
Galium tinctorium (L.)
136 Miešķis, krāsu 1 + - +t + w
Scop.
137 Galium trifidum L. Madara, trejdaļu 3 + - - - -
138 Galium triflorum Michx. Madara, trejziedu 1 + - - - w
Drudzene,
139 Gentiana cruciata L. 3 + - +t + -
krustlapu
Gentiana Drudzene,
140 2 + - - - -
pneumonanthe L. tumšzilā
Gentianella amarella
141 Drudzenīte, rūgtā 2 + - - - -
(L.) Boerner
Gandrene,
142 Geranium bohemicum L. 2 - - - - -
Bohēmijas
143 Geranium molle L. Gandrene, mīkstā 1 - - -t - -
144 Geum hispidum Fr. Bitene, sarmatainā 1 + - - - -
145 Gladiolus imbricatus L. Gladiola, jumstiņu 3 + - +t + w
146 Glaux maritima L. Pienzāle, jūrmalas 1 + - +t - -
Glyceria lithuanica Ūdenszāle,
147 3 + - - - -
(Gorski) Gorski Lietuvas
Glyceria striata (Lam.) Ūdenszāle,
148 1 + - - - -
Hitchc. svītrainā
Rūgtene,
149 Gratiola officinalis L. 2 + - - + -
ārstniecības
Gymnadenia conopsea
150 Gimnadēnija, odu 4 + - +t - -
(L.) R. Br.
Gymnocarpium
Kailpaparde
151 robertianum (Hoffm.) 2 + - - + -
Roberta
Newman
152 Gypsophila fastigiata L. Ģipsene, garkātu 3 + - +t - -
153 Gypsophila paniculata L. Ģipsene, skarainā 2 - - +t + -
Hammarbya paludosa
154 Sūnene, purva 3 + - - - -
(L.) Kuntze
Hedera helix var. baltica
155 Efeja, Baltijas 1 + - + + +
Rehder
Helianthemum Saulrozīte,
156 3 + - +t + -
nummularium (L.) Mill. naudiņu
Herminium monorchis Hermīnija,
157 2 + - - - -
(L.) R.Br. vienguma

61
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Hierochloe australis
Mārsmilga,
158 (Schrad.) Roem. et 1 + - - - -
dienvidu
Schult.
Hordelymus europaeus Kāpumiezis,
159 1 + - + - -
(L.) Harz. Eiropas
Hornungia petraea (L.)
160 Hornungija klinšu 0 - - - - -
Rchb.
Huperzia selago (L.)
161 Bernh. ex Schrank et Apdzira 4 - - - - -
Mart.
Hydrilla verticillata (L.)
162 Hidrilla, mieturu 1 + - - - -
Royle
Vairoglape,
163 Hydrocotyle vulgaris L. 2 + - +t - -
parastā
164 Hypericum hirsutum L. Asinszāle, pūkainā 3 + - - + -
165 Hypericum montanum L. Asisnzāle, kalnu - + - - - -
166 Inula britannica L. Staģe, Britu 3 - - - - -
167 Iris sibirica L. Skalbe, Sibīrijas 2 + - + + +
Isoetes echinospora Ezerene,
168 1 + - - - -
Durieu dzeloņsporu
Ezerene,
169 Isoetes lacustris L. 1 + - - - -
gludsporu
Jovibarba sobolifera Saulrietenis,
170 - + - + - -
(L.Sims) Opiz atvašu
171 Juncus balticus Willd. Donis, Baltijas 3 - - +t - -
172 Juncus bulbosus L. Donis, sīpoliņu 3 + - - - -
173 Juncus capitatus Weigel Donis, galvainais 1 - - - - -
174 Juncus gerardii Loisel. Donis, Žerāra 2 + - +t - -
175 Juncus squarrosus L. Donis, skrajais 3 + - - - -
176 Juncus stygius L. Donis, kūdrāja 1 + - - - -
Juncus subnodulosus
177 Donis, strupais 1 + - - - -
Schrank
178 Laseripitium latifolium L. Bezgale, platlapu 3 - + - -
179 Laserpitium prutenicum L. Bezgale, prūšu 1 + - - - -
Lathyrus linifolius
180 Dedestiņa, kalnu 2 + - +t - -
(Reichard) Bassler
Lathyrus maritimus (L.) Dedestiņa,
181 2 + - +t + -
Bigelow jūrmalas
Lathyrus niger (L.)
182 Dedestiņa, melnā 3 + - + + -
Bernh.
Dedestiņa,
183 Lathyrus pisiformis L. 1 + - - - -
zirņveida
Ūdenszieds,
184 Lemna gibba L. 3 - - - - -
kuprainais

62
Ex situ conservation

RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Ligularia sibirica (L.)
185 Mēlziede, Sibīrijas 1 + + +t - -
Cass.
Linaria loeselii
186 Vīrcele, Lēzeļa 3 + + +t - -
Schweigg.
187 Liparis loeselii (L.) Rich.Lipare, Lēzeļa 3 + + +t - -
188 Listera cordata (L.) R.Br. Divlape, sirdsveida 3 + - - - -
Cietsēkle,
189 Lithospermum officinale L. 2 + - +t + -
ārstniecības
Littorella uniflora (L.) Krastene,
190 2 + - - - -
Asch. vienzieda
Lobēlija,
191 Lobelia dortmanna L. 1 + - - - -
Dortmaņa
Lonicera caerulea var. Sausserdis,
192 3 + - + - +
pallasii (Ledeb.) Cin. Pallasa (zilais)
Mēnesene,
193 Lunaria rediviva L. 4 + - + - +
daudzgadīgā
Lycopodiella inundata
194 Staipeknītis, palu 2 + - - - -
(L.) Holub.
195 Lycopodium annotinum L. Staipeknis, gada 4 - - - - -
196 Lycopodium clavatum L. Staipeknis, vālīšu 4 - - - - w
Lycopodium dubium Staipeknis,
197 1 - - - - -
Zoega mainīgais
Malaxis monophyllos
198 Vienlape, purvāja 3 + - - - -
(L.) Sw.
Nārbulis,
199 Melampyrum cristatum L. 1 + - - - -
sekstainais
Moehringia lateriflora Mēringija,
200 0 - - - - -
(L.) Fenzl. sānziedu
201 Montia fontana L. Montija, avotu 2 - - - - -
Myosotis ramosissima Neaizmirstule,
202 3 - - - - -
Rochel ex Schult. pakalnu
Myosotis sparsiflora Neaizmirstule,
203 3 - - - - -
Pohl sīkziedu
204 Myrica gale L. Purvmirte, parastā 3 - - + + +
Myriophyllum Daudzlape,
205 2 + - - - -
alterniflorum DC. pamīšziedu
Najas flexilis (Willd.)
206 Kaulīnija, lokanā 1 + - - - -
Rostk. et W.L.Schmidt
207 Najas marina L. Najāda, jūras - + - - - -
Najas minor All.
208 (Caulinia minor (All.) Kaulīnija, mazā 1 + - - - -
Coss. et Germ.)
Neottianthe cucullata Neotiante,
209 1 + - - - -
(L.) Schltr. cepurainā
Nuphar pumila (Timm)
210 Lēpe, sīkā 3 - - - - -
DC

63
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Nymphoides peltata
211 Palēpe, vairogu 0 - - - - -
(S.G.Gmel.) Kuntze
Odontites litoralis (Fr.) Sārtžibulītis,
212 0 - - - - -
Fr. jūrmalas
Onobrychis arenaria Esparsete,
213 2 + - +t + -
(Kit.) DC. smiltāju
214 Ophrys insectifera L. Ofrīda, mušu 1 + - + - -
215 Orchis mascula (L.) L. Dzegužpuķe, vīru 3 + - + - w
Dzegužpuķe,
216 Orchis militaris L. 3 + - + - -
bruņcepuru
Dzegužpuķe,
217 Orchis morio L. 1 + - - - -
zalkšu2
Dzegužpuķe,
218 Orchis ustulata L. 2 + - - - -
deguma
Orobanche
219 Brūnkāte, zilganā - + + - - -
coerulescens Stephan
Orobanche elatior
220 Brūnkāte, lielā 2 + - - - -
Sutton
Orobanche pallidiflora
221 Brūnkāte, bālziedu 2 + - - - -
Wimm. et Grab.
Pedicularis kaufmannii Jāņeglīte,
222 0 - - - - -
Pinziger pušķainā
Pedicularis sceptrum-
223 Jāņeglīte, dižā 2 + - - - -
carolinum L.
224 Pedicularis sylvatica L. Jāņeglīte, meža 1 + - - - -
Pentaphylloides
225 Čuža, krūmu 1 + - +t + +
fruticosa (L.) O.Schwarz
Peucedanum cervaria
226 Rūgtdille, briežu 0 - - - - -
(L.) Lapeyr.
Peucedanum
227 oreoselinum (L.) Rūgtdille, kalnu 3 - - +t + -
Moench
228 Phleum arenarium L. Timotiņš, smiltāja 1 - - + - -
229 Phyteuma orbiculare L. Septiņvīre, apaļā 1 + - - - -
230 Pilularia globulifera L. Pilulārija, lodaugļu 0 - - - - -
Pimpinella major (L.)
231 Noraga, lielā 3 - - - + -
Huds.
232 Pinguicula alpina L. Kreimule, Alpu 1 + - - - -
233 Pinguicula vulgaris L. Kreimule, parastā 2 + - +t - -
234 Plantago maritima L. Ceļteka, jūrmalas 1 + - -t + -
Platanthera bifolia (L.) Naktsvijole,
235 4 + - + + w
Rich. smaržīgā
Platanthera chlorantha Naktsvijole,
236 4 + - - - w
(Custer) Rchb. zaļziedu
Skarene,
237 Poa remota Forselles 3 + - - - -
skrajziedu

64
Ex situ conservation

RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Polygonatum Mugurene,
238 3 + - + + -
verticillatum (L.) All. mieturu
Polygonum mite
239 Sūrene, maigā 3 - - - - -
Schrank
Polygonum
240 oxyspermum C.A.Mey. Sūrene, asaugļu 0 - - - - -
et Bunge
241 Polygonum viviparum L. Sūrene, vairvasiņu 2 + - - - -
Polystichum aculeatum Cietpaparde,
242 1 + - + - -
(L.) Roth. (P. lobatum) daivainā
Polystichum braunii Cietpaparde,
243 1 + - + - -
(Spenn.) Fee Brauna
Polystichum lonchitis
244 Paparde, šķēplapu 1 - - - - -
(L.) Roth
Potamogeton
245 Glīvene, smaillapu 2 + - - - -
acutifolius Link
Potamogeton trichoides
246 Glīvene, matveida 2 + - - - -
Cham. et Schltdl.
Potamogeton rutilus
248 Glīvene, iesārtā 3 - - - - -
Wolfg.
Potentilla anglica
249 Retējs, pazvilu 1 + - - - -
Laichard.
Potentilla crantzii
250 Retējs, Kranca 1 + - - - -
(Crantz) Beck ex Fritsch
251 Primula farinosa L. Bezdelīgactiņa 2 + - +w - -
Prunella grandiflora (L.) Brūngalvīte,
252 1 + - +t + -
Scholler lielziedu
253 Prunus spinosa L. Plūme, ērkšķu 1 - - - - +
Puccinellia capillaris Pukcinellija,
254 (Lilj.) Jansen matveida 1 + - -t - -
(P.retroflexa) (spilvenu)
255 Pulmonaria angustifolia L. Lakacis, šaurlapu 2 + - +t + -
Pulsatilla patens (L.)
256 Silpurene, meža 4 + + +t + +
Mill.
Pulsatilla pratensis (L.)
257 Silpurene, pļavas 4 + - +t + -
Mill.
Pycreus flavescens (L.)
258 Pikre, dzeltena 0 - - - - -
P.beauv. ex Rchb.
259 Pyrola media Sw. Ziemciete, vidējā 2 + - - - -
260 Radiola linoides Roth Starenīte, linu 2 - - - - -
261 Ranunculus bulbosus L. Gundega, sīpoliņu 3 + - + + -
262 Ranunculus lanuginosus L. Gundega, villainā 3 + - +t - -
Ranunculus nemorosus
263 Gundega, birztalas 1 - - - - -
DC.
Rhynchospora fusca (L.) Baltmeldrs,
264 1 + - - - -
W.T.Aiton rūsganais

65
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
265 Rosa cieselskii Blocki Roze, Ceseļska 3 - - - - -
266 Rosa coriifolia Fr. Roze, ādlapainā 3 + - - - -
267 Rosa mollis Sm. Roze, mīkstā 3 + - - - -
268 Rosa rubiginosa L. Roze, smaržlapu 3 + - + + -
269 Rosa sherardii Davies Roze, Šerarda 3 - - + - -
270 Rubus arcticus L. Kaulene, ziemeļu 0 - - + - -
Rubus plicatus Weihe
271 Cūcene, krokainā 0 - - - - -
et Nees
272 Ruppia maritima L. Rupija, jūras 1 + - - - -
273 Salix myrtilloides L. Kārkls, mellenāju 3 + - - - +
274 Salix phylicifolia L. Kārkls, divkrāsu 3 + - - - +
275 Salix repens L. Kārkls, ložņu - + - - - +
Brūnvālīte,
276 Sanguisorba officinalis L. 2 + - +t + +
ārstniecības
Saussurea esthonica Rūgtlape,
277 1 + + +t - -
Baer ex Rupr. Igaunijas
Akmeņlauzīte,
278 Saxifraga hirculus L. 1 + + -t - -
dzeltenā
Akmeņlauzīte,
279 Saxifraga tridactylites L. 3 - - + - -
trejzobu
280 Schoenus ferrugineus L. Melncere, rūsganā 3 + - +t - -
Scirpus radicans Meldrs,
281 3 - - - - -
Schkuhr sakņojošais
282 Scirpus setaceus L. Meldrs, saru 1 - - - - -
Scolochloa festucaceae
283 Ērkšķuzāle, ūdeņu 3 - - - - -
(Willd.) Link
Scrophularia umbrosa Cūknātre,
284 1 + - +t + -
Dumort. spārnainā
285 Scutellaria hastifolia L. Ķiverene, šķēplapu 1 + - + - -
286 Serratula tinctoria L. Zeltlape, krāsu 3 + - +t - -
Seseli libanotis (L.)
287 Briežsakne, kalnu 3 - - - + -
W.D.J.Koch
Silene borysthenica Plaukšķene,
288 2 + - +t - -
(Gruner) Walters sīkziedu
Silene chlorantha Plaukšķene,
289 2 + - - - -
(Willd.) Ehrh. zaļziedu
Plaukšķene,
290 Silene otites (L.) Wibe 2 + - - - -
ausainā
Plaukšķene,
291 Silene tatarica (L.) Pers. 3 - - - + -
Tatārijas
292 Sisymbrium supinum L. Žodzene, zemā 0 - - - - -
Sonchus humilis
293 Mīkstpiene, zemā 1 - - - - -
N.I.Orlova
Sparganium
294 Ežgalvīte, šaurlapu 2 + - - - -
angustifolium Michx.

66
Ex situ conservation

RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
Sparganium
Ežgalvīte,
295 glomeratum (Laest.) 1 + - - - -
kamolainā
Neuman
Sparganium
296 Ežgalvīte, zālainā 2 + - - - -
gramineum Georgi
Spergularia salina J. et
297 Pagaurs, jūrmalas 1 + - -t - -
C. Presl.
Stellaria crassifolia
298 Virza, biezlapu 3 - - - - -
Ehrh.
299 Subularia aquatica L. Subulārija, ūdeņu 1 + - - - -
300 Swertia perennis L. Svertija, ziemas 0 - - + - -
Taraxacum palustre
301 Pienene, purva 2 + - - - -
Lam. et DC.
302 Taxus baccata L. Īve, parastā 1 + - + + +
Embotiņš,
303 Teucrium chamaedrys L. 0 - - - + -
ozollapu
304 Teucrium scordium L. Embotiņš, ķiploku 1 + - - - -
305 Thesium alpinum L. Linlape, Alpu 1 + - - - -
Thesium ebracteatum
306 Linlape, pļavas 1 + + -t - -
Hayne
Tofieldia calyculata (L.) Tofieldija,
307 1 + - +t - -
Wahlenb. kauslapu
Tragopogon
Plostbārdis,
308 heterospermus 3 - - +t + w
pūkainais
Schweigg.
Ezerrieksts,
309 Trapa natans L. 1 + - - - -
peldošais
Trichophorum
310 Mazmeldrs, ciņu 3 + - - - -
caespitosum (L.) Hartm.
311 Trifolium alpestre L. Āboliņš, alpu 2 - - + + -
Trifolium campestre
312 Āboliņš, lauka 3 - - - - -
Schreb.
313 Trifolium dubium Sibth. Āboliņš, sīkais 3 - - +w - -
314 Trifolium fragiferum L. Āboliņš, zemeņu 1 + - +t - -
315 Triglochin maritimum L. Āžloks, jūrmalas 3 + - +t - -
316 Tripolium vulgare Ness Miķelīte, jūrmalas 1 + - +t - -
Utricularia ochroleuca Pūslene,
317 1 + - - - -
R. W. Hartm. gaišdzeltenā
Valerianella locusta (L.)
318 Baldriņš, salātu 1 - - - - -
Laterr.
319 Veronica montana L. Veronika, kalnu 1 + - +t - -
320 Vicia lathyroides L. Vīķis, dedestiņu 2 - - + - -
321 Vicia tenuifolia Roth Vīķis, smalklapu 2 - - - -
Vincetoxicum Indaine,
322 3 - - + + -
hirundinaria Medik. ārstniecības

67
RDB,
Reg. EC LU Kal-
No. Scientific name Latvian name cat- NBG
396 Dir. BG snava
egory
323 Viola elatior Fr. Vijolīte, augstā 1 + - - + -
Viola persicifolia
324 Vijolīte, dumbrāja 2 + - - - -
Schreb.
325 Viola uliginosa Besser Vijolīte, dūkstu 3 - - +t - -
326 Viscum album L. Āmulis, baltais 1 + - - - -
327 Zannichellia palustris L. Diedzene, purva 2 + - - - -
Sum according to Regulations No.396 223 238 13 106 42 31
Sum all together 319 238 14 136 60 35
% according to Regulations No.396 (from 238
44.5 17.6 13.0
species)
% from all (327 species) 41.3 18.3 10.7
Together in all ex situ collections according to Regulations No. 396 120
Together in all ex situ collections 152
% according to Regulations No.396 (from 238 species) 50.4
% together in all ex situ collections (from 327 species) 46.5

In Latvia there are 327 plants which are estimated as rare or endangered accord-
ing to a compilation of the lists (Red Book of Latvia, Regulations of the Cabinet of
Ministers and EC Directive), and 152 or 46% of them were in ex situ collections in
the end of 2010, but according to the Rules of the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia (the
legal base for the conservation, containing 238 species) there were 120 or 50.4%.

Conclusions
In ex situ collections in Latvia there are 120 species, which is 50.4% from 238
vascular plant species, protected according to law; this is 9.6% less than it was noted
in GSPC as a goal to be reached until the end of 2010.
By 2020 the number of rare and endangered plants in ex situ collections should
be increased until 75%, or to 179 species, so an additional 59 species should be in-
cluded additionally.
The question about recovery programs remains open. According to GSPC
48 species should be included in recovery programs by 2020.
By planning the work in forming ex situ collection in the definite garden, the
first attention should be paid to the species that are not included in the collections of
other gardens in order to increase the diversity of common collections.

References
• Andrušaitis G. (ed. in chief) (2003). Red Data Book of Latvia. Rare and threat-
ened plants and animals. Vol. 3. Vascular plants, Riga, 691 p.
• Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural
habitats and of wild fauna and flora. Official Journal L 206, 22/07/1992, 7–50 p.
• Decision Adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Bio-
logical Diversity at its Sixth Meeting VI/9. Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
(UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/VI/9), Hague, April 2002.

68
Ex situ conservation

• Decision Adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Bio-


logical Diversity at its Tenth Meeting X/17. Consolidated update of the Global
Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011-2020. (UNEP/CBD/COP/DEC/X/17),
Nagoya, 29 October 2010.
• Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia Nr 396 „Notei-
kumi par īpaši aizsargājamo sugu un ierobežoti izmantojamo īpaši aizsargājamo
sugu sarakstu” (Regulations of the list of specially protected species and specially
protected species of limited use). Latvijas Vēstnesis 413/417, 17.11.2000., incl. the
Alterations (Regulations of the CM Nr. 627, published 30.07.2004).
• Wyse Jackson, P.S. and Sutherland, L.A. (2000) International Agenda for Botanic
Gardens in Conservation. Botanic Gardens Conservation International, U.K.

69
70
Ex situ conservation

Community and species translocation


as a method of nature conservation:
A case study of “Katowice” Airport
Magdalena Maślak, Maja Głowacka, Agata Smieja, Magdalena Bregin,
Julia Góra. Silesian Botanical Garden

Abstract
Species and community translocations are one measure used to provide
compensation for damage to protected plant habitats caused by infrastructure
investment. The Silesian Botanical Garden is engaged in translocation from Katowice
Airport of 25 protected plant species and Natura 2000 habitats - European dry heaths
(4030), Molinia meadows on calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (Molinion
caeruleae - 6410) and transition mires and quaking bogs (7140) and alkaline
fens (7230). This ongoing project complies with requirements of translocation
permissibility. Translocation is acceptable only if (1) other measures of compensation
and mitigation are used and the investment cannot be abandoned, (2) detailed
investigation of donor and possible receptor sites are conducted, (3) financial means
for the after-care management and long-term monitoring are provided.

