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I first glanced through \u201cRare Plants\u2019 by Ed Ikin for the beautiful plant images: artwork and herbarium specimens from the vast collections of Kew Gardens dating back to the 1700s.\u00a0 These alone would make this book worthwhile, but there is much more.\u00a0 The heart of this book is a collection of essays on 40 plants from around the world that are rare or unknown in the wild.\u00a0 What\u2019s surprising is that many are very familiar to gardeners in the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n
An example is the Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana<\/em>) with its distinctive and frequently seen profile on the Seattle landscape.\u00a0 Native to the slopes of Andes Mountains in Chile and Argentina, it is endangered because of its heavy use for timber, slow regeneration because of fires (often deliberately set), and competition from exotics (including eucalyptus) and agriculture.<\/p>\n One traditional way to preserve rare plant is through seed banks, but that is not an option for the Monkey Puzzle – the seeds do not survive the desiccation and chilling typical for these facilities.\u00a0 The author recommends instead growing the tree in suitable climates as a preservation technique, and recommends planting groves to emulate the natural associations of these dioecious plants.\u00a0 Image such a grove in the Chilean Garden at Pacific Connections!<\/p>\n These stories are an engaging way to study conservation and threatened plants, and the choice to illustrate using historic documents is very effective.\u00a0 Ikin, the deputy director of Kew\u2019s wild botanic garden at Wakehurst, also raises some difficult questions, especially for plant collectors in the UK and in North America.<\/p>\n For example, African violets (Streptocarpus ionanthus<\/em>) is a mainstay of the multi-million dollar houseplant industry, but has become exceedingly rare in its native Kenya and Tanzania.\u00a0 The author asks, should these countries receive some of the profit from the selling of these plants?\u00a0 Aloe vera<\/em>, a plant well-known by many non-gardeners for its presumed healing qualities, is unknown in the wild.\u00a0 However, DNA studies are gradually solving the mystery location of its origin, somewhere on the Arabian Peninsula.\u00a0 When that is pinpointed, should that original host country (or countries) be compensated for this plant valued around the world?<\/p>\n Ikin is always eager to share positive outcomes, too.\u00a0 \u201cLebanon is pioneering a new approach new land management – a balance between preserving biodiversity and provisioning human need – and the results are promising.\u201c\u00a0 This is good news for the endangered, Lebanese endemic Iris sofarana<\/em>, the Sofar Iris with its striking blend of marbled greys and bronze with purple highlights.\u00a0 Also hopeful are new cultivation techniques in Ukraine that are slowing the wild harvest of increasingly rare Galanthus nivalis<\/em> (known ironically as the \u201ccommon snowdrop\u201d) to allow for its natural recovery and to ensure income to its the host country.<\/p>\n Co-winner of the 2021 Annual Literature Award from the Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Excerpted from the Summer 2021 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I first glanced through \u201cRare Plants\u2019 by Ed Ikin for the beautiful plant images: artwork and herbarium specimens from the vast collections of Kew Gardens dating back to the 1700s.\u00a0 These alone would make this book worthwhile, but there is much more.\u00a0 The heart of this book is a collection of essays on 40 plants from around the world that are rare or unknown in the wild.\u00a0 What\u2019s surprising is that many are very familiar to gardeners in the Pacific…<\/p>\n