Introduction
Over the past 40 years the growth of human population and industrial
development has resulted in significant losses of biodiversity. Despite European
law protecting nature and years of practicing active and passive methods of nature
management, there is still an increasing risk of damaging the environment. Species,
as well as communities and whole ecosystems, are disappearing rapidly. During the
last one hundred and fifty years, around 40 species of vascular plants in Poland have
been lost (Andrzejewski & Weigle, 2003). Biodiversity loss is often the result of
infrastructure development, which frequently leads to degradation or destruction of
many valuable communities and habitats of protected species.
To reconcile nature management and developing infrastructure, environmental
impact assessment (EIA) procedures have been established. Every planned
infrastructure investment must be assessed in terms of its influence on environment. The
environmental impact assessment (EIA) seeks to restrict adverse environmental impact
and to curb development on valuable habitats. When investment appears likely to have
a significant impact on the natural environment, the investment may not be undertaken.
In some exceptional cases of high-priority investments, for example essential for
civil defense, some damage could be permissible, on condition that mitigation and
compensation measures are used. This accords with environmental impact assessment
law (Polish Law Register 2008.1999.1227) and the Directive 2004/35/EC of the
European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 on environmental liability

71
with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. The expansion
of the existing airport in Pyrzowice offers an example of such a high-priority investment
and related habitat destruction. The construction of a new runway in the area of
“Katowice” International Airport in Pyrzowice, will impact on habitats listed in annex
I of the Habitat Directive and sites of 25 protected species (Bregin et al., 2011; Invest-
Eko Nature Inventory of “Katowice” International Airport Area, 2009). These habitats
will disappear or become endangered because of possible changes in water regime.
Adverse environmental impact cannot be avoided by using other locations because this
huge runway will require vast infrastructure and accompanying facilities, such as roads,
highways and parking facilities. The environmental costs of constructing the runway
elsewhere would exceed the costs of expanding the existing airport.
Conservation strategies for mitigating biodiversity crises involve avoiding
negative ecological impacts and reducing the negative impacts that cannot be
avoided. Compensation involves replacing lost or adversely impacted environmental
sites to preserve functions that match the pre-existing environmental values, and
remedy any persisting significant negative ecological impacts (Rajvanshi, 2008).
Because the damage of valuable habitats in “Katowice” Airport is inevitable,
mitigation measures cannot be used for the protection of directly endangered
habitats and species. The order of Regional Director of Environmental Protection in
Katowice obliges the investing company GTL (Upper Silesian Aviation), to ensure
environmental compensation. This involves the translocation of parts of habitats and
species populations to a location indicated by the Silesian Botanical Garden. For the
habitats which are not directly endangered by the planned investment, the mitigation
measures of mowing and removal of brushwood and older trees are ordered.
Translocation is a compensation strategy which involves the physical removal
of endangered objects from one site to another in an attempt to offset the impact of
development on the natural habitats and wildlife of a site. It could be applied to species
as well as to whole plant communities. Species translocation is a conservation strategy
that enhances or protects the biodiversity of an area by introducing, reintroducing or
restocking carefully selected species (Woodland Trust). Translocation of species is
more common than community translocation. In Poland species translocation was
used for example, in the case of Veratrum lobelianum Berth a population of which
was situated in the planned A1 high-way construction site in Bytom. A second example
is the translocation of the population of Lesser Butterfly-orchid (Platanthera bifolia)
located on a stockpile of toxic industrial waste in Jaworzno. Community translocation
involves the movement of assemblages of species, mainly plants, (typically including
the substrates, such as soil and water, on and in which these species occur) from
their original site to a new location. It is one means of minimizing the negative
impacts of human activities on nature. This method of mitigation is rarely used in
Poland. It became popular in UK and USA (Bullock, 1998), although there is a lot
of controversy over the effectiveness of community translocation. There is little
published information that includes accounts of appropriate monitoring before and
after translocation and exhaustive description of receptor site preparation.

72
Ex situ conservation

When is habitat translocation acceptable?


Translocation risk assessment requires collecting good data over an appropriate
time period for a number of sites. There is a lack of information about the evaluation
of translocations. It is also impossible to replicate successful translocation projects,
because every translocation is unique – the plant communities, as well as donor
and receptor sites environments are always different. Most translocations are of
herbaceous or dwarf shrub communities (Box, 2003). Priority should be given to
mitigation measures - the avoidance of impacts at source, whether through the re-
design of a project or by regulating the timing or location of activities. Compensation,
including translocation, can be used only when there is no possibility of avoiding
physical damage of the habitat, due to a lack of alternatives (Bullock, 1998).

Botanical gardens and ex situ conservation


Botanical gardens and arboreta conduct ex situ conservation of native and non-
native plant species by creating a conservation collection, by cultivation of rare species
and plant varieties and by preparing a place for the new habitat. Seed and pollen
collection and storage is another ex situ method of plant conservation (Andrzejewski
& Weigle, 2003; Symonides, 2008). Nowadays botanical gardens mainly maintain
collections to preserve rare species but it is also possible to form a collection of rare
communities. This kind of collection has inherent worth and makes feasible the use
of translocated communities to habitats for rare species with narrow and very specific
microhabitat niche requirements.

Donor site characteristics


According to the nature inventory of “Katowice” International Airport Area, the
valuable communities which are to be destroyed are about 2 1000 m2 of European
dry heaths (Natura 2000 habitat code 4030); 15 000 m2 of Molinia meadows on
calcareous, peaty or clayey-silt-laden soils (Molinion caeruleae – 6410); over 1000 m2
of transition mires and quaking bogs (7140); and alkaline fens (7230). In addition,
sites of twenty five protected plant species will be destroyed:
• Four species of peat moss Sphagnum sp. (Sphagnum fimbriatum, S. squarrosum,
S. palustre, S. capillifolium)
• Siberian iris Iris sibirica
• Variegated horsetail Equisetum variegatum
• Greater bladderwort Utricularia vulgaris
• Meadow Gladiolus Gladiolus imbricatus
• Labrador tea Ledum palustre
• Broad-leaved marsh orchid Dactylorhiza majalis
• Heath Spotted-orchid Dactylorhiza mac ulata
• Threadleaf Crowfoot Ranunculus trichophyllus
• Umbellate wintergreen Chimaphila umbellate
• Common Broomrape Orobanche minor
• Grass Lily Ornithogalum umbelatum

73
• Marsh Gentian Gentiana pneumonanthe
• European centaury Centaurium erythraea
• Umbellate Wintergreen Chimaphila umbellata
• Stiff Clubmoss Lycopodium annotinum
• Wolf ’s-foot Clubmoss Lycopodium clavatum.

Receptor site characteristics


The place proposed for the adoption of communities and plant populations is
the Botanical Garden in Radzionków. The area is characterized by strongly diversified
habitats; there are wetlands, as well as sunlit, dry hills. Therefore it is potentially ready
to adopt habitats from the Airport area. The receptor site should have similar soil,
hydrology and topography to the original site and should be located not too far away.
Environmental research was performed at the potential receptor site and at the
Airport area. Soil profiles, water regime, soil and water chemistry investigations were
conducted, along with detailed investigation of the plant communities in both donor
and proposed receptor sites.
Radzionków Botanical Garden was chosen as a appropriate receptor site, mainly
because of its location in the same mesoregion as the donor site (Tarnogórski Hump
342.12, Kondracki, 2002). Chosen receptor site is also located in the vicinity of the
airport at Pyrzowice. The site provides the opportunity for the researchers to re-
create the demanded habitats and maintain control over their design. Also the fact
that there are areas in Radzionków Botanical Garden (reclaimed quarry areas), which
are not environmentally valuable – was crucial for this decision. No valuable habitats
will be destroyed because of the re-creation of Natura 2000 habitats in this area.

Preparation of the receptor site for translocation


According to Bullock (1998) in most translocation projects the top-soil layer
of the receptor site is excavated to reduce fertility and to create a bed of appropriate
depth for the turves. When the receptor site is drier than the donor site it is possible
to lower the soil surface relative to the water table. Sometimes herbicide is applied as
part of the preparation process of the receptor site. The removal of top-soil layer is
also beneficial for the translocated vegetation because it removes the soil seed bank
of competing plants. Translocated communities are unable to compete with local
vegetation in subsequent years after transplantation (Box, 2003).
The area in the Botanical Garden in Radzionków will be adapted for the
transplanted communities and plants to allow control, monitoring and modification
of the environmental conditions. First, the top soil layer will be excavated to reduce
the fertility and remove the seed bank. Then the water regime within the communities
will be controlled by creating soil layers with different levels of permeability.
Eutrophication of soil and water is well known and common cause of the biodiversity
decrease. Habitats with a lower level of nutrients are rare and mostly valuable, so it
is impossible to transplant communities into such locations without destroying local
vegetation worthy of preservation. To solve this problem, a system of water strainers

74
Ex situ conservation

will provide a lower fertility of water to a previously fertile site. Communities and
species with lower water demand will be situated on raised sites.

Choice of transplantation method


Bullock (1998) distinguished four translocation techniques: hand turfing;
machine turfing; macroturfing; and the spreading of excavated soil and vegetation.
In most cases vegetation is excavated with a specifically adapted excavator in the form
of large turves (1 m – 2 m) and pieced together on the previously prepared receptor
site (macroturfing). At the receptor site, spreading soil collected from the donor
site containing diaspores is a less effective method with regard to changes in species
composition after translocation (Bullock, 1998). Hand turfing involves cutting and
lifting small pieces of sod. Desiccation of small turves is a disadvantage of this method
and it is time-consuming, so this method cannot be applied to large areas.
We chose macroturfing as the method of translocation. This method is preferred
for wet as well as dry habitats and allows for fauna transfer with the soil and vegetation
(Box, 2011).

Measurement of success – the monitoring after translocation


The evaluation of the success of translocation should include detailed monitoring for
an appropriate time period, for example for 10 years, as proposed by Box (2003). Only a few
community translocation projects have had sufficient monitoring after translocation and
there is a lack of publications which give detail of long-term monitoring data. Monitoring,
in most cases, has taken place for 3-4 years after translocation (Bullock, 1998).
Effectiveness of translocation process can be evaluated by comparison of donor
and receptor site vegetation. This kind of evaluation does not include the natural
changes in time of plant communities, which is particularly important for communities
in the early stages of succession. Over a period of 10 years of monitoring marshes or
fens, the species composition will be changing and some species will disappear as a
result of the succession process. The changes in species composition that could arise
are not necessarily due to the translocation of the community. The other method
for evaluating translocation success is the examination of donor and control site
vegetation. Long-term monitoring takes into account changes in the communities
over time, but can only be carried out in field experiments. During our project the
evaluation process will be based on the comparison of the donor and receptor site
vegetation and habitat conditions, because possibility is not possible to leave intact
a part of the original community in the industrial investment area. The construction
of a new airport runway will change the hydrological conditions and other properties
of the habitat significantly. This will lead to dramatic changes in species composition
and prevents the comparison of the vegetation of the receptor and control sites.
The proposed monitoring includes:
examination of protected species populations (number of specimens in the case
of a small population; or density of specimens in larger populations; visual condition
of specimens; fertility; the extent of vegetative propagation);

75
• examination of the condition of the communities (number and participation of
characteristic and favorable species; number and participation of invasive and
expansive species; community structure).
Monitoring will be conducted at receptor site for at least for ten years after
translocation and for two years before translocation at the donor site.
Also problematic in community translocation projects is the lack of appropriate
after-care management. In the majority of translocations conducted so far,
the communities have received no or little after-care management. This led to
characteristic species loss and obscured the effectiveness of receptor site preparation
and the translocation method (Bullock, 1998). Appropriate monitoring shows
the need for treatment, which has to be conducted for enhancing the biodiversity
of communities. It is a fact that special attention is needed to preserve transient
vegetation.

Summary
Translocation of communities is a risky undertaking but sometimes it is the only
way to preserve valuable habitats. This project complies with the official requirements
that permit translocation. Other measures of compensation and mitigation were used
and the investment at the airport site cannot be abandoned. Detailed investigation
of donor and possible receptor sites was conducted. Financial support for after-care
management and long-term monitoring are provided. The transplanted communities
will become a part of the Botanical Garden in Radzionków and will provide suitable
habitats for rare species requiring a particular microhabitat niche.

References
• Andrzejewski, R. & Weigle, A. (2003). Różnorodność biologiczna Polski. NFOŚ,
Warszawa 2003.
• Box, J. (2003). Critical factors and evaluation criteria for habitat translocation.
Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 46, 839-856.
• Box, J., Brown, M, Coppin, N., Hawkeswood, N., Webb, M., Hill, A., Palmer,
Q., Le Duc, M., Putwain, P. (2011). Experimental wet heath translocation
in Dorset, England. Ecological Engineering 37, 158–171.
• Bregin, M., Góra, J., Smieja, A. 2011. Initial phytosociology inventory prepared for
the Project „Translocation of donor habitats from International Airport “Katowice” in
Pyrzowice to receptor sites on an area of the Silesian Botanical Garden – Association of
Societies”. Mikołów 2011, pp. 49.
• Bullock, J.M. (1998). Community translocation in Britain: Setting objectives and
measuring consequences. Biological Conservation 84, 199-214.
• Directive 2004/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April
2004. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2004:143:
0056:0075:en:PDF
• Environmental Impact Assessment Law (Polish Law Register 2008.1999.1227,
http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20081991227 – in Polish only)

76
Ex situ conservation

• Invest-Eko (2009). Nature inventory of International Airport „Katowice” in Pyrzowice


(in Polish). Invest-Eko, June 2009.
• Kondracki, J. (2002). Geografia regionalna Polski. Warszawa: PWN, 2002.
• R ajvanshi, A. (2008). Mitigation and compensation in environmental assessment.
In T.B. Fisher, P. Gazzola, U. Jha-Thakur, I. Belčáková & R. Aschemann
(Eds.), Environmental Assessment Lecturers’ Handbook (pp. 167-199).
http://www.twoeam-eu.net/handbook/05.pdf
• Symonides, E. (2008). Ochrona przyrody (2nd ed. pp. 587-594). Wydawnictwa
Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.

77
78
Ex situ conservation

The Silesian Botanical Garden Network –


an introduction to the idea.
Paweł Kojs

Author note
Silesia Botanical Garden, Mikołów, Poland

Introduction
The Silesian Voivodeship is a province, in southern Poland (Fig. 1.), with its
capital in Katowice. It is divided into 36 counties (powiats). These include 19 city
and 17 rural counties (Fig 2.). The counties are further divided into 167 gminas.
The Silesian Voivodeship has the highest population density in the country (377.4
people per square kilometre, compared to the national average of 124). It is the most
urbanized region in Poland: 78% of its population live in towns and cities (3,675,602).
Both urbanization and high population density negatively influence the biodiversity
of the region. Dynamic economic development of Silesia during last few years has
created new threats and was responsible for further losses of regional biodiversity.
The Red List of Upper Silesian plant communities and the Red List of Upper Silesian
plant species show the extent of these threats (Parusel, 1996; Celiński et al. 1997).
One of the strategic goals of the Silesian voivodeship is sustainable development
of the region. Biodiversity conservation and nature protection are very important

Geographical Regions in Poland Areas

East Europe

West Europe

Silesian Voivodeship

Figure 1: The physical-geographic location of Silesian Voivodeship in West Europe.

79
Administrative map of Silesian Voivodeship - division into counties

kłobucki

Częstochowa
częstochowski

lubliniecki

myszkowski

zawierciański
tarnogórski

gliwicki będziński
Bytom 4. Dąbrowa
Zabrze Górnicza
2. 3. 5. będziński
Gliwice Sosnowiec
1.
Katowice Jaworzno
rybnicki Mysłowice
rybnicki mikołowski
Rybnik Tychy bieruńsko-
raciborski lędziński
Żory 1. Ruda Śląska
wodzisławski
2. Świętochłowice
pszczyński
3. Chorzów
Jastrzębie- bielski 4. Piekary Śląskie
Zdrój
5. Siemianowice Śląskie
Bielsko -
Biała

cieszyński

żywiecki

Figure 2: The Silesian Voivodeship is divided into 36 counties (powiats). These


include 19 city and 17 rural counties.

targets which are complementary in this strategy. Botanical gardens are one of the
tools which help to fulfil the requirements of the regional programs of biodiversity
conservation. The question is how to protect nature effectively and at the same time
support regional development. One of the possible ways is to establish a regional
network of botanical gardens which will monitor the condition of natural ecosystems
and, when necessary, will actively support ex situ biodiversity conservation.

80
Ex situ conservation

From the Silesian Botanical Garden


to the Silesian Botanical Gardens Network
The Silesian Botanical Garden was formed in 2003 as an Association of Societies.
The Association was set up to work collaboratively towards horticultural/botanical
excellence, advocacy, promotional activities, assisting other botanical garden
developments, sharing exhibitions/displays, conservation and to help the community
to become more aware of the value of plants and biodiversity conservation by means
of education and explanation.
The Silesian Botanical Gardens Network operates under the common auspices
of the Silesian Botanical Garden – Association of Societies.

The Mission of the Silesian Botanical Gardens Network


The Silesian Botanical Gardens Network enables its members to gain mutual
benefit through cooperation, exchange of knowledge, ideas and experience,
sharing of resources and increased strength associated with belonging to a regional
organisation. Botanical gardens in the Silesian voivodeship need to be recognised,
supported and enhanced at all levels of the region to ensure that they achieve their
potential as essential guardians of the biodiversity and environmental heritage of
Silesia. Independent and self-governing botanical gardens lose a lot of resources in
maintaining themselves as separate single institutions. Operating in isolation is more
expensive than operating together and thus economically ineffective. The biggest
problems are:
• an unavoidable redundancy of certain educational, scientific or administrative
departments in the regional ex situ conservation system,
• lack of coordination of nature protection and biodiversity conservation
programmes run by different botanical gardens,
• minor impact of independent actions for nature protection and biodiversity
conservation (both at local and regional levels),
• low scientific impact (very often lack of scientific activity of the botanical garden’s
staff)
• low educational impact (generally local impact only)
• low promotional impact (regional promotion on TV, radio, the internet and in
journals is expensive and thus, for a single botanical garden, is too expensive)
• low political impact (in fields of a nature protection, a biodiversity conservation,
ecological education).

The proposed solution for such a situation was the establishment of the Silesian
Botanical Garden – Association of Societies which functions as a Regional Network
of botanical gardens in Silesian voivodeship.

The Regional Network includes a wide range of governmental, university,


municipal, community/village, NGO, private and other relevant institutions and
organisations. It also encourages volunteers to take part in reaching botanical gardens

81
goals and supports a wide range of voluntary activities. The work of the Regional
Network encompasses all activities of botanical gardens but gives special attention and
concern to the conservation of indigenous plant diversity, as well as environmental
education, research, identification, documentation and dissemination of knowledge
(including traditional ethno-botanical knowledge) about biodiversity in the Silesian
region. The Regional Network supports the development of a Biodiversity Action
Plan for Botanical Gardens and Arboreta in Silesia, to guide and support the work of
an established network and to highlight priority tasks for individual institutions and
for the entire network. This Action Plan will include measurable targets to provide
a focus for the work and achievements of botanical gardens over the coming years.
The Regional Network develops the means to ensure that data and information in
support of the implementation of the Action Plan are widely accessible in electronic
and other published forms (website, database, newsletters, technical manuals and
other publications) while at the same time safeguarding the intellectual property
rights of data providers. It also promotes and represents the interests of botanical
gardens in Silesian voivodeship to the broader environmental community.
Another important role of the Regional Network is the conservation and
sustainable use of horticultural plants, which are an important resource for sustainable
and ecological horticulture, as well as being a vital part of cultural heritage. In the
near future it will also add the conservation and sustainable use of medicinal plants,
which are an important resource for primary healthcare as well as being a vital part of
cultural heritage. The regional programme on the conservation of indigenous plants
will use all appropriate methodologies, including the integration of in situ and ex situ
techniques and the recovery of threatened plants.

The commitment of botanical gardens in the Silesian voivodeship supports


sustainable livelihoods in local regions by developing and implementing appropriate
community-based programmes. The botanical gardens also provide high quality
environmental education programmes that contribute to formal (curriculum-
based) education and informal learning, both within botanical gardens and their
outreach activities. It is agreed that the Regional Network should seek to enhance
the effectiveness of botanical garden education throughout the whole Silesian
voivodeship.

The Silesian Botanical Garden – Association of Societies has established


a Scientific Council to steer the development of the Network. The Council includes
representatives from different scientific institutions and organisations focused on
nature protection and biodiversity conservation from different parts of Poland.

Objectives of the Silesian Botanical Gardens Network


1. Promoting Botanical and Horticultural Excellence
To share of staff and knowledge, promote staff exchanges;

82
Ex situ conservation

To share best practice (practices, standards, systems);


To adopt uniform approaches to:
• pest, weed, fungi, phytoplasma, bacteria and viruses management;
• invasive plants management (Sharing information, and policy, on potentially
invasive alien plants in Botanical Gardens);
• seed and plant exchange.

2. Support
To make collective political representation and to be a single body that is recognised
across the region with respect to Regional Botanical Gardens Network;
To develop smaller working groups to collect views and respond to region-wide issues.

3. Promotion
To offer collective publicity or promotional activities;
To promote the value of Silesian Botanical Gardens for tourism;
To develop a collective website.

4. Assist individual members in development


To advocate and/or support the need for funding for conservation plans/management
plans;
To exchange or contribution to redundant collections;
To rationalise collections, particularly where duplication is not productive;
To operate an integrated system of public procurement.

5. Collaboration
To collaborate within the framework of the International Plant Exchange Network,
a system for the exchange of non-commercial plant material between botanical
gardens, based on the Convention on Biological Diversity;
To collaborate on the international level within the framework of the BGCI (Botanic
Gardens Conservation International);
To collaborate on the national level within the framework of the Council of Botanical
Gardens in Poland;
To engage in common conservation programmes and projects at the regional,
national and international levels;
To mount intensive environmental actions;
To shared educational programmes;
To organise collaborative tours of specific collections or exhibitions;
To engage in developmental programmes in selected fields of activity of botanical
gardens.

83
Geographical Regions in Poland
Provinces (Kondracki 2002)

84 Eastern Baltic
and Bialorussia Plain

31 Central European Plain

34 Polish Uplands

33 Bohemian 85 Ukrainian
Massif Uplands

51 Carpathia and Subcarpathia

52 Eastern
Carpathia
Provinces

31 Central European Plain 52 Eastern Carpathia

84 Eastern Baltic and Bialorussia Plain


33 Bohemian Massif

85 Ukrainian Uplands
34 Polish Uplands

51 Western Carpathia and Western


Silesian Voivodeship
and Northern Subcarpathia

Figure 3: There are 7 physical-geographical provinces in Poland and 3 of them in


the Silesian Voivodeship (Kondracki, 2002).

84
Ex situ conservation

Geographical Regions in Silesian voivodship


Mesoregions (Kondracki 2002)

342.13 Próg Lelowski


341.21 Wyżyna Wieluńska 342.14 Niecka Włoszczowska
341.22 Obniżenie Liswarty-Prosny
341.23 Próg Woźnicki 342.21 Płaskowyż Jędrzejowski
341.24 Próg Herbski 341.21
341.26 342.14 342.22 Wyżyna Miechowska
341.25 Obniżenie Górnej Warty
341.26 Obniżenie Krzepickie
341.24

341.22 341.25

341.23
318.57 Równina Opolska
318.58 Płaskowyż Głubczycki 342.13
318.59 Kotlina Raciborska 341.31
318.57 342.21

341.11 342.22

341.12

341.11 Chełm
341.12 Garb Tarnogórski
341.13 341.13 Wyżyna Katowicka
341.14 Pagóry Jaworznickie
341.15 Płaskowyż Rybnicki
318.59 341.14 341.33
341.31 Wyżyna Częstochowska
318.58
341.33 Rów Krzeszowicki
341.15 512.21

512.21 Równina Pszczyńska


512.22 Dolina Górnej Wisły
512.23 512.23 Pogórze Wilamowskie
512.11 Wysoczyzna 512.22
Kończycka 512.11 513.32 Pogórze Śląskie

513.32
513.47
513.46
513.45 Beskid Śląski
513.45 513.46 Kotlina Żywiecka
Regional botanical garden 513.48 513.47 Beskid Mały
513.48 Beskid Makowski
Provincial botanical garden 513.51 Beskid Żywiecki
Subprovincial botanical garden
Macroregional botanical garden 513.51

Mesoregional botanical garden

Figure 4: There are 30 meso-regions in Silesian Voivodeship (Kondracki, 2002).


The proposal for the entire system of biodiversity conservation at the re-
gional level is based on hierarchical physical-geographical divisions. The
basic unit of this hierarchy is the meso-region. At this level both in situ
and ex situ conservation can be more precise and effective.

85
Geographical Regions in Silesian voivodship
Macroregions (Kondracki 2002)

341.2
342.1

341.3
342.2

Macroregions

341.1 318.5 NIZINA ŚLĄSKA

318.5 341.1 WYŻYNA ŚLĄSKA

341.2 WYŻYNA WOŹNICKO


-WIELUŃSKA
512.2
512.1

341.3 WYŻYNA KRAKOWSKO


513.3 -CZĘSTOCHOWSKA

342.1 WYŻYNA PRZEDBORSKA

Regional botanical garden


513.4-5 342.2 NIECKA NIDZIAŃSKA
Provincial botanical garden 512.1 KOTLINA OSTRAWSKA
Subprovincial botanical garden
512.2 KOTLINA OŚWIĘCIMSKA
Macroregional botanical garden

513.3 POGÓRZE
ZACHODNIOBESKIDZKIE

513.4-5 BESKIDY ZACHODNIE

Figure 5: There are 10 macro-regions in the Silesian Voivodeship (Kondracki,


2002). At this level macro-regional botanical gardens organize and coor-
dinate ex situ conservation programs.

86
Ex situ conservation

Geographical Regions in Silesian voivodship


Subprovinces (Kondracki 2002)

342

341
Subprovinces

342 WYŻYNA
MAŁOPOLSKA

512
341 WYŻYNA ŚLĄSKO
- KRAKOWSKA

318 NIZINY
ŚRODKOWOPOLSKIE
poviats

513 512 PÓŁNOCNE


Regional botanical garden PODKARPACIE
Provincial botanical garden
Subprovincial botanical garden
513 ZEWNĘTRZNE
KARPATY ZACHODNIE

Figure 6: There are 5 sub-provinces in the Silesian Voivodeship (Kondracki, 2002).


At this level sub-provincial botanical gardens prepare reports and work-
ing materials concerning the ex situ conservation programs undertaken
by the coordinated group of gardens.

87
Geographical Regions in Silesian voivodship
Provinces (Kondracki 2002)

34

31

Provinces

34 Polish Uplands
province

51 Carpathia and
Subcarpathia province

31 Central European
Plain province

poviats 51
Regional botanical garden
Provincial botanical garden

Figure 7: There are 3 provinces in the Silesian Voivodeship (Kondracki, 2002).


At this level provincial botanical gardens organize and coordinate ex situ
conservation programs at the regional level. One of these botanical gar-
dens has the status of regional botanical garden. At this level the Scientific
Council of the Silesian Botanical Garden Network will establish a Re-
gional Action Plan for the Silesian Botanical Garden Network.

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Ex situ conservation

Administrative map of Silesian Voivodeship -


potential places for botanical gardens

kłobucki

Częstochowa
częstochowski

lubliniecki

myszkowski

zawierciański
tarnogórski

gliwicki będziński
Bytom 4. Dąbrowa
Zabrze Górnicza
2. 3. 5. będziński
Gliwice Sosnowiec
1.
Katowice Jaworzno
rybnicki Mysłowice
rybnicki mikołowski
Rybnik Tychy bieruńsko-
raciborski lędziński
Żory 1. Ruda Śląska
wodzisławski
2. Świętochłowice
pszczyński
3. Chorzów
Jastrzębie- bielski 4. Piekary Śląskie
Zdrój
5. Siemianowice Śląskie
Bielsko -
Biała

counties cieszyński

Regional botanical garden żywiecki

Provincial botanical garden


Subprovincial botanical garden
Macroregional botanical garden
Mesoregional botanical garden

Figure 8: Potential places in the Silesian Voivodeship for meso-regional botanical


gardens (20) are marked with green triangle; macro-regional botani-
cal gardens (5) with a yellow triangle; sub-provincial (2) with a yellow
circle; and provincial botanical gardens (3) with a yellow square . They
are superimposed on an administrative map of the Voivodeship. Because
provincial botanical gardens are placed in given sub-provinces, macro-
regions and meso-regions carry out the function of sub-provincial,
macro-regional and meso-regional botanical gardens. The same applies
to sub-provincial and macro-regional gardens. In total in the Silesian
Voivodeship there is a place for 30 botanical gardens which will cover 30
physical-geographical meso-regions with their activity.

89
6. Conservation
To preserve within each botanical garden a representation of local indigenous flora
(from meso-region, macro-region, sub–province or province) within the framework
of the Action Plan for Botanical Gardens;
To work closely with local community conservation groups and provide assistance,
where possible, for local conservation projects.

7. Education and Interpretation


To assist each other with educational and interpretational materials and personnel;
To foster community interest in the local botanical gardens;
To recognise the community interest in ornamental, cultivated varieties and local
indigenous plants by providing display gardens as educational tools;
To increase the community awareness, knowledge and appreciation of plants.
(Based on http://www.anbg.gov.au/chabg/bg-nsw/index.html)

Silesian Botanical Garden Network: Theoretical assumptions


The idea of the Silesian Botanical Garden Network is based on a systemic approach
towards ex situ biodiversity conservation which is an important part of the system of
biodiversity conservation at the regional level. In constructing this system, the main
assumption is that the basic role of botanical gardens is to protect local biodiversity.
Local biodiversity is a derivative of climatic and bio-geographical conditions.
We therefore adopted Kondracki’s (2002) approach that uses physical geography as a
basis defining regions (Fig. 3.). We use this hierarchy of regions in the voivodeship to
indicate where the botanical gardens of the network should be located. The proposal
includes four types of botanical gardens: provincial, sub-provincial, macro-regional
and meso-regional. In addition, one of the provincial botanical gardens is given the
status of a Regional Botanical Garden. This means that it has additional function of
organising and coordinating the work of other botanical gardens at the regional level.

Meso-regional botanical gardens constitute a basic element of this system. Such


botanical gardens may employ only one person based on a small area (1-5 ha) but can
be rich in natural habitats. This type of botanical garden monitors and provides ex
situ conservation of the biodiversity of a given meso-region (Fig. 4.).

Macro-regional botanical gardens have some additional functions connected


with coordination and planning of ex situ conservation in several meso-regional
botanical gardens. These types of a botanical gardens should be bigger than meso-
regional ones (5-15 ha) (Fig. 5.).

Sub-provincial botanical gardens, in addition to these functions, have to prepare


reports based on data received from macro-regional botanical gardens which show
the state of rare and endangered species in given sub-province (Fig. 6.).

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Ex situ conservation

Provincial botanical gardens prepare these data for the Scientific Committee
of the Silesian Botanical Garden Network as a basis for strategic decision-making
concerning ex situ and in situ biodiversity conservation in the Silesian voivodeship.
A provincial botanical garden performs the most important function in this system.
Besides reporting and planning activities it also trains and educates staff of other
botanical gardens in the province(Fig. 7.).

The whole system should cover the entire voivodeship and provide a nature
protection system at the regional level supporting the in situ system whenever it is
necessary. This system can be also a useful tool in the naturalization of land changed
by human activity and/or in the transfer to new sites of valuable habitats endangered
by investments.

In the Silesian Botanical Garden this multi-level system has been developing since
2003. Currently it comprises 3 botanical gardens in 2 provinces [Polish Uplands (34),
Central European Plain (31)]. Two of these gardens in Mikołów and in Racibórz are
potential provincial botanical gardens. In the Carpathia and Subcarpathia province
(51) a suitable place in Bielsko Biała has been chosen to build the third provincial
botanical garden. Developing this network involves activities of different types of
institutions. Between others there are: Silesian voivodeship, powiats and gminas of
the region, the Silesian University, the Polish Academy of Sciences and several non-
governmental organisations(Fig. 8.).

Glossary of terms
Physical-geographic region– a relatively uniform area easily distinguished
from neighbouring areas on the basis of characteristics of the features of a natural
environment.
Micro-region – a small part of a bigger area (meso-region or macro-region)
separated on the basis of specific geographical, natural, social or economic features.
Meso-region (physical-geographic meso-region) – a division of a region,
consisting of a large area with similar environmental and landscape characteristics. In
the hierarchical Physical-Geographic Regionalization of Poland (Kondracki 2002)
a meso-region is a unit of lower rank which is a part of macro-region. In certain
regions with more complex natural environments, further division into smaller units
is recommended, namely micro-regions.
Macro-region - a physical-geographic division of a sub-province which comprises
of large area with comparable environmental and landscape characteristics.
Sub-province - a physical-geographic division of a province which comprises of
large area with comparable climatic and landscape characteristics.
Province - a physical-geographical division of a mega-region.

91
References
• Celiński F., Wika S., Parusel J.B. (Eds.) 1997. Red List of Plant Associations of Upper
Silesia. Centre for Nature Heritage of Upper Silesia. Raporty i Opinie, 2:38-68
Katowice.
• Kondracki J. 1994. Geografia Polski. Mezoregiony fizyczno-geograficzne. PWN,
Warszawa.
• Kondracki J. 2002. Geografia regionalna Polski. PWN, Warszawa.
• Parusel J. B. (Ed.). 1996. Czerwona lista roślin naczyniowych Górnego Śląska.
Centrum Dziedzictwa Przyrody Górnego Śląska. Raporty i Opinie 1: 8-42.
Katowice.
• http://www.anbg.gov.au/chabg/bg-nsw/index.html

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Ex situ conservation

93
94
Ex situ conservation

Department of Scientific
and Conservation Collections,
Silesian Botanical Garden (SiBG)
Marta Jańczak, Wojciech Pikuła

Author note
Silesian Botanical Garden, Mikolow, Poland

Conservation Collection ‘Old Varieties of Fruit Trees’


The Conservation Collection ‘Old Varieties of Fruit Trees’ was founded in 2005.
Now the SiBG orchard has 588 apple trees consisting of 270 varieties and also several
varieties of cherry, pear and plum trees. These trees are located in two orchards totalling
2,38 ha in area. The great majority of the plant material originates from the Polish
Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden Centre for Biological Diversity Conservaion in
Powsin (Warsaw, Poland) and from nursery-gardens with old vaieties of fruit trees.

Educational Collection of ‘High Energy Plants’


The Educational Collection of ‘High Energy Plants’ occupies an area 0.16 ha.
There are 8 species of high energy yielding plants: Salix vinimalis, Salix purpurea,
Rosa multiflora, Sida hermaphrodita, Panicum virgatum, Miscanthus giganteus,
Helianthus tuberosum and Silphium perfoliatum. This collection was created as basis
for educational activities.

Projects in implementation
The Department of Scientific and Conservation Collections – related activities
projects take place thanks to financial support granted by (Wojewódzki Fundusz
Ochrony Środowiska I Gospodarki Wodnej w Katowicach) a regional fund for
environmental protection and water management in Katowice.
So far in the SiBG, the following projects have been implemented:
• “Establishment of fruit cultivation - collection of old varieties and locally grown
fruit trees in the SiBG in Mikolow”,
• “Expansion of the collection of traditional varieties of apple orchards in SiBG in
Mikolow” an
• “Expansion of horticultural collections of traditional varieties of fruit trees with
the establishment of rootstock nurseries - Phase II”
• Currently being implemented are the following projects:
• “Expansion and addition to the collection of traditional fruit varieties of fruit trees
along with the expansion of rootstock nurseries - Phase III”
• “Expansion of The Educational Collection of High Energy Plants in the SiBG in
Mikolow”

95
The first project is a continuation of the expansion of orchard collections and
shelves of rootstock nurseries, which in future will be the basis for the preservation
of local varieties. The second project aims to expand the Educational Collection
of High Energy Plants, by planting the most popular species. This Collection was
originally founded in 2007.
In addition, in 2010-2012 the Department of Scientific and Conservation
Collections is implementing the project: “Analysis of biodiversity with an emphasis
on old varieties of cherries in the St. Anna’s land Association area and necessary
measures for their rescue.” The main objective is to inventory the historic cherry
avenue located around St. Anna’s Mountain in Opolskie and to preserve the genetic
resources of these varieties. First, accurate documentation is made based on field
expeditions. Scions are then collected from selected trees. Collected scions grafted
onto rootstocks will be collected in the SiBG. These will in future replace old and
dying trees in the St. Anna cherry avenues.

Future plans
1. Successive expansion of The Conservation Collection ‘Old Varieties of Fruit Trees’
together and enlarging its area.
2. Carrying out field expeditions whose purpose will be downloading and grafting
scions of the old and locally grown varieties of fruit trees.
3. Conducting research on alternative energy sources and development of the
Educational Collection of High Energy Plants.
4. Conducting research in the Department of Scientific and Conservation
Collections.

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Ex situ conservation

97
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Education for
Sustainable
Development
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100
Education for Sustainable Development

The Challenge of Education


for Sustainable Development
in Botanical Gardens
David Oldroyd

Author note
David Oldroyd, Permanent Secretary ENIRDELM (www.enirdelm.org)

Abstract
The urgency of threats to sustaining global socio-ecological systems on ‘Space
Station Earth’ is first outlined. This urgency is great enough to argue firstly, that
education for sustainable development (ESD) needs to play a central role in educating
the public and future generations about these threats and how to deal with them.
Secondly, the case is presented that education programs in botanical gardens are ideal
arenas for contributing to this challenge of ESD. It would require that such programs
broaden their focus beyond environmental education to offer an understanding of
the interaction of humans with nature at the planetary level. The freedom of botanical
gardens from the constraints faced by schools make them better placed to offer ESD
by means of direct contact with the living world and the processes that connect its
inter-dependent life support systems. One such program in the Silesian Botanical
Garden’s Centre of Education for Ecological and Environmental Education (C3E) is
identified and finally networking with similar programs is proposed with some initial
suggestions about possible links.

Introduction

Figure 1: Earth as a Space Station

101
There is an urgent need to help the public and especially young people, to see
the proper place of humans within (not above) nature. This requires seeing the Earth
and its inter-related systems as whole, as our only ‘space station’, our only ‘Garden of
Eden’, powered by the sun’s energy. On Christmas Eve 1968 in “the most influential
environmental photograph ever taken” (Anders, 1968) from the Apollo 8 orbit of the
moon, the Earth seems like a beautiful blue and white orbiting space station driven by
solar power. We humans are the crew, the astronauts, who must care for the spaceship
and its entire living species that are part of our on-board life support systems. (There
are at least 1.3 million species in the Catalogue of Life). Even young children can
appreciate the analogy of the Earth with a space station that cannot be increased in
size and must keep its life-support systems working if the crew is to survive. The
collaboratively man-made International Space Station in Figure 2 definitely has a
limited carrying capacity, so has Space Station Earth. The life support systems of our
planet are far more complex than those of the man-made international space station
(Pearce, 2010).

Figure 2: International Space Station


Figure 3: Pale Blue Dot

Carl Sagan, the great cosmologist and educator, offered an even larger perspective
on the Earth seen from outer space as a “Pale Blue Dot” (in the centre of Fig 3)
possibly one of many planets where life evolved in a sequence he described as:
“a planet, newly formed, placidly revolves around its star; life slowly forms;
a kaleidoscopic procession of creatures evolves; intelligence emerges which
confers enormous survival value; and then technology is invented. It dawns
on them that there are such things as laws of Nature ... Science, they recognize,
grants immense powers. In a flash, they create world-altering contrivances.
Some planetary civilizations see their way through and place limits on what
may and what must not be done, and safely pass through the time of perils.
Others, not so lucky or so prudent, perish”. (Sagan, 1994)

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Education for Sustainable Development

He speculated that there might be many planets in the universe with life systems,
and traced two scenarios:
• Sustainable civilizations that survive by ‘placing limits’ on their numbers and
activities to stay in harmony with the laws of nature
• Civilisations that perish.
According to interdisciplinary researchers (Rockstrom, et.al, 2009a) the human
species, as the most powerful of the passengers of Space Station Earth, has reached
the last decade in which to choose between these two scenarios in what could be
‘Our Final Century’ (Rees, 2003) on ‘The Plundered Planet’ (Collier, 2010). The
most urgent mission of our times is to educate leaders and public opinion about the
urgency to place limits on exponential growth of human systems in order to live in
sustainable harmony with nature.
In May 2011 a gathering of Nobel Prize winners at the 3rd Nobel Laureate
Symposium in Stockholm added to the many declarations about these issues that
have been issued over the last four decades, but have failed to achieve what they
call “a mind-shift for a great transformation”. Their declaration - ‘The Stockholm
Memorandum: Tipping the scales towards sustainability’ – contains the following
introduction that reinforces Sagan’s concerns about ‘civilisations that perish’ when
they transgress planetary boundaries and fail to become stewards of their planetary,
space station home:
‘...we are the first generation with the insight of the new global risks facing
humanity. We face the evidence that our progress as the dominant species
has come at a very high price. Unsustainable patterns of production,
consumption, and population growth are challenging the resilience of the
planet to support human activity. At the same time, inequalities between and
within societies remain high, leaving behind billions with unmet basic human
needs and disproportionate vulnerability to global environmental change.
... we call upon all leaders of the 21st century to exercise a collective
responsibility of planetary stewardship. This means laying the foundation
for a sustainable and equitable global civilization in which the entire
Earth community is secure and prosperous. Science indicates that we are
transgressing planetary boundaries that have kept civilization safe for the
past 10,000 years. Evidence is growing that human pressures are starting to
overwhelm the Earth’s buffering capacity.
Humans are now the most significant driver of global change, propelling
the planet into a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. We can no longer
exclude the possibility that our collective actions will trigger tipping points,
risking abrupt and irreversible consequences for human communities and
ecological systems. ... We must respond rationally, equipped with scientific
evidence. ...In an interconnected and constrained world, in which we have
a symbiotic relationship with the planet, environmental sustainability is a
precondition for poverty eradication, economic development, and social
justice. Our call is for fundamental transformation and innovation in all

103
spheres and at all scales in order to stop and reverse global environmental
change and move toward fair and lasting prosperity for present and future
generations.’

The global scale of this recent strong and urgent challenge to maintain ‘sustainable
civilisation’ on ‘Space Station Earth’ will now be further examined and then directed
towards education for sustainable development in botanical gardens.

The Challenge of Education for Sustainable Development


Humans and Natural Earth ‘Spheres’
The UN has for forty years been trying to raise public awareness of the
growing threat of human population and activity to the planet. In 1972 the United
Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm responded to the
realisation that growth of environmental degradation needed international attention
and collaboration. That conference resulted in the creation of the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP). As one of a long series of efforts the UN declared
2005-2014 the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development to help promote
‘big picture’ global systems thinking and integrated learning about our place and
prospects in our planetary home. What do we mean by ‘the big picture’ and integrated
learning about humans in nature? The Earth seen as a complex spherical space
station has many inter-related ‘layers’. It is an incredibly complex ‘system of systems’
that form ‘layers’ spread across the spherical surface. These inter-dependent ‘spheres’
have evolved over the last 3.5 billion years: but the spheres created by humans, only
since the evolution of homo sapiens in the last half million years.

Table 1: Inter-acting ‘Spheres’ of Planet Earth


Natural World Human World
‘Geosphere’ ‘Bio/ecosphere’ ‘Memosphere’ ‘Technosphere’
The material earth The organic earth World of ideas, Totality of ‘stuff’
beliefs & actions of human activity
LAYERS KINGDOMS MEANINGS AND PRODUCTS OF
Lithosphere e.g. Viruses WORLDVIEWS TECHNOLOGY
(solid crust & soil) Bacteria Magic Infrastucture
Atmosphere (gas) Plants Myth Energy & Industry
Hydrosphere (liquid) Animals Pre-modern Biotechnology
Cryosphere (frozen) (including the Modern Genetics
Garbo-sphere human Post-modern Robotics
(human waste) Demo-sphere) ICT & Cybersphere
etc. Nanotechology
Physical and Earth Life Science Humanities & Social Applied Science
Science Science

We live in unprecedented times. ‘Space Station Earth’ now has too many humans
and human activities and wastes to continue safely beyond the near future. There
has been a ‘Great Acceleration’ of the human impact on the natural earth since 1940

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Education for Sustainable Development

when the global population was just over 2 billion humans. The natural world is finite
and subject to the laws of autopoesis (self-generation) but currently one species is
increasing exponentially. Human population will reach 7 billion in October 2011
and 9 billion by 2050 (1.1% annual compound growth - a doubling rate of less than
70 years). The latest forecast from the UN (2011) is for 10.6 billion by 2100. The
two ‘Human Worlds’, the memosphere (knowledge explosion – ‘memes’ = units of
meaning postulated by Dawkins (1976) as self-replicating through culture in the
way that ‘genes’ self-replicate in organisms) and technosphere (the material layer:
cities, transport, pollution, etc., added by human technical and economic activity)
are growing even faster (currently 4.2% annual compound growth, doubling every
13 years). Among the connected, inter-dependent ‘spheres’ the demosphere and
technosphere are now the major forces transforming the planet’s surface layers (Our
geological era is now the called the Anthropocene because of this human impact). The
demosphere, technosphere and garbo-sphere are in ‘overshoot’ whereas others, energy
reserves and biodiversity loss, are being depleted at an alarming and accelerating rate.
The rapid depletion of the energy resources that underpin our industrial civilisation
is possibly the most alarming impact and is graphically illustrated by a five-minute on-
line presentation from the Post-carbon Institute (2011). The atmosphere, hydrosphere
and cryosphere are being changed by non-recyclable human wastes and synthetics.
2011-2020 is very likely to be the crucial decade for choosing between a sustainable
future and the collapse of human civilisation to which Sagan referred. Botanical
Gardens can play their part in educating about the need for radical change in the
relations between humans and nature.

Threats to Life Support Systems


The harnessing of cheap fossil energy initiated the Industrial Revolution and
the Anthropocene Era. By converting this energy for technological advances in food
production, transport and medical care, human population was enabled to increase
from 1 billion around 1880 to over 7 billion in 2010, but energy resources are fast
depleting and increasing in price (Post-carbon Institute, 2011). The economic growth
that energy supplies fuels is doubling every 13 years or so. ‘Planetary boundaries’
(ceilings on how much growth the planet can contain) set limits to growth within
Planet Earth. Some boundaries may already be over-reaching ‘safe operating states’
(as opposed to ‘limits’) according to the Stockholm Resilience Institute researchers.
They identify nine such planetary ‘boundaries at the lower edge of uncertainty’.

Table 2: Nine Planetary Boundaries


• Atmospheric CO2* - thought by some to be 350 p.p.m (now 390 and accelerating)
• Stratospheric ozone layer - so far addressed by the Montreal Protocol
• Ocean acidification – resulting in collapse of biomass
• Fresh water use – needed by terrestrial biomass
• Landuse – replacement of natural with man-made systems
• Loss of biodiversity* – regulation of ecosystems

105
• Phosphate and nitrogen cycles* - overload of mined phosphate and manufactured
nitrogen fertilisers entering ecosystems
• Chemical pollution – introduction of synthetic chemicals
• Aerosol loading – soot, sulphates and other particles
* = planetary boundary probably already exceeded
Rockstrom (2009b)

Of course, the growth of human population, technology and economic output


underlie the pressure on these planetary boundaries. Paul Ehrlich, Professor of
Population Studies and President of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford
University in California concludes:
India and China are both vastly overpopulated by the simple standard that
they are living on (and exhausting) their natural capital - agricultural soils, ground
water, and the biodiversity that runs our life-support systems. Until and unless we
can humanely begin to shrink the global population, following the lead of over-
consuming and over-populated European nations, the future seems grim.
These two countries have economies now growing at almost 10% per annum
which mean a doubling of all their man-made goods and services every 7 years as
they catch up with richer countries. Ehrlich adds that:
Overpopulation is helping to drive climate disruption, land-use change, ocean
overharvesting, toxification of the entire planet, the increased probability of novel
epidemics, and greater threats of resource wars - especially a nuclear one - has not
abated.
These few examples of threats to the life-support systems of our planetary
home are supported with much more evidence from concerned scientists who are
examining the complex interconnections of the socio-environmental systems or
‘earth’s spheres’. The widespread denial of, and distraction from, this inter-connected
evidence of global scale problems needs to be urgently counteracted by scientists
and educators. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask educators in botanical gardens to
consider addressing them?

Education for Sustainable Development - A priority for Botanical


Gardens?
Given the urgency of the situation sketched above the challenge of educating
the public to live sustainably within nature is clear: understanding the connectedness
and inter-dependence of the earth’s spheres (our life-support systems); getting
exponential growth of human population and the related technosphere under
control; dealing with the consequences of:
• ‘overshoot’ of the earth’s carrying capacity within ‘planetary boundaries’;
• depletion of energy, mineral and food resources;
• disruption of natural systems by waste products.

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Education for Sustainable Development

Integrated education on these themes that modifies prevailing worldviews and life-
styles and promotes ‘big picture’, systems thinking is crucial and urgent. The proverbial
problem of the blind men trying to identify an elephant is often used to illustrate our
blindness to the ‘big picture’ of the planet’s complex interacting systems. We need to
overcome the fragmented, subject-based approach that prevails in most school systems
beset by ‘subject empires’ competing for time in the curriculum and influenced by over-
specialised research in universities. Conventional environmental education (EE) has
been a step in the right directions, but ESD offers a broader and more fully integrated
way of examining the interactions between human and natural systems with a view to
addressing current crises. The United Nations has for many years been promoting ESD as
‘The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development’ confirms, but the impact of UN
conferences and symbolic declarations seems slow to filter into educational practice.
There is, therefore, a strong case that Botanical Gardens could and should
play their part in educating public opinion about the need for radical change in the
relations between humans and nature. Clearly, the educational programs of botanical
gardens are one of several aspects of their work and there are considerable differences
in the extent to which various gardens provide educational activities. But there are
compelling reasons why they might provide ideal locations for ESD:
• Botanical gardens occupy a special place between diverse, world-wide nature
and local gardens where the connections between local and global scales can
demonstrate ‘the big picture’ of how humans depend on nature.
• They can offer direct contact with natural processes that stimulates all the senses
and engages values & feelings as well as deeper understanding.
• They are able to connect learning about nature, culture and science with help of
staff who respect nature and often care passionately about its preservation.
• Young people can be encounter nature in safety in botanical gardens and their
surrounding regions.
• Non-formal education providers have the freedom and flexibility to design learning
programs outside the school system and its constraints of separate subjects, tests,
examinations, etc.
In the relatively newly established Silesian Botanical Garden and its Centre for
Ecological and Environmental Education (C3E) in Mikołów, Poland this challenge
has been responded to in the form of the Process Education for Sustainable
Development (PESD) program (Ogrodnik, 2011). The program has been developed
by educators from three disciplinary backgrounds – ecology, philosophy and
psychology – and employs a pedagogy known as ‘process education’ influenced by
the work of A.N.Whitehead and others that uses a broader range of learning goals
and events than would be possible in conventional schooling. The innovative ESD
program is offered in C3E alongside more conventional EE programs and importantly
is accompanied by a leader training course for teachers and others who implement
the three-year program for young people that takes place in both the botanical
garden and the local areas from which the students come. The website in English
that describes the PESD program in detail is at http//esdinsibg.wordpress.com.

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Connecting networks for ESD
There are already several thriving networks and initiatives that are rising to the
challenge of spreading ESD although none of them specifically attempts to link
the good practice that is appearing in some botanical gardens such as the Silesian
Botanical Garden. If botanical garden education programs are to be networked
across Europe, two strategies for mutual support and sharing expertise might be
considered: creating a new network specific to botanical gardens; joining already
existing networks.
If a network dedicated specifically to ESD in botanical gardens is to be formed,
then the European Consortium of Botanical Gardens might offer a platform.
If joining other networks is desirable, then the following networks or institutions
might possibly be approached:

• ENIRDELM – this European network to which the author belongs, focuses on


developing educational leadership and has an EL4SD sub-group working on
‘educational leadership for sustainable development’. The leaders of educational
programs within both formal and non-formal institutions might find the on-line
resources of the ENIRDELM initiative which include the findings of a research
project that compares the attitudes of school leaders in 14 countries to issues
relating to ESD. Sweden emerged from the study as well ahead at both government
and institutional levels in holding values that promote ESD. www.enirdelm.org
• Environmental Network for School Initiatives (ENSI) links schools across Europe
by developing teaching and learning for local and global ESD by means of a digital
platform (consisting of data, examples) for collaborative knowledge building.
Among other aims ENSI encourages the creativity of students to have a self-
corrective attitude; concentrate of being in harmony with nature and to challenge
the definition and theory of sustainability (ESD) http://www.ensi.org/Projects
• Schumacher College in England provides individuals and groups from across the
world with the opportunity to learn on numerous levels about subjects relating
to environmental and social sustainability. The college was established in 1991
and named after Fritz Schumacher whose ideas about sustainable development
captured in his concept ‘Small is Beautiful’ (Schumacher, 1973). Through a range
of educational activities, participants experience deep and holistic engagement
with transformative learning for sustainable living. They are encouraged to consider
some of the most urgent challenges of sustainability and to take responsibility for
delivering effective solutions in their own working and personal environments.
• SEEd (School Development through Environmental Education) is a European
network that disseminates news on sustainable development in the Education
sector, ESD, jobs, funding and any upcoming events, courses or consultations. se-
ed.org.uk
• The Center for Ecoliteracy based in California and Directed by integral thinker
Fritjof Capra, has been a leader for 20 years in the green schooling movement.

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Education for Sustainable Development

It provides a framework and services for schooling for sustainability in more


than 400 communities across the United States and numerous other countries.
The Center is best known for its pioneering work with school gardens, school
lunches, and the integration of ecological principles and sustainability into school
curricula. It also offers books, teaching guides, seminars, a sustainability leadership
academy, keynote presentations, and consulting services. www.ecoliteracy.org/

Conclusion
The ‘mind-shift for a great transformation’ that the Nobel Laureates in
Stockholm and many others advocate can only come about through scientists,
educators and above all, politicians working on many fronts. This article has offered
a challenge to educators in botanical gardens to join in this effort. It has argued that
they are well placed to build the consciousness of our proper place in nature which
needs to be one of planetary stewardship and a concern for a sustainable future on
our ‘Space Station Earth’. Well-constructed integrated programs of ESD of the sort
developed at the Centre of Ecological and Environmental Education in the Silesia
Botanical Garden rise to this ‘ultimate challenge’ and networking with similar efforts
is a desirable further step towards a sustainable future. A first step towards networking
will be taken by C3E by organising and invitational seminar of potential collaborators
in such an important initiative.

References
• Anders, W. (1968). Earthrise. Retrieved from Pictures that Changed the World
[online], http://www.stoneyburn.com/picchange/earth.htm
• Collier, P. (2010). The Plundered Planet: How to reconcile prosperity with nature.
London: Allen Lane.
• Dawkins, Richard. (1989). The Selfish Gene (2nd ed.). United Kingdom: Oxford
University Press.
• Ogrodnik, B. (2011) In this publication.
• Pearce, F. (2010). From ocean to ozone: Earth’s nine life support systems. New
Scientist [online], http://www.newscientist.com/special/ocean-to-ozone-earths-
nine-life-support-systems
• Post-carbon Institute (2011). 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds [online],
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/blog/300-years-fossil-fuels-300-seconds
• Rees, M. (2003). Our Final Century: Will civilisation survive the twenty-first century?
London: Arrow Books.
• Rockstrom, J. et al. (2009a). Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating
Space for Humanity. Ecology and Society 14(2): 32. [online] URL: http://www.
• ecologyandsociety.org/vol.14/iss2/art32/
• Rockstrom, J., Steffen, W., Noone, K. et al. (2009b). A safe operating space for
humanity. Nature 461 (7263), 472-475.
• Sagan, C. (1994). Pale Blue Dot: A vision of the Human Future in Space. New York:
Random House. Retrieved from http://obs.nineplanets.org/psc/pbd.html

109
• Schumacher, F (1973). Small is Beautiful: Economics as if people mattered. New York:
Harper and Row.
• Stockholm Memorandum. (2011). Tipping the Scales towards Sustainability.
http://globalsymposium2011.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-
Stockholm-Memorandum.pdf
• United Nations (2011). World Population Prospects: the 2010 Revision. Retrieved
from http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Analytical-Figures/htm/fig_1.htm
• Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Steffen, W., and Crutzen, P. (2010). The New World
of the Anthropocene. Environmental Science & Technology, 44 (7): 2228–2231.

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Education for Sustainable Development

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Education for Sustainable Development

The botanical garden as a place


for integral education for sustainable
development1
Bogdan Ogrodnik
Silesian Botanical Garden, Mikolow, Poland

Abstract
The paper presents a conceptual overview of process education as background
for advocating a deeper and integrated approach to education for sustainable
development (ESD) that can be offered in the non-formal educational setting
of botanical gardens. It then and gives an example of the implementation of
such a program for young people and adult leaders in the Centre of Education
for Ecological and Environmental Education at the Silesia Botanical Garden. In
conclusion, the case is made for making botanical gardens centres of education
for sustainable development and for international collaboration in bring this
about to provide the sort of educational experiences promoting an integrated
view of being in nature that formal education finds difficult to provide.

Introduction – a general view on education


An educational system is a subsystem of society and serves as the “adaptive tissue”
of society assisting it to maintain itself and develop its ‘human capital’ to cope with its
needs. The education system aims both to maintain continuity by conserving aspects
of society’s heritage while, at the same time, changing other aspects of that heritage in
order to adapt to new realities, both internal and external to the society. Nowadays an
adaptive sustainable development strategy is one of the most important requirements
for every society (and its subsystems). For the first time in history, political leaders
from all over the world appear to agree that humankind has managed its environment
unwisely resulting in problems that require a fundamental rethink. Account needs
to be taken, not only of threats to ecology, but also to social justice at a global scale.
Unfortunately the notion of sustainable development has become fuzzy and contains
many inconsistencies. It needs to be researched and developed as a central adaptive
process for the educational system, the fragile sub-system which, as “adaptive tissue”,
serves to shape society.

Education as an adaptive process


Education supports human adaptation to the environment. In exploring this
particular function of education some terms need to be clarified in order to avoid

1 I thank David Oldroyd for his help in framing the structure of the educational programs at the
Silesian Botanical Garden and for his substantial discussion of many points, and also help in
drafting the paper.

113
misunderstandings arising from their common usage. For instance, the word adaptation
is often used as a synonym of integration, reintegration or even conformity with society.
Understanding the term ‘process’ as a kind of flow or continuous change is to
understand it too narrowly, as science (from physics to psychology) to demonstrates.
Process is characterized by its structure and its rhythm and most importantly, process
consists of units, which build its continuity. The process of education has a complex
structure and possesses many rhythms. In fact it is a nexus of a range of many different
processes and connections with many environments (see below).
‘Adaptation’ is a special process which occurs when there is tension and lack of
balance between an organism and its inner or outer environment. Humans seek a balance
or harmony in many of their dispositions such as knowledge, creativity, consistency,
sensitivity or resistance to stress. The educational process of adaptation requires such
well-balanced dispositions as a source of aims and motivation. Adaptation (e.g. the
educational process) consists of two elements: growth and development. Growth has
quantitative character, development – a qualitative or structural character. Both elements
alternate to play a crucial role in making adaptation effective.
Each human undergoing an ‘education process’ has an ‘initial aim’, which at
the start of each educational unit guides his or her direction of development and
determines the materials needed. In addition, each person has a so-called ‘subjective
aim’ that arises from each person’s worldview. This subjective aim is largely tacit
and often vaguely sensed. Both initial and subjective aims have to be constantly
and creatively reconciled with a person’s heritage and changing environments. Such
reconciliation requires alternate phases of analysis and synthesis of educational
material, not only from textbooks (formal education) but also from many areas of life
(non-formal and informal education). The education process involves all stages of
human life and this way of thinking is today increasingly common, for example, from
the perspective of life-long learning, permanent education, courses for adults and the
elderly. The education of young people should prepare them for the whole process
of education and for participation in its later stages.
Integral education is a term that emphasises the interconnectedness of the
educational process in the mind of the learner who must always integrate what is
new with what is already known. It can also signify the bringing together of different
disciplines and specialist authors to construct a program in order to provide
a holistic perspective that reconciles the initial and subjective educational aims of
the participant in the educational event. A further ‘integration’ is that of bringing
together four ‘environments’ that encompass a person’s inner and outer realities.
The importance of exposing children and youth to many environments to
stimulate their development is increasingly well understood. Competent performance
is often limited to the environment where the competence was acquired.2 The
simplest classification of learning environments which are natural for humans (and
important for the education process) is fourfold:
• Inner environment - physiological, psychological
2 ????????

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Education for Sustainable Development

• Outer natural environment


• Outer social environment - family, cultural, technical, economical, civic, etc.
• Spiritual3 environment

There is a danger of limiting an educational environment to one or only a few


aspects of these four environments. Such limits to integral education may arise from
the culture of a given society, its history or current trends, or from philosophical,
religious and common-sense premises inherent to a given civilization.

Characteristics of an education system based on the above


assumptions
An education process that integrates the four environments outlined above
requires a web-like, dynamic approach within the education system in which it is
provided. This involves co-operation between formal education institutions, non-
formal education institutions and informal education processes. Ideally, formal
education might have schools providing such integrated programs authored and
taught by committed teachers. However, where such innovative programs or
teams of committed teachers are not found in schools, non-formal education can
provide integral programs designed by animators who can adapt them to the local
environment and also train those who lead the programs.
Teachers who lead such integrated programs need to develop their interpersonal
communication, psycho-educational and self-development abilities. They should also
possess attitudes and a world view adapted to and suitable for contemporary times.
Non-formal education, especially when provided by specially trained educators, can
systematically complement the formal education process by developing competence
in environments unavailable in the formal system. Informal education can draw upon
a vast area of experience and knowledge to promote deeper learning by young people
if aided by trusted advisors and guides.

Profile of a participant in the education process sketched above


Ideally an integral ‘process education’ to prepare young people to adapt to the
need for sustainable development would help them to become:
• A person sensitive to the world and to his or her inner self and resilient to stress
caused by the higher level of sensitivity
• A person with a high level of motivation and an open-minded attitude to both
tradition and change
• A person able to build proper relations with others and who has no problem with
self-acceptance
• A critical and self-critical person capable of recognising the need for solutions to
current problems, unless no better one can be found

3 Spirituality is here understood in a non-religious way, as an special kind of sensitivity which


make possible to go beyond a narrow ego towards more broadly apprehended values concern-
ing other people, Nature, God etc.

115
• A creative and thinking person with a questing mind, not afraid to experiment but
appreciative of the value of predecessors’ achievements
• A person with a store of information essential for living in the present day and at
the same time willing to develop a worldview based on the synthesis of various
kinds of knowledge and personal experience

Education for Sustainable Development4


The Decade of Education for Sustainable Development was declared by
UNESCO in 2005 but the idea of sustainable development remains marginal to
mainstream formal education, certainly in Poland and probably elsewhere. The
general view offered above on education as an integral adaptive process raises several
questions:
• Does formal education satisfactorily prepare humans to adapt to the complex
world (inner and outer)?
• In which way, if any, do schools help pupils to acquire the features, abilities and
dispositions of young people profiled above?
• Which of the four outlined learning environment(s) are lacking in contemporary
formal education?
• Can children and youth clarify their subjective aims and develop their own world
view as a result of conscious synthesis of knowledge and experience?

The answers to these questions are likely to be discouraging if not obvious5


therefore let us sketch an example of education for sustainable development
that combines formal, non-formal or informal types of education. Sustainable
development is an idea which tries to bring into harmonious interconnection the
relationships between three systems: society, economic and natural. In fact, nobody
knows whether such long-term sustainable interconnection is possible. There is much
evidence that the transformation to sustainability cannot be made ‘mechanically’
by adding new rules to the current systems which will regulate their interactions
‘in a new way safely for all’. This is very naïve scenario. A sustainable relationship
between human and natural systems must be ‘organic’ and modelled on natural not
mechanical systems. Thus a basic condition of success is the transformation of social
and economical systems towards the principles that govern organic systems.
Let us narrow the issue to education: what would the organic approach that
we call ‘process education’ mean, especially in relation to education for sustainable
development? If we accept the working definition of education as “a process of
human adaptation to environment” then all types of environments, in particular

4 Ogrodnik B., Kulik R. Skubala P.: Philosophy, psychology and ecology in education for sustainable
development. Silesian Botanical Garden, Mikolow 2010. (in Polish). Another approach is developed
in: Regnier R.: Education for Sustainable Development. In: Process. Religion and Society. Ed. K.
Kachappilly. Dharmaram Publication. Bangalore 2010.

5 See: Sustainable Education. Re-visioning Learning and Change. S. Sterling. Schumacher Briefing No.
6. Green Books 2001.

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Education for Sustainable Development

the natural environment, need to be incorporated. This is a difficult task for formal
education due to the constraints of schooling, such as fragmented curricula, teaching
for examinations, largely classroom-based learning, as so on. Better opportunities
may exist through non-formal or informal education. What non-formal institutions
can likely undertake such a task? Botanical gardens, especially modern ones, can
arguably assume this role.6 They are usually not a part of the formal education
system but even where they are (e.g. as a department of university) they have greater
independence than schools tied to national curricula and many competing priorities
and conflicting demands from stakeholders.
Another important feature of ‘process education’ is the special phases of the
process involving the whole person. What ‘the whole person’ means depends on one’s
concept of what it is to be human. There are plenty of such concepts derived from
humanistic or naturalistic philosophies but only a few try to reconcile all dimensions
of the human condition with the inner and outer environments (physiological,
psychological, social, natural, spiritual) with which humans interact. One of the
philosophies that reconciles these dimensions is the ‘philosophy of organism’ or
‘process philosophy’ created by Alfred North Whitehead in the 1920s.7
Despite inconsistencies contained in how the notion of sustainable development
is understood and used, the complex interconnection between all elements and
processes is a central idea. Such complexity cannot be fully controlled. Pedagogical
consequences for a deeper, more integrated ‘process education’ approach to
sustainable development follow from these fundamental ideas about complex
interconnectedness. The main, but not only, task is to develop in children and youth
the sensitivity which allows them to rebuild connections with their natural world
(inner and outer) and other people. These connections may have been broken due
to their early socialisation, particularly in consumer-saturated urban environments.
This delicate pedagogical matter lies at the intersection of biology, psychology and
philosophy and is unlikely to be undertaken in formal education settings unless a
deep transformation of conventional education happens in the near future.

An example of integrated ESD in Silesia Botanical Garden (Poland)


The Centre for Ecological and Environmental Education (C3E) Programs

For several years the staff of the Silesian Botanical Garden (SiBG - www.sibg.
org.pl) has developed a garden-based enrichment program for selected school
pupils. Since 2009 we have pioneered a program for adult leaders who present this
enrichment program in their own local areas. The programs that constitute the
Centre for Ecological and Environmental Education have been operating since 2006
and currently there are two major programs:

6 See the paper by David Oldroyd in the present publication.


7 There are a few good introductions to process philosophy. See for example: C. R. Mesle: Process-
Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North Whitehead. Templeton Press 2008.

117
1. Education in Nature – 3 courses in conventional environmental education (EE)
2. Process Education for Sustainable Development – an innovative environmentally-
based ‘process education’ course for young people and a leader training course
for facilitating a deeper and more holistic education for sustainable development
(ESD)

Figure 1: The Centre for Ecological and Environmental Education programs

Programs (C3E)

“Process Education “Education in Nature”


for Sustainable Three courses & workshops
Development” in EE

“Leading Integrated
Education for Sustainable “An Integrated View
Development ” of Being in Nature”
(Leaders’ Program) (Program for Young People)

Environmental educational programs (“Education in Nature”) have been


offered for several years, based outdoors within the garden and also in rented
premises, schools and colleges. More recently the innovative program called “Process
Education for Sustainable Development (PESD)” has been piloted with grant aid.
The program consists of two parts, each spread over six semesters:

• “An Integrated View of Being in Nature” a course for children initiated in 2006 and
revised in 2010. Primary and secondary school children are selected from schools
around Silesia to take part in this integrated program.
• “Leading Integrated Education for Sustainable Development” was started in 2009
with Norwegian and other foreign grant support. It is based on the “An Integrated
View ...” program for children and prepares and certifies adults to lead the learning
activities for children enrolled in the enrichment course.

“Education in Nature”
These traditional environmental education programs are attended each year by
significant numbers of young people aged 7 to 19. In 2009 around 2500 young people

118
Education for Sustainable Development

participated and in 2010 there were around 1500. ”Education in Nature” consists of
the following three courses each taught in the Botanical Garden:

• “Encounters with the Environment” – for school students of all ages devoted to
environmental themes (habitats, flora and fauna) from the natural sciences. Each
active learning workshop meeting lasts 4 hours and involves content from biology
and ecology.
• “Plants and Climate” – to familiarize high school students with inter-disciplinary
scientific methods and problems involving the use of microscopes, multi-media
presentations based in classroom laboratories at the Centre.
• “Naturally Active” – a play-based artistic learning experience for children aged
7 to 10 involving around ten meetings over two semesters (per 1 group) in the
natural environment of the Botanical Garden and its surroundings.

“Process Education for Sustainable Development” (PESD)


“Process Education for Sustainable Development” program courses:
• “An Integrated View of Being in Nature” - for young people
• “Leading Integrated Learning for Sustainable Development” – for course
leaders

are the result of an innovative project that trains program leaders to offer local
integrated learning activities to selected children and students around Silesia. The
courses are based on educational methods derived from the process philosophy
of Alfred North Whitehead and others. They place particular emphasis on
ecological, philosophical and psychological principles to help young people not
only understand, but also experience in many ways, the inter-relatedness of human
life with the environment. The ‘process education’ program moves beyond the
traditional approach to environmental education (EE) to include an integral and
deeper education for sustainable development (ESD) for both the adults leaders and
the children that relates nature, humanity and the self.

What is the purpose of the PESD program?


The PESD program offers an extra-curricular opportunity that supplements
regular schooling. It contains a strong element of direct experience of the
natural environment in a variety of locations around Silesia led by teachers
trained by C3E Program staff. Its broad purpose for both the adult leaders
and the young learners is to develop a ‘pro-ecological attitude’ involving:
ecological and self awareness; sensitivity to the connectedness of natural
and human systems; adaptability to changes in oneself and one’s world.
Learning is seen as a process that involves the learners in developing themselves
by making meaning, acquiring new skills, attitudes, values and ways of seeing,
understanding, being and acting in their world. Their experience of nature is focused
on helping them to ‘finding a proper place for humans among natural processes’.

119
By educating carefully selected future ‘leaders’ in a new way the course seeks to help
them acquire:

• a realisation of the ‘wholeness’ and inter-relatedness of humans and nature;


• deeper relationships and sense of harmony with nature;
• sensitivity, alertness, resilience and adaptability for a rapidly changing world
• a moral, balanced and ecologically harmonious life
• a grasp the local, global and universal connectedness of the inner self to the cosmos
• a sense of ecological responsibility8 at local through to global levels

These ambitious aims need to be modelled by the life-stances and lifestyles


of the SiBG team which values the quality of life and living with and in nature as
opposed to dominating and exploiting nature in pursuit of a standard of living
defined by economic production and consumption alone. These aims require
asking deeper questions - philosophical, psychological as well as ecological - about
interconnectedness, sustainable development and the limits to, and dysfunctions of,
our growth-addicted society.

What subject disciplines form the core of the program?

Three main disciplines, those in which the program desig ers specialized, form
the main background to the PESD program:

• Ecology – in particular, knowledge about relationships between organisms and


their environment with a local and global perspective on the sustainable and safe
co-existence of humans and the rest of the living world (humans and nature in
harmony).
• Psychology – elements of cognitive, gestalt, integral and process psychology,
but also eco-psychology that connects psychology and ecology in order to show
humans ways to heal alienation, build a sane society and a sustainable culture.
• Philosophy – the primary influence comes from process philosophy (A.N.
Whitehead) that sees change and dynamism and interconnectedness as the
cornerstone of reality. This core philosophy is enriched by other philosophical
perspectives and exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, religion that can
inform contemporary life.

What model of teaching and learning is involved?


The learning process used in the PESD program has its own rhythm. Each 4-hour
educational event has a rhythm of five phases based on Whitehead’s concept of ‘an
educative event’ understood as ‘a unit of the process of life experience’. This approach
can be described as ‘process pedagogy’. (Whitehead emphasised rhythm and ‘organic

8 The root of ‘responsibility’ is ‘response’ which implies making a connection, being a part
of all things.

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Education for Sustainable Development

wholeness’ in learning. Psychologist and anthropologist Jean Gebser proposed that the
human psyche has evolved and is still evolving through five phases (archaic-magical-
mythical-rational-integral) from which mental maps of reality are formed. These elements
built the main stages of human social evolution and are reflected in ontogenesis of the
single organism. Process pedagogy aims to reincorporate and integrate the early layers
of social evolution (archaic-magic-myth) sequentially with the later stages (rational-
integral). Conventional pedagogy tends to omit the ritual and emotional stages.

The phases of a learning event are:


1. initial aim of the learning (stories, myths, rituals and rites)
2. sensing & analysing (experiencing , feeling & sense-making)
3. generalising and synthesising (conceptual formation, seeing and expressing
the whole)
4. sharing & anticipating experiences
5. satisfaction with the learning event (ready and confident to act in the period
between workshops )

Each educational event is designed to be an integrated experience that helps


learners to synthesise, into a temporary worldview, several different components of
human experience: feelings, emotions, thoughts, ideas and memories. This evolving
worldview is important in helping young people to form a deeper understanding
and pro-ecological attitude towards nature and towards themselves in relation to
nature and to the interconnectedness of natural, physical and social phenomena and
processes.

Following Whitehead’s approach to ‘process education’, a five-phase rhythm of


learning experiences for each educational event has been developed for the pupils.

Figure 2: The Rhythm of a ‘Process Education’ Learning Event

Fascination:
myth,
rituals & rites Sensing
Acting & Analysing

Anticipating Generalising
& Sharing &
Experiences Synthesising

121
These phases aim to stimulate students’:
• fascination with, and curiosity about, their own relationship with nature;
• readiness to engage in investigation;
• responsibility for their own understanding, respect & reverence for nature;
• awareness and creation of their own values and actions.

How is the program evaluated?


In both the PESD programs for pupils and for leaders, open-ended responses to
a questionnaire about their experience of the program are completed at key points
during the year. In the course for leaders a more complete investigation of participants’
perceptions is used. Both programs require a thorough and careful evaluation and, for
this reason, an external evaluator familiar with the principles behind the program will
be employed to design and implement a formative and summative evaluation strategy.

The PESD course for young people “An Integrated View of Being in
Nature”
Started in 2006, the current educational program consists of five 4-hour
educational events per semester per group spread over six semesters, lasting three years.
Already 20 groups of children have been through the original version of the program.
Versions of the program are now being refined for primary, lower and upper high
school students. They provide learning through direct sensory experience of nature,
both in the Botanical Garden but mostly in students’ local areas. They aim to provide
a ‘developmental pathway’ by means of deeper contact with nature that helps young
people discover their proper place in nature and include it into their personal world.

Themes of meetings in the Primary School Version

Year IV Semester 1 - Trees


Aim: To build subjective relationships between children and the most
representative group of plants
Year IV Semester 2 - Mammals
Aim: To build subjective relationships between children and the most
representative group of animals
Year V Semester. 1 - Life and its dynamics
Aim: To enable children to experience many facets of life such as germination,
growth, reproduction, movement, migration
Year V Semester. 2 - From the individual to the ecosystem
Aim: To make children aware of links between elements in ecosystems,
their complexity and to experience how humans fit in to the “web of life”
Year VI Semester. 1 - Nature in danger - How can I protect nature?
Aim: To recognise and experience the risks to nature in ourselves, in others,
in the world and to find remedies
Year VI Semester. 2 - Nature is my home

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Education for Sustainable Development

Aim: To experience one’s roots and a sense of security in contact with


nature

The adult program “Leading Integrated Learning for Sustainable


Development”
This grant-supported program was first developed in 2009-10 for around
30 teachers and other adults who will lead the six-semester “An Integrated View
of Being in Nature” program for young people. It consists of three parts, each
part based on the contributing discipline and designed by a specialist in that
field. Each part consists of a series of 4-hour long workshops intended to prepare
around 30 adults to become leaders of the enrichment program for young people

• Ecological workshops for Adult Leaders


• Psychological workshops for Adult Leaders
• Philosophical workshops for Adult Leaders

Together, the three parts introduce potential leaders to an integrated view


of humans in nature and explore the ecological, psychological and philosophical
principles that underpin “An Integrated View of Being in Nature”. The overall
purpose of the leaders’ program is to help them to implement effective approaches
to encouraging young people to increase their knowledge, sensitivity and emotional
commitment towards the sustainable development of natural and human systems.
Themes of the three parts are set out in detail in the Appendix to this article.

The Future of the PESD program

Further funding is being sought to prepare a new group of 30 leaders


by means of an upgraded version of “Leading Integrated Learning for Sustainable
Development”. This will involve closer contact with those who have already graduated
from the first course. Further assistance will be provided for these graduates in
recruiting children likely to benefit from this program and in implementing the
course in their local areas. The consolidation of what has already been developed
will also include classes in the new C3E buildings opened in 2011 and more time
to experience the natural ecosystems of the Botanical Garden along with the less
conventional elements of the pedagogy. Additional seminars for the graduates of this
course for adult leaders will be provided to help them build on their skills, based on
evaluation and consultation with the program leaders as they continue their work in
this new area of experiential process pedagogy.

Conclusion: botanical gardens as centres of non-formal education for


sustainable development
Our world is under increasing pressure from global factors such as climate
change, economic crisis, overpopulation and the devastation of nature and natural

123
capital. In all these cases complex systems must transform themselves or be destroyed.
Sustainable development involves co-existence between humans, their societies and
economies and the natural world, but its realization needs deep social and economical
change. The most sensitive and adaptable “tissue” of society is its educational sub-
system. A complete education for sustainable development is impossible without
incorporating its non-formal and informal parts. There are few such institutions
able to elaborate and provide this kind of education, but botanical gardens offer a
potential location for children and youth to receive integrated enrichment learning in
a relatively short time. Botanical gardens possess great educational potential having
many plant collections and suitable infrastructure which can be easily adapted and
extended. They have a well-established position as institutions which satisfy higher
social needs (e.g. aesthetic enjoyment and peaceful surroundings) and are not
identified with formal education. However, they rarely have appropriate personnel
to construct modern educational programs for sustainable development based on
a contemporary philosophical and psychological content suited to current social,
economical and ecological realities. In the Silesian Botanical Garden we have begun
to build such a program but its further development and broader implementation
depends on international co-operation with other European institutions, especially
European Botanical Gardens and Arboreta which have educational programs, centres
connected with nature protection. Additional support could come from pedagogical
institutes interested in innovative integrated learning and process education as well as
other institutions which have an interest in deeper approaches to ecology, philosophy
and psychology and sustainable development.9

References
• Cobb J.B. Jr. (2008) “Whitehead Word Book. A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to
Technical Terms in Process and Reality. P&F Press
• Mesle R.C: (2008) Process-Relational Philosophy: An Introduction to Alfred North
Whitehead. Templeton Press.
• Ogrodnik B., Kulik R. Skubala P.: (2010) Philosophy, Psychology and Ecology in
Education for Sustainable Development. Silesian Botanical Garden, Mikolow (in
Polish)
• Oldroyd, D. The Challenge of Education for Sustainable Development in Botanical
Gardens (in this publication)
• Regnier R.: (2010) Education for Sustainable Development. In: Process. Religion
and Society. Ed. K. Kachappilly. Dharmaram Publication. Bangalore
• Scarfe A.C. (2009) (Ed.) The Adventure of Education. Process Philosophers on
learning teaching and research. Rodopi Press
• Sterling S.: (2010) Sustainable Education. Re-visioning Learning and Change.
Schumacher Briefing No. 6. Green Books.

9 The staff of C3E is seeking suitable partners for study visits to share experience and exchange of ap-
proaches. Contact Address: d.oldroyd@wp.pl

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Education for Sustainable Development

APPENDIX:
Themes of the Adult Leaders’ Program “Leading Integrated Learning for
Sustainable Development” (See also http://esdibinsibg.wordpress.com/ )

Introduction and Rationale


These 25 workshops introduce potential leaders to the integrated view of nature
and humans and explore the ecological, psychological and philosophical principles
that underlie effective approaches to encouraging young people to increase their
understanding of the sustainable development of natural and human systems and
readiness to make adequate and permanent changes in their private worldview. 10

Part 1: Ecological workshops for Adult Leaders


Workshop 1: Forest life – a new view on forest
1. Appreciating the importance trees in nature and human life
2. Understanding the ecological situation of forests in Poland and in the world
3. Identifying influence of our life style on preservation or degradation of nature
4. Introducing an ability to think holistically about the needs of both nature and
humans
5. Using the senses more fully in contact with nature
6. Stimulating interest in studying of biology

Workshop 2: Making friends with a tree


1. Understanding relationships in forest ecosystems
2. Discovering secrets of the forest by using all the senses
3. Responding emotionally to nature and with sensitivity to its beauty
4. Promoting a desire to protect nature and respect all forms of life

Workshop 3: Becoming a friend of the Earth by forming environment-friendly


attitudes in children and teenagers
1. Promoting relationships between humans and the environment
2. Examining the risks of civilization for nature and human health
3. Developing an ability to evaluate everyday behaviour
4. Becoming ready and skilled to act rationally to preserve ecological systems

Workshop 4: Meditations on Nature – helping ‘Mother Earth’


1. Examining ecological ways of thinking in different cultures
2. Becoming familiar with how different cultures and beliefs show intuitive awareness
of the basic laws of contemporary ecology
3. Promoting the need for nature conservation and respect of all forms of life
10 There are a few philosophical terms in the list of subjects. Most of them come from process philoso-
phy and we recommend the following introductory text for familiarizing with them: John B. Cobb
Jr. “Whitehead Word Book. A Glossary with Alphabetical Index to Technical Terms in Process and
Reality” P&F Press 2008 which can be downloaded for free from the Centre for Process Studies
website: www.ctr4process.org

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Workshop 5: Why should we protect nature? Conceptions and motives in nature
conservation
1. Understanding different methods of solving of environmental problems
Developing a capacity to assess human attitudes critically in relation to nature

Workshop 6: Effective ecological education – alternative methods for leading


ecological workshops in school and natural surroundings
1. Exploring ecological assumptions important in education development
2. Becoming familiar with different influences on children during ecological
learning
Understanding of alternative methods of leading exercises in school and in nature

Workshop 7: Ecological tournament - Developing environment-friendly attitudes


through play
1. Mastering new concepts from ecology and environment al protection
2. Choosing of pro-ecological solutions in school and homes
3. Demonstrating knowledge of the risks of civilization to nature and human health
4. Demonstrating the ability to choose healthy food

Part 2: Psychological Workshops for Adult Leaders


Workshop 1: Group integration
1. Encouraging participants to get to know each other
2. Exploring participants’ expectations of the program
3. Developing participants’ motivation and commitment to learning
4. Developing group co-operation mutual support
5. Building participants’ sense of security within the group

Workshop 2: Sensory contact with nature


1. Using the senses in contact with nature
2. Establishing emotional contact with natural phenomena
3. Developing empathy with nature
4. Exploring emotional relations between humans and the natural environment
5. Aligning emotions with a commitment to sustainable development

Workshop 3: Awareness of crisis - a turning point


1. Raising awareness of the global ecological crisis
2. Taking responsibility for the environment
3. Discovering ways of preventing environment damage
4. Building awareness of the deep interdependence between humans and nature
5. Building motivation for pro-ecological activities

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Education for Sustainable Development

Workshop 4: Ritual as an educational practice – “The Council of All Beings”


1. Identifying selfish human-centred attitudes towards natural objects
2. Using drama and artistic creativity in ecological education
3. Widening participants’ identification with objects from the external world
4. Deepening participants’ relations with nature

Workshop 5: Attitudes: shaping, changing and persuading


1. Discovering how attitudes are shaped and changed
2. Exploring the process of persuasion in education for sustainable development
3. Constructing educational programs that make an impact on attitudes

Workshop 6: The role of emotions in education for sustainable development


1. Understanding the nature of emotional experience and its particular role in
learning
2. Identifying why most people seem emotionally indifferent to nature
3. Introducing empathy and compassion as a responsible basis for environmental
protection

Workshop 7: The Ecological Self as a basis for education for sustainable


development
1. Introducing the principles of eco-psychology
2. Examining personal identity in human-environment relationships
3. Examining the factors behind spontaneous ethical behaviour towards the
environment
4. Connecting personal development with a reverence for nature

Workshop 8: Principles and practice of leading workshops


1. Identifying one’s strengths and weaknesses as a workshop leader
2. Clarifying the mission and values of a workshop
3. Developing strategic and operational goals for workshops
4. Elaborating individual scenarios of ecological workshops
5. Knowing of principles and techniques of workshop evaluation
6. Anticipating group processes and coping with different potential difficulties of
implementation

Part 3: Philosophical Workshops for Adult Leaders


Workshop 1: Individual and Society
1. Outlining the initial aim and meaning of the course
2. Comparing the match between initial aim and participants’ expectations
3. Elaborating what “to meet others” means in this course
4. Building respect and social solidarity between leaders and the children in the group
5. Exploring the contrast between the goals of social and ecological stability and
egotism

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Workshop 2: ‘Prehensions’ and feeling as the basis of an educational event
1. Seeing the world through sensual feeling and non-sensual feeling
2. Exploring emotion and other subjective forms of feeling
3. Understanding the place of ‘subject’ in a feeling & developing empathy
4. Examining a range of feelings and considering the depth of participants’ empathy
5. Developing of subjective commitment to activities that protect natural systems

Workshop 3: Types of social order and their stability


1. Examining the reasons for stability and instability of social order
2. Identifying the appropriate role of an individual in an unstable environment
3. Understanding consciousness as a subjective form of feeling
4. Exploring the nature and essence of responsibility (as ability to response)
5. Seeing the distinction between emotional feeling and conscious feeling

Workshop 4: Rituals as a process of opening up to nature


1. Identifying the role of rhythm in society
2. Analysing the hierarchy of rhythms in nature
3. Understanding ritual as a rhythm and transmission
4. Becoming aware of the dangers of rituals – ritualism
5. Developing a ritual of participation in nature

Workshop 5: The world as a process – the world as a society


1. Formulating an alternative worldview to the dominant materialistic-mechanistic
worldview
2. Developing the ability to examine the consequences of a given worldview
3. Identifying personal ideas which belong to different worldviews

Workshop 6: From a biological organism to a metaphysical organism


1. Developing a capacity to discern features of organicity (the interconnectedness of
reality)
2. Examining philosophical terms which adequately describe different world levels
3. Understanding the metaphysical organism as a sentient being

Workshop 7: Humans as a part of nature


1. Distinguishing between humans as societies and humans in society
2. Examining the dynamic harmony between “empirical ego” and “metaphysical ego”
3. Comparing human creativity and the creativity of nature
4. Considering human values that are in harmony with nature
5. Exploring what is required to achieve human satisfaction in relation to nature

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Education for Sustainable Development

Workshop 8: Education for sustainable development and process pedagogy


1. Examining the main assumptions of process pedagogy
2. Comparing the similarities and differences between pedagogies
3. Outlining how process pedagogy and process philosophy can enhance learning
4. Developing practical aspects of process pedagogy to promote sustainability

Additional Workshops for Adult Leaders


Workshop 1: How to found Ecological NGOs and co-operate with others
1. Analysing Polish law relating NGOs
2. Learning how to found an NGO
3. Outlining principles of effective co-operation with NGOs

Workshop 2: Acting locally to promote sustainable development


1. Examining sociological, psychological and pedagogical perspectives on local society
2. Founding local centres for activities in schools and kindergartens
3. Enhancing the role of NGOs in activating local society in support of sustainable
development

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Education for Sustainable Development

Department of Ecological
and Environmental Education
of Silesian Botanical Garden
Jacek Jaworski, Agnieszka Szyszka

Author note
Silesian Botanical Garden, Mikolow, Poland

The aim of our department is to provide education about nature for different
educational levels. Especially important for us is to bring children into contact with
nature, so they become more aware of the world around them, and to help them
understand what should be the unbreakable bond between humans and nature.
Our educational programs include psychological and philosophical perspectives to
help children to feel and understand nature in a better way. Currently the Silesian
Botanical Garden provides environmental education at all levels: early school, older
elementary school, middle school, high school, colleges, adults and disabled people.
Some of our programs are unique in Poland.

Academy of Education for Sustainable Development


This is the an educational project for adults. It is part of the Process Education
for Sustainable Development (PESD) program and the course is entitled “Leading
Education for Sustainable Development”. It consists of 150 hours of workshops that
serve to provide participants with qualifications concerning education for sustainable
development. The participants not only gain knowledge about how to lead ecological
education in an interesting and effective way, but they also engage in a process of
self-development.

Plants and Climate


The workshops introduce young people to the interdisciplinary character of
our current knowledge about nature and climate. The program has complements
and supplements the formal education offered in high school educational programs
of the national curriculum. The workshops are designed to help youth recognize
specific and essential relationships within natural processes. They also acquaint the
participants with some methods and conditions of used in scientific work at university
level, including methods of correct observation, analysis and interpretations of
microscope preparations.

131
Closer to the Garden, Closer to Nature, Closer to Humanity (An Integrated
View of Being in Nature)
This is the most extensively developed of our educational programs for children.
Workshops are performed in cycles of five meetings, 20 hours in sum. They focus on
four spheres essential for developing a pro-ecological attitude: emotionally-perceptive,
intellectual, behavioral and philosophical. The distinctive educational component in
the emotional sphere strongly connects participants’ inner motivations and degree
of engagement to the content of the program to help the young participants to learn
with concentration and to construct of consistent worldview.

Encounters with the Environment of Silesian Botanical Garden


Workshops lasting 4 hours and performed in the natural environment of our
garden or other selected interesting natural places in our voivodeship make up this
program. Participants encounter many distinct groups of plants and animals to learn
how to recognize them and understand their habitats and the broader ecological
processes that relate them to the broader ecological context.

Naturally Active
This cyclic program is directed at the youngest of the schoolchildren. It involves
systematic observation of nature as it changes during subsequent seasons of the
year. The meetings aim to create friendly situations that favour the development
of imagination, sensitivity and a recognition that the world is highly complex net
of interconnections of mutual interdependence in which humans are only one
component. Children are invited into the amazing world of nature by six marvelous
characters in the form of sympathetic insects – founders of “Naturally Active” club.

132
Education for Sustainable Development

133
134
Plant
Collections
and
Expositions
135
136
Plant Collections and Expositions

Can natural plants make a horticultural


surprise? Spring Bulbs.
Jože Bavcon

Author note
Jože Bavcon, University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana, Department of Biology,
Biotechnical Faculty, Ižanska, cesta 15, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. E-mail: joze.
bavcon@botanicni-vrt.si

Abstract
Slovenia lies at the crossroads of different influences. Its north western and
central northern regions make part of the Alps, in the southwest it reaches into the
sub-Mediterranean, while its north eastern and eastern parts belong to the sub-
Pannonian region, and its south western and central southern parts to the Dinaric
world. The relatively small territory of 20 256 m2 is home to 3452 species, 3119
of these autochthonous and naturalized. In addition to species and subspecies, there
is an exceptionally high level of intraspecies diversity. This paper presents intraspecies
diversity of the following species on the territory of Slovenia: Galanthus nivalis L.,
Leucojum vernum L., Crocus L., Narcissus poeticus L. subsp. radiiflorus (Salisb.) Baker.
Keywords: intraspecies diversity, variety, hybrid, groups, yellow-tipped, green-
tipped, star-shaped, windmill-shaped

Introduction
The territory of present-day Slovenia lying at an intersection of the roads leading
to the Adriatic both from the lowlands and across the Alps, has always been widely
visited and researched. This is why its flora began to be studied in the distant past.
The first known records of Slovenian plant names date back to 1415 and were
published in the work Liber de simplicibus Benedicti Rinii. The first natural scientists
to study the vegetation of the then Slovenian territory were Pietro Andrea Mattioli
(1501-1577), whose work Commentarii in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis Anazarbei de
materia medica (1544, 1554) includes the first references to the plants of our country,
and Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) in his work Stirpium Nomenclator Pannonicus
(1583) (Petkovšek, 1967, Gosar & Petkovšek, 1982). In the second half of the
18th century the scientific activities and research reached their peak in the work of
Joannes Antonius Scopoli (1723-1788), so Voss (1884) defines the time between
1754 and 1800 as the classical period of botany in Carniola. Scopoli came to Idrija
in 1754 as the first mine physician and worked there till 1769. In addition to treating
the local miners toiling in the mercury mine and falling ill from inhaling the vapours
of native mercury, he researched flora and fauna, while extending his studies also
to other fields. Besides exploring the surroundings of Idrija, he travelled extensively
in the then Carniola. In 1760 Vienna saw the publication of the first volume of his

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work Flora Carniolica, in Latin, embracing 1000 species of higher and lower plants
(Petkovšek, 1960, 1977). In 1772 the first part was followed by a second two-volume
publication where he already uses binary nomenclature. In this work he described
already 1277 higher plants and ferns from this area (Scopoli, 1772).
The period between 1760 and 1775 is marked by Scopoli’s fairly intensive
correspondence with the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linné. Scopoli sent him
plants and their seeds so that the plants from the territory of Carniola (central part
of present-day Slovenia) were described also in Linné’s works. There exist thirteen
letters sent to Scopoli by Linné (Soban, 2004).
In addition to Linné, Scopoli conducted a very widespread correspondence with
other researchers: Adanson, Allioni, Arduino, Banks, Dolomieu, Fabricius, Gessner,
Gleditsch, Gmelin, La Grange, Haller, N. de Jacquin, L. de Jussieu, Lapeirouse,
Mygind, Seniber, Schaeffer, Schreber (Voss, 1884).
Franz Xaver Wulfen (1728-1805) was another botanist active in the territory of
Slovenia, staying in Gorica in 1755 and 1761, and in Ljubljana from to 1762 to 1763.
During his stay in Slovenia he wandered through an important part of present-day
western Slovenia (Praprotnik & Wraber 1998). He collaborated with Scopoli and later
published his own works. In Ljubljana he met Jožef Erberg who was keenly interested
in plants. He was mentor to Karl Zois and later also to Franc Hladnik. Both Zois and
Hladnik sent him plants to Celovec to identify (Praprotnik & Wraber, 1988).
In 1766 Balthasar Hacquet (1739 or 1740-1815) was lured to Idrija by the very
fame of Scopoli. Between 1773 and 1787 he worked also in Ljubljana. Like Scopoli,
he was a very versatile scientist. He researched and collected plants for a herbarium
collection and published the work Plantae alpinae carniolicae (1782) (Praprotnik,
2003a). Karel Zois (1756-1799) researched primarily Alpine flora. His botanic
records and herbarium collection have survived (Praprotnik, 1998). D. H. Hoppe
first visited Carniola in 1803 and came for another visit in 1816 (Praprotnik, 2001,
2003a).
After 1809 and 1810 Carniolan flora began to be seriously studied by Franc
Hladnik (1773-1844), founder of the Ljubljana Botanic Garden. Accompanied by
his pupil Andrej Fleischmann (1804-1867) he wandered all over Carniola. Not only
his local flora (Flora bochinensis) but also his Flora of Carniola (Flora carniolica)
remained in manuscript. In the latter he described 2492 taxa from this area (Praprotnik
1994, 2010). Like Scopoli, Hladnik maintained a lively correspondence with other
botanists in Central Europe and also sent them botanic material. He provided
W. D. J. Koch with plants for various editions of his Synopsis Florae germanicae et
helveticae (1835-37, 1838, 1843-1845), and did the same for H.G.L. Reichenbach’s
Flora Germanica excursoria (1830-1832) and herbarium collection Flora Germanica
exsiccata (1830-1845). With N. T. Host he shared numerous data for the latter’s
works Salix and Flora austriaca. He collaborated with M. Tommasini who, like Host,
also visited Ljubljana (Voss, 1884; Praprotnik, 1994, 2010).
1844 saw the publication of Fleischmann's Survey of Carniolan Flora - Übersicht
der Flora Krains in which Hladnik’s pupil Fleischmann described the flora of the

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Plant Collections and Expositions

territory. Another of Hladnik’s pupils was also Žiga Graf (1801-1838). He researched
Carniolan flora and described the flora of Ljubljana and Šmarna gora Mt. He
collaborated with numerous botanists of his time (Praprotnik, 1993a)
In the meantime Henrik Freyer (1802-1866), also Hladnik’s pupil and the first
curator of the Carniolan Provincial Museum, was working on his own flora. He did
not publish it though he had found and described some new species, among them
the celebrated Daphne blagayana, which was displayed at the 1838 flower exhibition
in Dresden and presented as a new and horticulturally extremely interesting species
of Carniolan flora (Praprotnik, 2003b, 2004). In 1864 Carniola was visited by Anton
Kerner (Voss, 1884).
After 1886 Carniolan flora became a major theme of research by Alfonz Paulin
(1853- 1942), the then head of the Ljubljana Botanic Garden. In addition to his other
publications (Wraber, 2008), the most remarkable work of Alfonz Paulin is his Dry
Herbarium Collection of Carniolan Flora, Flora exsiccata carniolica, in 20 centuriae
with 2000 numbers in which he published as many different species and subspecies
(Wraber, 1966). Besides publishing his own collection he collaborated in compiling
Kern’s herbarium collection Flora exsiccata Austro–Hungarica, Hayek’s collection
Flora stiriaca exsiccata, in the work Flora der Sanntaler Alpen, and also in Hegi’s work
Illustrierte Flora von Mitteleuropa. He wrote about twenty treatises published between
1895 and 1917, disclosing data on the newly discovered and rare species of Carniolan
flora. (Petkovšek, 1934).
In the years 1912 and 1913 Julij Glowacki (1846-1915) published two volumes of
the key Flora of Slovenian Provinces. The next Key for Determining Flowering Plants
and Ferns, by Dr. Angela Piskernik, came out in 1941, to be followed by a revised
and extended edition in 1951. In his 1952 List of Ferns and Flowering Plants of the
Slovenian Territory Ernest Mayer (1920-2009) described all species and subspecies
then known to be present in the Slovenian ethnic territory. Similar developments
occurred in the subsequent years. The first edition of the determination key Small
Flora of Slovenia was published in 1969, the revised editions following in 1984,
1999, and the latest in 2007. In the meantime two other works came out, Register
flore Slovenije (Trpin & Vreš, 1995)/ Register of Slovenian Flora / and Gradivo za
Atlas flore Slovenije / Materials for the Atlas of Flora of Slovenia ( Jogan et al. 2001),
and beside these comprehensive works numerous articles by various authors, on
individual species and specific areas of Slovenia.
Gabrijel Tomažič (1899-1977) was a phytocenologist and florist. He headed
the Botanic Garden during World War II. Before, during and after the war he was
engaged in the research of plant communities and Slovenian flora. After World
War II Slovenia had a number of fine, now already deceased, botanists whose work
made an important contribution to the knowledge and new discoveries in the field
of Slovenian flora, as well as to the description of new species. Let me mention at
least the most prominent among them. Maks Wraber (1905-1972) was engaged in
phytocenology and botany. He divided Slovenia into four major phytogeographic
regions: Alpine, Dinaric, sub-Pannonian, sub-Mediterranean, and two transitional

139
regions, pre-Dinaric and pre-Alpine. This division continues to be relevant and is
still most widely used. Wraber was followed by Viktor Petkovšek (1908 – 1994)
who published articles on Slovenian flora in various scientific and popular scientific
journals. Beside the already-mentioned List of Ferns and Flowering Plants of the
Slovenian Territory Ernest Mayer (1920- 2009), a professor of systematic botany
and later a regular member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, authored
numerous articles on single species of Slovenian flora and was a keen researcher
of Balkan flora. Vinko Strgar (1928-1992), head of the Botanic Garden between
1967 and 1992 and author of articles on new species of Slovenian flora, specialized
also in the use and breeding of plants for horticultural purposes. Ljerka Godicl
(1930-2006) was an expert in Pannonian flora and rare and endangered species of
the former Yugoslavia. But the author who published the largest number of papers on
Slovenian flora in various scientific and popular scientific journals was Tone Wraber
(1938 - 2010). First a botany curator of the Slovenian Museum of Natural History,
he later became a professor of systematic botany at the University of Ljubljana.
He authored also a number of popular scientific books on Slovenian flora.
Slovenia lies at the crossroads of different influences. Its north western and central
northern regions make part of the Alps, in the southwest it reaches into the sub-
Mediterranean, while its north eastern and eastern parts belong to the sub-Pannonian
region, and its south western and central southern parts to the Dinaric world. All of this
endows Slovenia with a particular charm reflected in its plant diversity. The relatively
small territory of 20 256 m2 is home to 3452 species, 3119 of these autochthonous
and naturalized (Martinčič et al., 2007). In addition to species and subspecies, there
is an exceptionally high level of intraspecies diversity, which is often cursorily reported
in many of the aforementioned works, but is particularly pointed out in more recent
works written primarily by foreign horticultural experts who describe Slovenia as
exceptionally diverse (Grey-Wilson, 2002; Gerritsen, 2008). This very intraspecies
diversity is what makes Slovenian flora even richer than it may seem at the first sight.

Material and Methodology


I have been collecting the research material for the last 15 years, more intensively
in the last decade. The plants which I brought from various parts of Slovenia stood
apart from the standard descriptions of single species, or they were plants that made
themselves conspicuous within their local populations.
I collected the species in different parts of Slovenia. It often happens that
due to a short period bloom it takes several years to gain insight into the diversity
of a particular species. Only then it is possible to start collecting specimens that
distinguish themselves from the usual ones.
However, the very part of the year when a plant is transferred to garden conditions
usually marks the height of its season. It is quite rare that after being collected,
a species can be observed and compared in the garden already in the collection
year: this usually occurs only when barely blooming specimens are collected, but
that may not be entirely satisfactory since only a fully developed flower reveals

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Plant Collections and Expositions

something about its characteristics. Further problems are associated with different
years and the breeding of all the special features in culture, with each plant requiring
specific conditions for optimal growth. The growth of these plants in garden beds or
substitute habitats is normally unproblematic. However, if plants are to be monitored
very closely, they have to be subject to a pot experiment where every pot is numbered
and in the subsequent years the plants’ outward appearance is duly watched. This, of
course, implies much more work.
Before actually starting with collection in nature, I first took a walk around,
carefully examining the surfaces where local populations were really dense.
I immediately collected the most deviating specimens and made a selection of
others only after surveying most of single local populations. Each specimen was
first photographed in its growing site and then dug out. I put all specimens from
the same habitat in one bag, adding some soil and water, if necessary, and took them
to the Botanic Garden. Each single plant was described and planted into a mixture
of compost and leaf mold, using rectangular plastic pots (10 x 10 cm to 14x 14 m)
which I simply placed on a foil which prevented weed growth. Thus, the only weeds
that need to be removed are just those on the surface of pots. I watered the plants
to keep them green as long as possible. I harvested the seeds from all the seeding
plants and later sowed them. Over the year the pots were watered only in the very
dry part of the season and shaded to prevent excessive drying. At the end of the
following winter when the plants burst into bloom once again, I examined each pot,
recorded its special features and compared them with the original record. I also took
yearly photos of all interesting specimens so as to ensure a less subjective comparison
between single years. I checked the stability of special characters at intervals of several
years. In describing new varieties I adhered to the rules for describing new varieties as
laid down by the international standards (Brickell et al. 2004, 2009).

Results
Galanthus nivalis L.
The largest collection revealing the diversity of a single species is that of Galanthus
nivalis L.. With regard to the works published to date (Bavcon & Marinček, 2004;
Bavcon 2007, 2008), diversities can be divided into groups allowing an easier mutual
comparison. These are:
• Flower shape and size, and number of flowers of a plant as a whole,
• Shape of outer and inner perianth segments,
• Number of outer and inner perianth segments,
• Green markings of outer perianth segments,
• Pattern of inner perianth segments (shape, colour),
• Shape and colour of ovary,
• Spathe (shape and size), extra bracts and
• Leaves (number, width, colour).
A number of new special features have meanwhile been found within these groups,
but they would require a more in-depth study. I shall therefore limit myself to some data

141
that need to be added to the previously established facts and their critical examination.
The increased number of collection specimens, particularly a larger number of
specimens for single groups, showed that the forms that had been reported in the work
as unstable or as merely resulting from ecological factors can be stable as well. What we
need is a sufficient number of specimens of a specific anomaly, in which case any such
change may also be stable, meaning that we are dealing with a mutation and not an
impact of environmental issues. This is illustrated by the specimen with a bigeniculate
flower stem that in 2007 (published in 2008) that I still described as unstable, and yet,
a type found among the new specimens has been maintaining the same characteristics
for the last four years – meaning that the original statement is not valid and that it is only
correct to state that all we need is a sufficient number of single anomalies from among
which a stable mutant for that form will emerge.

Leucojum vernum L.
The local populations of Leucojum vernum are no less abundant than those of
common snowdrop. In some localities the growing sites overlap but in most cases
they merely border one another. Although, compared with the species G. Nivalis,
this species reaches into and occupies extreme habitat types, growing in completely
swampy habitats as well as on steep calcareous slopes provided with sufficient humus,
appearing from lowlands to higher levels , and also deeper in the Alpine world, the
intraspecies diversity of Leucojum vernum in Slovenia is significantly less than G.
Nivalis. Based on my longtime observation in nature and in culture, I suggest the
following division into two types:
• Yellow-tipped - with yellow-coloured tips of the perianth segments;
• Green-tipped - with green-coloured tips of the perianth segments.
The characteristic feature of these two types is that the yellow-tipped prevail
in local populations growing at higher locations. In these locations faintly greenish
green-tipped specimens appear very rarely. The green-tipped - particularly those
in dark green - are characteristic of lowland swamp forests and also lower, likewise
swampy areas. The yellow-tipped specimens can be found here as well, however, the
type with yellow-tipped perianth segments is very rare.
Between these two types a range of variations can be observed with regard to
the yellow or green coloration, its intensity, the shape of perianth segments. Perianth
segments may differ in shape; some are very broad and fully overlapping, others are
more or less protruding and usually narrower.
In the course of my ten-year monitoring a number of particularly interesting
features have emerged. Among these I describe a type in which the tips of the perianth
segments reveal more of the green markings than is usual in the specimens of this
species. Adhering to the rules for denomination of new plant varieties (Brickell et al.,
2004, 2009), I hereafter describe this green-tipped group type as a potentially new
variety:
L. vernum 'Kamna Gorica' differs from giant common snowdrop in that its
perianth segments maintain a green-yellow coloration fairly deep into the interior of

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Plant Collections and Expositions

the perianths. Normally, just the tips of the perianth segments are green whereas in
this variety the flower as whole creates an impression of a green-yellow coloration.
The green-yellow markings reach as far as a half or even more than a half of the
perianth segments.

143
It is named after the locality of Kamna Gorica where the first specimen of this
kind was found. I later found similar specimens in three other locations in Slovenia.
Other diversities, namely multiple flowers on the same stem, flower size, spreading
of perianth segments, such as most usually appearing in single populations are not
always stable. In certain populations the incidence of two or three flowers on the
same flower stem is higher and in some places there is a well-balanced phenomenon
of biflorous and uniflorous specimens, but in garden culture these characteristics will
not maintain themselves equally well, or they appear alternately, one year the plants
are uniflorous, the subsequent year some of them are again biflorous.

Crocus reticulatus Steven ex Adam and Its Hybrids


Another research topic is the genus Crocus L.. In Slovenia it is represented by
four species or subspecies, depending on how they are ranked. There is a high level of
intraspecies diversity among them (Bavcon, 2010). In the present paper new findings
are reported, as yet unpublished in the mentioned works. Last year and in the course
of the present year, in an area notable for its presence of C. reticulatus, I found, for
the very first time in Slovenia, white-flowered specimens of this species in which the
throat and part of outher perigon leaves are yellow. Until then I had come across such
specimens only in the environs of Zgonik in Italy. New findings are recorded in some

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Plant Collections and Expositions

locations around Tomaj and Komen in the Slovenian Karst area. The specimens are
stable, providing an image entirely different from the usual species. Once the plant is
dug out, we can see that the corm is enveloped in a characteristic reticulate tunic.
The previously mentioned work on crocuses (Bavcon, 2010) does not yet include
description of the specimens of hybrids between the species C. vernus subsp. vernus x C.
reticulatus. After several years of field work I finally hit upon the first specimens growing
around sinkhole edges in the environs of Tomaj, once again in the Karst area. These
specimens differ from both respective species and reveal intermediate characteristics.
They bloom earlier than the subspecies C. vernus subsp. vernus, i.e. at the time of the
optimal blooming of the species C. reticulatus. Ecologically speaking, they grow on
the margins of the habitats of both species. In Karst C. vernus subsp. vernus thrives in
sinkholes in very shady and damp positions often overgrown with shrubs, whereas
C. reticulatus grows in dry karst meadows spreading away from sinkholes, out in the
open and in sun-exposed positions.The hybrids always appear only around the edges
of sinkholes. They look like C. vernus subsp vernus, only the coloration of their throat is
more yellowish, the perianth segments still show slight stripes, particularly if the plant
is viewed against the light. The corms are smaller than those of both mentioned species,
but they are more similar to the subspecies C. vernus subsp. vernus than the species
C. reticulatus. Similarly as in the case of C. vernus subsp. vernus and C. vernus subsp.
albiflorus where the hybrids have intermediate characteristics (Bavcon, 2010), the same
is seen also with these hybrids. All of them have smaller corms, the tunic resembles
that of the subspecies C. vernus subsp vernus. With respect to their size, they are closer
to the species C. vernus subs. vernus than C. reticulatus where the specimens are usually
smaller. The hybrids have smaller flowers.

Narcissus poeticus L. subsp. radiiflorus (Salisb.) Baker


In Slovenia poet’s narcissus (Narcissus poeticus subsp. radiiflorus) is best known in
connection with Golica or the mountain meadows above Jesenice, in the Karavanken
Mts., where it is present in very large numbers (Praprotnik, 1993b,c). As its local
populations are most abundant, a similar diversity would be expected as with G. nivalis.
Contrary to the expectations, the research carried out on the local populations revealed
relatively low levels of diversity. Among these rich populations single specimens can
be found, standing apart from the usual ones, but they rarely prove stable in garden
culture. Local populations in other parts of Slovenia where poet’s narcissus is known to
grow are less abundant, yet the established diversity levels are higher. The Karst narcissi
are a little lower as a result of sharper Karst environment, less soil and less humidity, the
temperatures are higher so narcissi bloom earlier. Considering the abundance of the
local populations, poet’s narcissus would be expected to be as diverse as G. nivalis but
the results show hardly any diversity at all. After several years of work I at last found some
specimens distinguishing themselves from the usual plants. Single specimens have two
or three flowers on a common stem. One finds also such with six, even seven or eight
perianth segments, or specimens with a double number of perianth segments. Few,
however, prove stable in culture - “stable” meaning that a certain property is hereditarily

145
transmissible. Beside the usual specimens these populations include also such with six,
even seven or eight perianth segments, or specimens with a double number of perianth
segments. The stability of such specimens brought from different parts of Slovenia
and studied in the Garden culture has proven very low. Very rarely does a specimen
preserve such properties. Proceeding from my own long-year observation of narcissus
specimens in nature and the Botanic Garden, I herewith propose a division into two
basic types that remain unchanged also after several years in culture:
• Star-shaped - the perianth segments are broader, usually shorter, more triangular at
the tips, overlapping one another.
• Windmill-shaped - the perianth segments are narrow, long, not overlapping or
touching one another, with empty space in between.
Among the specimens collected in the Karst area, having very narrow, greenish
coloured, windmill-type perianth segments, one specimen raised in culture
preserved the same characteristics which became even more pronounced in culture,
so following the rules for denomination of new plant varieties (Brickell et al., 2004,
2009) I hereafter describe it as a potentially new variety:
• N. poeticus subsp. radiiflorus ‘Kras’: This variety is characterized by very narrow
perianth segments, the flower produces a windmill-like impression. Compared with
others which before unfolding the flowers have yellow-green perianth segments
that subsequently turn white, the perianth segments of this variety preserve their
green colour also when the plant is in full bloom. The hypanthial tube has two
bigger, curved leaves in yellowish-green, protruding out of the usual circle. Both
the mother plant and the specimens obtained by corm division preserve the
described characteristics also after several years in cultivation.

Numerous specimens showing similar faintly yellow-green coloured signs after


unfolding their flowers, failed to reproduce these characteristics in culture.

Discussion
Galanthus nivalis
The natural distribution of the species extends from the Pyrinees in the west to
western Ukraine in the east. It does not grow more to the north than Paris. In the south it
does not reach Asia Minor but is present in the European part of Turkey (Davis, 1999).
The diversity of the species within the said area follows also from some old drawings
with pre-Linnean names (Basilius, 1613). The denomination of the two species
remained also when binominal nomenclature began to be used (Davis, 1999). In the
19th and the 20th centuries numerous other names were used for different varieties
which the authors described as independent species, but as reported by Davis (1999),
these were later found to merely express the intraspecies diversity. All of these statements
point to the diversity within the species, which may explain an ever present tendency
to find a new species within the known one. Slovenia is home to just one species of the
genus Galanthus, i.e. G. nivalis (Martinčič et al., 2007). As no other species is present
in Slovenia, all aspects of diversity are bound to this one species only. Thus, there is

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no chance of hybrids. Surprisingly, G. nivalis alone has been planted in the Slovenian
gardens whereas other representatives of native flora have only exceptionally found
their place there. Considering the outstandingly vast populations of common snowdrop
that colours groves, meadows and forests literally white, the chances of finding special
features are much higher. Although literature refers to numerous varieties, and while
in addition to the18 natural species and subspecies every year new varieties are found
in gardens and further varieties bred from them (Brickell, 1996; Bishop et al., 2001;
Mcardle, 2002; Klein, 2006; Leslie, 2007; Hobbs, 2007; Baxendale 2007; Sanham
2008), numerous new ones have been discovered within the abundant local populations
in Slovenia. This supports the hypothesis that as a result of the great diversity in Slovenia
of various aforementioned influences and the extraordinary diversity of Slovenian flora,
there exist high levels of intraspecies diversity. This is particularly so with such species
that count as diverse per se. Some of this was reported in various shorter texts (Prelec,
1994; Merljak, 1995; Rešetič, 1995; Slatner, 2007), but no comprehensive research
had been done on this topic in Slovenia. It was only a systematic collection of research
material from the entire territory of Slovenia that enabled a more in-depth examination
which revealed that, in spite of extremely abundant local populations, diversity levels
differ. Some populations are completely uniform, in others single deviations can be
spotted more easily. Generally speaking, the highest levels of diversity are observed
in transitional areas occupying the meeting points of different influences, e.g. Alpine
and sub-Mediterranean areas with their mineral diversity, on the margins of different
habitats, on transitions from meadow to forest, from acidic to alkaline substrates or in
most extreme habitats such as growing sites along the coast where the habitats actually
look like maquis. Although G. nivalis is not supposed to grow there (Davis, 1999), in
Slovenia it is present also in such habitats where it usually begins to bloom already
in the first days of January. Irrespective of the first conclusions (Bavcon & Marinček,
2004), namely, that single diversities can be divided into three groups, stable, less
stable and unstable, I am now, after more than ten years of research, in a position to
confirm that any, even an apparently improbable form, can be stable, if only it is found
in several repetitions, meaning that there is a greater chance that at least one of them is
already stable. Bearing in mind the diversity within the genus Galanthus (Davis, 1999;
Bishop et al., 2001) and after long years of studying G. nivalis in Slovenia, I herewith
put forward the thesis that within a single species in different varieties appearing in
Slovenia, diversity emerges in the floral region as known for all described 18 species
(Davis, 1999). The question is primarily of a pattern appearing on the inner circle of
the perianth segments which are characteristic of each individual species and more or
less repeat themselves also in the above described varieties that I present for Slovenia
(Bavcon, 2008).

Crocus reticulatus and Its Hybrids


C. reticulatus is known to be distributed in the sub-Mediterranean region of
Slovenia (Martinčič et al., 1969, 2007). It grows in karst meadows, less so in forests,
from the lowest areas to the montane zone. Its corm is wrapped into a reticulate

147
tunic. It has white or delicately lilac perianth segments with pronounced dark purple
stripes (Martinčič et al., 2007). Some other varieties have also been known for a long
time. Herbert reports already in 1847 a yellow, a faintly purple and a white varieties
in connection with the Slovenian border area. He adds that he came upon pale purple
specimens near Lipica, Slovenia, and in Monte Spaccato (Gabrov hrib Mt) near
Trieste. He also affirms that here one finds only specimens with pronounced stripes,
in contrast to those from the Trieste area which are white. He says that the seeds of
the latter are different, that he sowed the specimens and attempted to cross-breed
them but failed to complete the work prior to the publication of his work. It was in the
environs of Zgonik near Trieste where C. weldenii (Wraber, 1990), which is white or
faintly flushed with purple, grows naturally, that I found, in 1998, the first specimens
of striped crocus which I had long failed to find in Slovenia. To be reliably determined,
the plant has to be dug out to examine the corm since the white variety of striped
crocus also has a markedly reticulate tunic. In the course of my long research I had not
found any yellow-white varieties in Slovenia. But last year I came across such varieties
as described by Herbert (1847), i.e. white with a pronounced yellow colouring in
the throat, also in Slovenia, in two separate locations in the environs of Tomaj, i.e. in
the sub-Mediterranean phyto-geographic region. In both locations the specimens of
the white variety notable for the yellowness of its throat are relatively close together;
in terms of varieties which in other species usually appear individually, they are
surprisingly numerous, i.e. a number of them together on some square meters. Both
locations have a perfectly natural character free of any potentially possible human
influence – planting of various cultivated varieties. A larger number of specimens
within a few square meters points to a high probability that the mentioned variety
can propagate also by seed. This still needs to be confirmed in the years to come.
According to Mathew (1982), hybrids are rare, which applies also to gardens with
a large number of different species. All of this points to the genetic stability of single
species and powerful obstacles to the occurrence of hybrids. Mathew reports that of his
45 attempts at cross-breeding different species, only one specimen developed fertile
seeds, meaning that it was successful. Mathew (1982) adds that in his experience
dissimilar species, or better said, not closely similar species, do not cross-breed easily in
spite of having the same number of chromosomes. Vice-versa, morphologically similar
species cross-breed easily although they have a different number of chromosomes.
Judging by cytological analyses, hybrids occur rarely among crocuses. In his analysis
of the genus Crocus in the former Yugoslavia, Pulević reports that hybrids are in fact
very rare. Hybrids are referred to also by older authors from this area, i.e. Nicić (1892)
and Adamović (1908), and later on also Randjelović et al., 1990. They cite some
hybrids for Slovenia which are documented or even described under other names.
Pulević (1976) cites C. x fritschii, which Derganc found near the old castle in Ljubljana
(Derganc, 1897). Poschinger (1973) reports hybrids for Austrian Carynthia. I found
such a hybrid between C. vernus subsp. vernus and C. vernus subsp. albiflorus, in a few
locations (Bavcon, 2010) where they are present in very small numbers. All along my
ten-year research I had never come upon hybrids between C. reticulatus and C. vernus

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Plant Collections and Expositions

subsp. vernus, which frequently appear together in the sub-Mediterranean region,


above all in cooler parts of Karst such as sinkholes. It was only this year that I found
hybrids between the two species in one of the locations around Komen where also
C. weldenii (Tommasini, 1844; Koch, 1844 according to Dakskobler & Wraber, 2008)
allegedly grows but has not been seen ever since the first finding. C. reticulatus typically
grows in warm and dry karst meadows whereas the characteristic growing sites of
C. vernus subsp. vernus in Karst occupy sinkhole bottoms or cooler and shady valleys
but never sun-exposed sites, at least not so at lower positions. I found hybrids in one of
such sinkholes possessing all of the described characteristics. Although I had searched
for them in many sinkholes, it was not until then that I finally got lucky. I may have
missed the time of their bloom, which is more than likely with plants like crocuses as
they bloom a relatively short time. It is true, however, that my very first examination
of the sinkhole, taking place still in the winter season, revealed characteristics of
transitions all of which were potential indicators for the presence of hybrids. After two
disappointing visits in February, my third visit was a success: I found the first hybrids
on the edge of the sinkhole. They appear at the very transition from a still mesophilic
to a perfectly thermophilic habitat. There were several hybrids. They distinguished
themselves from the first, otherwise rare specimens of C. vernus subsp. vernus in a
different coloration of the throat and slightly smaller flowers, and from C. reticulatus in
the coloration of the perianth segments. Once dug out, the plants clearly proved to be
hybrids. All specimens had smaller corms wrapped in a tunic similar to that of C. vernus
subp. vernus. The flower throat was faintly yellow-purple while the perianth segments
had barely visible stripes similarly as in C. reticulatus, i.e. something that would be
unusual in C. vernus subsp. vernus. The hybrids had already unfolded, C. reticulatus was
already past its optimal bloom while only single specimens of C. vernus subsp. vernus
were beginning to bloom or were on the point of pushing their way out of the ground.
Speaking in terms of habitat conditions as well as morphologically and phenologically,
we are dealing with intermediate specimens showing transitions from one species to
the other. With regard to my long search and the findings of numerous authors (Maw,
1886; Bowles, 1952; Mathew, 1982), I can only confirm that the hybrids between
the species are rare but they do exist. Bearing in mind the character of hybrids where
fertility is low also in other species, I do not expect these hybrids to develop fertile
seeds – or at least the chances of this happening are very small.

Leucojum vernum
Although L. vernum has a very wide distribution area in Europe, extending from
Spain to Romania and as far as western Russia (Webb, 1980), literature describes it
as less diverse (Grimshav et al., 2007). Reference is most often made to two varieties,
namely L. vernum var. carpathicum and L. vernum var. wagneri (Grimshaw et al.,
2007). In connection of the genus Leucojum recent sources likewise cite only two
species, L. vernum and L. aestivum, whereas all the other species that used to make
part of this genus which counted 10 species are mostly being transferred to the new
genus Acis (Lledó et al., 2004; Grimshaw, 2006).

149
Beside these two varieties of L. vernum some others are known, among
them Leucojum vernum ‘Gertrude Wister’ that has doubled perianth segments.
Grimshaw et al. (2007) indicate the possibility of some other new varieties, but they
too affirm that their diversity is not comparable to that of the genus Galanthus and its
varieties. If natural diversity alone were more pronounced, it would find expression
in a significantly larger number of forms which in horticulture are usually treated as
new varieties. One of the reasons for lesser diversity may lie in that in this species all
perianth segments are of the same size and that there is no division into the inner
and the outer circles, as this is the case with the genus Galanthus. Furthermore,
the presence of just two species, L. vernum and L. aestivum, also indicates a weaker
potential of this genus, if newer findings on the taxonomy of this genus are to be taken
into consideration. Similarly as the species L. vernum, also the species L. aestivum
reveals no particularly important intraspecies diversity (Grimshaw, 2008), which is
once again reflected in a smaller number of varieties, irrespective of L. aestivum having
been cultivated in gardens for the last 400 years. Regarding the number of specimens
in single local populations, the species L. vernum and G. nivalis do not differ greatly
since wherever they appear side by side they are both present in very large numbers.
Numerical diversity therefore enables equal possibilities for the occurrence of
mutations. It would seem, however, that this species has in fact a weaker diversity
potential, meaning that it is more uniform, since the research in Slovenia over an
even longer period than that dedicated to G. nivalis reveals very low diversity levels
in the specimens that distinguish themselves from the general description, and even
these have poor stability in culture. This is why over all these years one single special
feature has proved to digress sufficiently from the standard description, thus having
a chance to be identified as a new variety. Following the relevant denomination rules
(Brickel et al., 2004, 2009), I describe it as L. vernum ‘Kamna Gorica’.

Narcissus poeticus subsp. radiiflorus


In some areas of the Golica mountain range and mountain meadows above
Jesenice, respectively, Narcissus poeticus subsp. radiiflorus is present in such enormous
numbers that it colours green surfaces completely white (Praprotnik, 1993b, c), but
the populations we find there are highly uniform. All of them are white, only when
the flowers are unfolding one catches an impression of a faint yellow-green coloration
which subsequently disappears. Irrespective of the outstanding uniformity of these
populations, they include also specimens with six up to nine perianth segments, but
as stated before, not all of such specimens are completely stable. However, a fine
distinction can be made between two basic flower types, the star-shaped and the
windmill-shaped, both of which can be observed in the populations. In Slovenia
a distinction used to be made between the narcissus from Golica, Narcissus radiiflorus,
i.e. poet's narcissus, and the narcissus from other parts of Slovenia, i.e. Narcissus
stellaris – Prekmurje narcissus (Piskernik, 1941), (In A. Piskernik (1951) refers to
poet's narcissus as Narcissus angustifolius) but they were later found to be the same
species just slightly different in another environment (Mayer, 1952; Martinčič et al.,

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Plant Collections and Expositions

1969, 2007). While completely similar to the latter, the narcissi of Karst and Slovenian
Istria are in fact a little lower as a result of somewhat drier habitat conditions, a thinner
layer of soil than on the mountain meadows above Jesenice where precipitation is more
abundant than in the Mediterranean part where the species is also present, for with

151
the exception of the pre-Dinaric world it grows in all other phyto-geographic regions
(Martinčič et al., 2007). Similarly as in the case of the species G. nivalis often revealing
higher diversity levels in extreme habitat conditions than in meadows and groves
which it literally covers in white in much the same way as N. poeticus subsp. radiiflorus
in Golica Mt, the diversity of the latter is higher in the sub-Mediterranean where some
more intraspecies diversity is observed, though still relatively low in comparison to the
species G. nivalis. The genus Narcissus is known for its wide diversity, with more than
25 000 varieties having been cultivated from the natural species (daffodil.org, 2011),
and among these N. poeticus is one of the groups dividing all of these varieties into
several groups. Irrespective of the fact that just one species grows naturally in Slovenia
while all the others have run wild, similar levels of diversity could be expected as with
G. nivalis, but the actual situation is quite the opposite. The reason might be associated
with the fact that the Slovenian area of G. nivalis lies closer to the center of the area
of the species than this is true of N. poeticus whose distribution is narrower (France,
Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia) (Brickell et al., 1996), with Slovenia lying close to the
margins of distribution area of the aforementioned narcissus species. Intraspecies
diversity of this species can nonetheless be observed also in local populations in
Slovenia although it fails to meet the expectations based on its massive presence in
various local populations in five out of six phyto-geographic regions.

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• Praprotnik N. (1993a). Florist in vrtnar Andrej Felischmann (1804 – 1867). Zbornik
za zgodovino naravoslovja in tehnike Slovenska matica v Ljubljani 12 pp. 63-93.
• Praprotnik N. (1993b). Karavanške ključavnice. Planin. vestn., 93 (5): 215-219.
• Praprotnik N. (1993c). Rastišča zapeljivih ključavnic. Planin. vestn., 93 (6): 260-262.
• Praprotnik N. (1994). Botanik Franc Hladnik (1773–1844). Ob 150-letnici smrti.
Proteus 57 (3): 94–99. Prirodoslovno društvo Slovenije, Ljubljana.
• Praprotnik N. (2001). Balthasar Hacquet in njegovo botanično delovanje na
Kransjkem. Razprave IV razreda SAZU, XLII-2 4/ 173-185.
• Praprotnik N. (2003a). Baltahsar Hacquet in njegovo botanično delovanje na
Kranjskem. Hacquetia 2/2: 85- 92.
• Praprotnik N. (2003b). Ob 200. obletnici rojstav Henrika Freyerja (1802 – 1866).
Argo, Jurnal of the Slovene Museums 46/ 1:15-22.

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• Praprotnik N. (2004). Botanični vrt Karla Zoisa na Brdu. Kronika 52: 167–174.
• Praprotnik N. (2010): Franc Hladnik, “ilirskih rož vertnar” = Franc Hladnik,
“jardinier des fleurs illyriennes”. V: Dular, A. (ur.), Podpečnik, J. (ur.), Šumrada,
J. (ur.). Pod Napoleonovim orlom. 200 let ustanovitve Ilirskih provinc. Narodni
muzej Slovenije. Str. 230-237.
• Prelc. M. (1994). Nenavaden zvonček. Proteus 56 (9): 347.
• Pulević V. (1976). Revizija genusa Crocus L. u Jugoslaviji. Doktorska disertacija.
Ljubljana- Titograd. 129 pp.
• Pulević V. (1977). A contribution to the knowledge of taxonomy and horology
of some species of genus Crocus L. from Yugoslavija. Glas. Rep. Zavod. za zaštitu
Prirode- Prirodn. Muzej Titograd 10: 81- 99.
• Randjelović N, D. Hill & V. Randejlović (1990). The genus Crocus L. in Serbia. 52 pp.
• Rešetič M. (1995). Nenavadna trobentica in zvonček. Proteus 57/9-10:402.
• Sanham C. (2008). Collecting Snowdrops - some observations, Daffodils snowdrops
and tulips Yearbook 2007- 2008, RHS 2007 pp. 57-59.
• Scopoli I. A. (1772). Flora carniolica. Impensis Ioannis Pavli Kravss, 448 pp.
• Slatner J. (2007). Mali zvonček (Galanthus nivalis). Marija Prelec Nov kultivar.
Welwitschia 7 (1-4)/ 43–44.
• Soban D. (2004). Joannes A. Scopoli – Carl Linnaeus Dopisovanje / corespondence
1760 – 1775. Prirodoslovno društvo Slovenije, 349 pp.
• Trpin D. & B. Vreš (1995). Register flore Slovenije. Praprotnice in cvetnice. Znanstveno
raziskovalni center SAZU, zbirka ZRC 7 Ljubljana.
• Voss W. (1884). Versuch einer Geschichte der Botanik in Krain (1754–1883). I Hälfe
Laibach.
• Webb, DA (1980). Leucojum. Flora Europaea. Vol. 5. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge
• Wraber T. (1966). Paulinova »Flora exsiccata carniolica« XIX. in XX. centurija.
Razprave 4. razreda SAZU 9 (3): 125–164.
• Wraber T. (1990). Sto znamenitih rastlin na Slovenskem. Prešernova družba
Ljubljana.
• Wraber T. (2002). Henrik Freyer kot botanik. In: Predin, Š. (uredn.), Slovenski
farmacevti v naravoslovju. Zbornik referatov s simpozija ob 200-letnici rojstva Henrika
Freyerja (1802–1866) v Mariboru, 14. 6. 2002: 105–140. Mariborske lekarne
Maribor
• Wraber T. (2008). Pisna zapuščina botanika Alfonza Paulina v biblioteki SAZU,
SAZU, Sedemdeset let bibliotek slovenske akademije znanosti in umetnosti pp.
199- 236.

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Plant Collections and Expositions

ToL – IRL (Tree of Life – In Real Life)


Magnus Lidén

Author note
Magnus Lidén, Uppsala University Botanic Garden (Linnaean Gardens of Uppsala)
magnus.liden@botan.uu.se

Introduction
A systematic field is a standard feature of a botanic garden, but frequently fails
to deliver its message, be it to the general public or to university students. When
occasionally it is included as an educational instrument in a basic course, it requires
interpretation and disclaimers. I believe some reasons for the failure are that the sys-
tematic quarter tries to achieve too much, too little and to make full use of all avail-
able space. So, what do we want it to do?
1. show plant diversity
2. show plant relationships (phylogeny)
3. indicate important evolutionary innovations
4. explain systematic biology and taxonomic categories

Some would consider it a plus if it could also convey the basics of a particular
formal plant classification.

The Dahlgrenogram
The system builder Rolf Dahlgren (1975) devised the “Dahlgrenogram” (figure
1a), a graphic illustration of the plant kingdom with bubbles representing plant or-
ders or super-orders organised in two dimensions, with supposedly related groups
closer to each other, similar to some pre-Darwinian constructs. It was taken up by
other authors, and was used for example to show the distribution of characters.
If the primary bubbles are joined by successively more inclusive closed curves
or shapes as in an Euler-diagram (figure 1b), the model will be able to show more
than one level in the hierarchy, and we would get a structure possible to interpret as
a phylogeny; if not, the Dahlgrenogram will be able to communicate clearly only the
first of our four desiderata.
The two-dimensional structure of the Dahlgrenogram makes it easy to realise in
the garden. There are systematic fields of this kind, often hinting at more than one
level in a phylogenetic or taxonomic hierarchy, in quite a few gardens: Bonn, Paris,
Cambridge, Göteborg (figure 1c) and – up till now – Uppsala, to name but a few.
But even if laid out as an Euler-diagram with multiple levels, the evolutionary
message of such an elaborate bubble wrap will not be translucent to the uninformed
student.

157
a) b) c)

Figure 1a): “Dahlgrenogram” from Dahlgren 1975; b) Euler diagram;


c) the systematic field, Göteborg Botanic Garden.

The Scala Naturae


So why not accept the widely understood metaphor of an evolutionary tree,
and actually make a systematic field in that shape? I have, scanning the www, been
unable to find this model developed in full in any botanic garden, although there
are attempts in that direction in for example Tehran and Bristol (figure 2). Although
perhaps more overt and exciting, I nevertheless regard their solution as a step back
from the more advanced bubblegram from a scientific viewpoint. Why?

Figure 2: Systematic beds in Bristol botanic garden (from www.bris.ac.uk)

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Plant Collections and Expositions

Because it is dangerously misleading! I believe that it is very important that we


get away from the Scala Naturae. In my experience, this is one of the main misunder-
standings of what Darwinian evolution is, not only among the general public and
students, but even among biology professors. Not least, it is an ingredient in creation-
ist arguments (“if we descended from orang-utans, how come there are still orang-
utans?” – no kidding, I have actually been thus confronted). We must explain that all
species of today are the ultimate branches of the Tree of Life, all are equally distant
from the root and all are equally old.
Showing extant taxa as if derived from other extant taxa is therefore not permis-
sible, even if it saves space. Unfortunately, the Scala Naturae is hinted at, deliberately
or accidentally, in many popular representations of phylogeny, including both tree-
based and bubble-based systematic fields in botanic gardens. Gymnosperms, magno-
lias or water lilies are for instance often placed along the branches or in a central posi-
tion so as to suggest that they are more primitive than, or ancestral to, other taxa.

ToL - IRL (Tree of Life – In Real Life)


The new systematic field in Uppsala Botanic Garden is, as you have guessed by
now, a tree with flower beds only at the branch tips (figure 3). It tries to achieve three
out of the four goals on our list. Least priority is put on taxonomic completeness; to
show the range of plant biodiversity is a task for the entire garden, and for the system-
atic field we have restricted ourselves to a carefully stripped selection. A small system
makes it easier to fulfil the other aims. As a basis we have used the now widely ac-
cepted tree (heavily pruned, though) on which APG III is based (Angiosperm Phyl-
ogeny Group, 2009). In two places we have chosen a conservative approach and have
trichotomies where the APG III tree gives full resolution.
The tree model is the best way to explain phylogeny and evolution, and we be-
lieve we have lived up to #2 on our list, which is our first priority. Of course, we have
to make compromises, mainly for reasons of space and aesthetics. The ellipse out-
line is there partly for practical reasons (the surrounding lawn must be mowed), but
also to suggest the surface of the leaf crown (the present). Nevertheless, we found it
neither practical, in a limited space, nor pleasing to the eye, to have all the leaves ly-
ing on this periphery. We also briefly considered giving all stems and branches equal
thickness to show the diagrammatic nature of the representation, but that aspect was
unanimously sacrificed in order to instead enhance the illusion of a real tree. To that
same end, we have chosen to have flower-beds in the shape of leaves (Tilia cordata )
and stems and branches laid with bark.
Thus confining the actual plants to the leaves gives the possibility to have, right
there in the branching path – directly in the phylogeny so to say - signs or models
showing evolutionary events: “here tricolpate pollen evolved” (accompanied by a lol-
lipop: a tricolpate pollen on a stick) or “a single cotyledon”. Thus we have covered #3.
Dating estimates can be added for evolutionary innovations or for branching events,
or even models of fossil structures. These things would be awkward to include in any
other model.

159
Finally, one of the branches satisfies the fourth of our desiderata, that of explain-
ing systematics and taxonomic categories. We have chosen the Centrosperms (or
Caryophyllales) as an example, showing order, family and subfamily levels as you
climb out on the branch – and eventually (in one of the leaves) genera and species.

Figure 3: The new Uppsala tree, with a few examples of plants.

Acknowledgement
Annika Vinnersten (Uppsala University Botanic Garden) and I jointly sketched
the master phylogeny. She also suggested several improvements to the text.
Mats Lindegren took our tree to the drawing board and made the complete de-
sign, from trunk to leaves and borders. Further, Mats will act as building master dur-
ing the whole process. Uppsala University generously granted funding for this realisa-
tion of a long-held dream that finally is about to come true.

References
• Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny
Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Bo-
tanical Journal of the Linnean Society 161 (2), 105–121.
• Dahlgren, R. (1975). The distribution of characters within an angiosperm system.
I. Some embryological characters. Botaniska Notiser 128, 181-197.

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Plant Collections and Expositions

161
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Plant Collections and Expositions

Green Katowice
General Information
Katowice is the most urbanised part of the Silesian conurbation, while as much
as 41% of the city area is covered by forests. 7.5% is occupied by cultivated green
areas, and 15% by agricultural land. Katowice has been placed first in the voivode-
ship and second in Poland as regards the size of its forest area. We have 6.6 thousand
hectares of greenery constituting a shelter belt around the conurbation, countless
tracks for walkers, nearly 100 kilometres of cycle routes and nature ”right at your
fingertips”.
The Kłodnica and Ślepiotka Rivers flow through the central-western part of the
city, including the Districts of Ligota, Piotrowice and Ochojec. The northern part
of the city (i.e. the Districts of Tysiąclecie, Załęże, Koszutka, Wełnowiec, Bogucice,
Zawodzie, Szopienice and the City Centre) is watered by the Rawa River, and the
north-eastern part – by the Bolina River (the Districts of Giszowiec and Janów). The
Mleczna River flows through the southern part of the city. There are also streams in
Katowice, i.e.: the Leśny, the Kokociniec and the Ławecki.
The area of Katowice not only consists of the forest parks presented below, i.e.:
Kościuszko Park, Katowice Forest Park, interesting recreational places such as Janina
or Bolina, Murckowskie Forests, but also the floral reserve of Ochojec and the eco-
logical site of Płone Bagno. The forests at Panewniki in the western part of Katowice
are also of high recreational value and you can visit them using the cycle routes no.
2, 3 and 122.
In recent times, the number of interesting green areas intended for recreation
has grown considerably – among others, a part of the Ślepiotka River basin and the

163
nearby Zadole Park in the District of Ligota have been modernised within the RE-
URIS Project.

The Valley of Three Ponds


This part of Katowice Roman Stachoń Forest Park, gets its name from the num-
ber of ponds existing here in 19 c. Nowadays there are 11 water reservoirs located in
the valley of the Leśny stream. This place is very popular among strollers, cyclists and
skaters, as well as fishermen. The canoe rental attracts fans of water sports. There is a
public bath with sandy beach, football fields, chess tables and ping-pong tables. The
guests visiting “Silesia” Metropolis may stay at “Camping 215”, consisting of outdoor
swimming pool, tennis court and modern reception with gastronomic and sanitary
facilities. The Valley of Three Ponds is also a perfect place to discover nature. There

are well preserved riparian and mixed forests, luxuriant and rich ground cover full of
protected species such as yellow water lily (blooming water perennial). The biggest
cultural events such as OFF Festival have been held in the valley for several years.

Tadeusz Kościuszko Park


This is the largest and the oldest park in the city. Today it extends over an area
of 60 ha. The park was established at the end of the nineteenth century and replaced
the little spinney located in that area. Nowadays the charming climate of the forest
is created by exceptional flower-beds and natural old trees formed into the forest,
occupied even by wild boar. There is also something for children and youth – winter
chute, ski run and playgrounds. The park reveals also some history of II World War.
The Parachute Tower, the only one in Poland, witnessed the desperate defense act

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Plant Collections and Expositions

of Polish Scouts against German Army attack on the 4th of September 1939. The
cemetery of Russian soldiers killed during the liberation of the city in 1945 is another
historical monument of the past. The wooden church of Michael the Archangel from
1510 relocated from Rybnik Land in the 1930s is undoubtedly an interesting piece
of historical architecture.

Murckowski Forest
This relic of the Silesian Wilderness – is a significant forest complex gladly visit-
ed by Katowice inhabitants who find here some peace and quiet away from the hustle
and bustle of the city. Whoever is interested in active recreation can use foot paths,
cycle paths or horseback riding paths. Although the wildlife comes always first and
that is why the forest is full of deer, pine marten, wild boars and the variety of birds
species. For the protection of animals two sanctuaries were designated:“Murckowski
Forest” (about 102 ha) with 150-230 year old beech trees and oak trees from the end
of the nineteenth century; „Ochojec” (about 27 ha), established to preserve White
Twisted-stalk – the plant typical of mountan landscapes.

165
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Plant Collections and Expositions

Back to Eden
Challenges for Contemporary Gardens
Ka t owic e – Us troń – Mi kołó w 21st – 23 rd M ay 20 11
BGCI/IABG European Botanic Gardens’ Consortium
1st Semi-annual Meeting 2011
Program

May 20, 2011 (Friday)


Arrival in Katowice
Accommodation: Hotel “Qubus Prestige”,
Katowice, Uniwersytecka Street 13 (4-star hotel, city center)
17:00 – 19:20 Sightseeing tour to Katowice.
Historic miners’ settlements Giszowiec and Nikiszowiec
19:45 Departure from the hotel for dinner
20:15 – 23:00 Welcome dinner. Pub “Zielona Gęś” (Green Goose)
Katowice-Murcki, Bielska Street 2
Please note! Because of late arrivals the previously announced times of the bus
departure for dinner were postponed and will be 1 hour later.

May 21, 2011 (Saturday)


7:00 – 8:30 Breakfast in the hotel “Qubus Prestige”
Participants are requested to check out from their rooms
in the hotel after breakfast and leave luggage in the hotel
storage room or take it to the university.
We will leave Katowice in the evening.
9:00 – 18:00 Whole day European Botanic Gardens’ Consortium Meeting
according to the agenda
1. Welcome
2. Apologies for absence.
3. Minutes of the last meeting.
4. Matters arising out of the Minutes.
5. Botanic gardens and GSPC Target 8 – reports on PlantSearch
updating
6. IPEN (International Plant Exchange Network) progress
and implementation and update on Nagoya Protocol
7. Update on invasive alien plants in EU

167
8. Pan-European seed list search
9. Updating the Action Plan for Botanic Gardens in the European
Union
10. Plans for Eurogard VI
11. Planta Europa
12. Report from ENSCONET/ENSCRI
13. Fund raising for the Consortium
14. Matters arising from reports from National representatives
15. Update on activities of IABG
16. Update on activities of BGCI
17. Update on recent developments on the Global Strategy for Plant
Conservation
18. Any other business
19. Date and venue of the next meeting
20. Conclusions and Close
10.30 – 11.00 Coffee break
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch
15.30 – 16.00 Coffee break
Venue: Silesian University, Building of Rectors Office, Main Aula,
Katowice, Bankowa Street 12 (5 minutes walk from the hotel)
18:00 – 19:30 Travel by bus to Ustroń-Jaszowiec (distance 85 km)
Accommodation: Hotel “Jaskółka”
Ustroń-Jaszowiec, Zdrojowa Street 10
20.00 – 23.00 Barbecue joint party for the EBGC meeting participants
and members of the Polish Botanic Gardens Network (Council
of Botanical Gardens in Poland) Regional Center for Ecological
Education of State Forests “Leśnik”, Ustroń-Jaszowiec,
Turystyczna Street 7

May 22, 2011 (Sunday)


8:00 – 9:00 Breakfast in the hotel “Jaskółka”
9:00 – 13:30 International Conference of Botanic Gardens “Back to Eden –
Challenges for Contemporary Gardens”
Venue: Regional Center for Ecological Education of State Forests “Leśnik”,
Ustroń-Jaszowiec, Turystyczna Street 7
9:00 – 9:30 Opening and welcome addresses
9:30 – 11:10 Session 1: “Challenges for contemporary gardens – Ex situ
conservation of endangered plants”
9:30 – 9:50 Suzanne Sharrock “Botanic Gardens and the implementation of
GSPC Target 8”

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Plant Collections and Expositions

9:50 – 10:10 Matthew Jebb “A report from the recent EU meeting formulating
a strategic approach to ex-situ conservation in Europe, and its
relevance to botanic gardens’
10:10 – 10:30 Costantino Bonomi “RIBES: a network for native seed
conservation in Italy”
10:30 – 10:50 Albert Dieter Stevens “German Seed Bank Network on Crop
Wild relatives”
10:50 – 11:10 Eleni Maloupa et al. “Ex situ conservation of Crocus taxa in the
frame of a European Network: Collection, conservation
and documentation”
11:10 – 11:30 Coffee break
11:30 – 13:30 Session 2: “Challenges for contemporary gardens – Tasks for old
and new botanic gardens”
11:30 – 11:50 Bogdan Zemanek “The Jagiellonian University Botanical Garden”
11:50 – 12:10 Magnus Lidén “The Tree of Life IRL. Magnus Lidén presents
the new systematic field in Uppsala Botanic Garden”
12:10 – 12:30 Paweł Kojs “The Silesian Botanical Garden Network”
12:30 – 12:50 Leszek Trząski, Waldemar Szendera “Revitalization of the urban valley
of the Ślepiotka River as an example of ex situ conservation”
12:50 – 13:10 Magdalena Jałowska “FlorNatur LBG – Ex Situ Conservation
of Endangered and Protected Plant Species”
13:10 – 13:20 Jože Bavcon “The new greenhouse in Ljubljana Botanical Garden.
A short report”
13:20 – 13:30 Roksana Krause “Introduction to the floral biodiversity of the Silesian
Beskidy Mountains”
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch
14:30 – 18:30 Session 3: ”Floral biodiversity of Silesian Beskidy Mts.”
Field trip to the Silesian Beskidy Mountains in region
of Bielsko-Biała: Gondola cable railway up Szydzielnia
Mountain, followed by a walk from Szyndzielnia Mt. to Klimczok Mt.
18:30 Arrival in Bielsko-Biała
19:00 – 22:00 Conference dinner in Karczma “Straconka”
Bielsko-Biała, Górska Street 111
22:30 Return to Ustroń-Jaszowiec

May 23, 2011 (Monday)


7:00 – 8:00 Breakfast in the hotel “Jaskółka”
Participants are requested to check out of their rooms after
breakfast and collect their luggage
8:00 Bus departure from Ustroń-Jaszowiec to Mikołów (distance 73 km)
9:30 Arrival in Mikołów

169
9:30 – 17:00 International Conference of Botanic Gardens “Back to Eden –
Challenges for Contemporary Gardens” continuation
Venue: Mikołów Municipal Library, Karola Miarki Street 5
9:30 – 10:00 Welcome to the participants by the organizers and the Mayor
of Mikołów
10:00 – 12:00 Session 4: “Catalogue of Life” – (4D4 Life Project).
Workshop and discussion.
Organizer: Ms. Suzanne Sharrock (BGCI)
12:00 – 12.30 Sandwich lunch
12:30 Departure of the first minibus to Katowice
12:30 – 13:45 Session 5: Challenges for contemporary gardens –
Environmental education
12:30 – 12:45 Petr Hanzelka “Environmental education programs in Prague
Botanical Garden”
12:45 – 13:00 David Oldroyd “The challenge of environmental education for
botanical gardens”
13:00 – 13:15 Bogdan Ogrodnik “Environmental education in the Silesian
Botanical Garden”
13:15 – 13:30 Justyna Wiland-Szymańska, Alicja Kolasińska, Wanda Wójtowicz,
“The reintroduction of plant species protected by law as an
educational challenge for botanical gardens”.
13:30 – 13:45 Costantino Bonomi “The INQUIRE project: Inquiry-based
education in European botanic gardens”
13:45 – 14:00 Coffee break
14:00 – 15:15 Session 6: Botanical gardens and secondary habitats conservation
14:00 – 14:15 Ludmila Vishnevska “Latvia rare and endangered plants in ex situ
collections”
14:15 – 14:30 Andrzej Czylok “Anthropogenic landscape transformations and
their potential role as secondary habitats for rare and endangered
species”
14:30 – 14:45 Monika Stanicka “Regional Directory of Environmental Protection
activities in introducing endangered species into substitute habitats
– the example of Cochlearia polonica”
14:45 – 15:00 Iwona Dyc “Regional Directory of Environmental Protection
activities in introducing endangered species into substitute habitats
– the example of Ligularia sibirica”
15:00 – 15:15 Magdalena Maślak, Maja Głowacka “A case study of Nature 2000
community translocation in Pyrzowice Airport.”
15:15 Departure of the second minibus to Katowice
15:15 Departure to the Center for Environmental and Ecological
Education (C3E) at the Silesian Botanical Garden
in Mikołów-Mokre

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Plant Collections and Expositions

15:30 – 16:00 Poster session “The current tasks for botanical gardens beyond 2010”
16:00 – 16:30 Dinner
16:30 – 17:00 Visit to the Center for Environmental and Ecological Education
(C3E) at the Silesian Botanical Garden and the opening of
the exhibition of photos by Andrzej Mróz and Maria Lankosz-Mróz
“The Jagiellonian University Botanical Garden in Cracow –
the oldest botanical garden in Poland
17:15 Departure of the final bus to Katowice

Organizers
The Council of Botanical Gardens in Poland • Silesian Botanical Garden –Union
of Associations • Polish Academy of Sciences, Botanical Garden-Center
for Biological Diversity Conservation in Warsaw • Regional Directorate of
State Forests in Katowice • Botanic Gardens’ Conservation International
• BGCI/IABG European Botanic Gardens Consortium • Silesian University in
Katowice • Communal Office Mikołów

Sponsors
Regional Fund for Environmental Conservation and Water Resources in Katowice
• Regional Directorate of State Forests in Katowice • Katowice City • Mikołów City
• Silesian Botanical Garden – Union of Associations • Polish Academy of Sciences,
Botanical Garden-Center for Biological Diversity Conservation in Warsaw • Silesian
Voivodeship

171
Dofinansowano ze środków Wojewódzkiego Funduszu Ochrony Środowiska
i Gospodarki Wodnej w Katowicach
Treści zawarte w publikacji nie stanowią oficjalnego stanowiska organów
Wojewódzkiego Funduszu Ochrony Środowiska i Gospodarki Wodnej
w Katowicach

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