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 Fact Sheet Index

By and about BBG

The Garden maintains a horticultural library composed of books, periodicals, and many other publications. Articles are documents written for newsletters and other purposes and those available here are mostly about plant conservation. Fact Sheets are quick references on a variety of topics, and focus generally on plants and activities at The Berry Botanic Garden, as well as native flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest. These are also available in .pdf format for downloading.

If you don't see what you are looking for in the list below, contact us. Some items are not yet available on this site but we will gladly mail you a copy.

Berry in the news

CBS Evening News September 24, 2007

CBS

An almost hidden driveway in suburban Portland, Ore., doesn't lead to another million-dollar mansion, but instead, to an old house, a six-acre garden and priceless project: saving part of the world's fragile ecosystem one plant at a time.

“Not since the age of dinosaurs have things been going extinct at the rate they are now," says Ed Guerrant, director of the Berry Botanical Center.

The dinosaurs couldn't be saved, but the pale larkspur, Western lily and Nelson's checker-mallow can... by collecting their seeds before they go extinct.

"We can store seeds and keep them alive for tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of years,” says Guerrant.

The seeds are stored at the Berry Botanic Seed Bank, which is a freezer inside a vault.

Right now up to one-fifth of the Earth's plants are in trouble. Fluctuating temperatures from global warming means some plants that need cold conditions are too warm, and those that need rain aren't getting it. Other plants are being pushed to extinction by too much building. But why should we care?

“Everything that we do depends on plants and it just makes sense to preserve as much of that as we can,” says Andrea Raven, a botanist at the Berry Botanical Center.

Many plants have been the source for medicine that cures disease. Take the rosy periwinkle, which is native to Madigascar. Before its properties were discovered, only 10 percent of children with leukemia lived. But from the plant, scientists created a compound that helped increase the survival rate.

"With the compound, the rate has now gone up to 95 percent,” Raven says. “Who knows what else is out there in nature's pharmacy.”

Today, botanists can be found re-growing populations of endangered plants all over the northwest. Across the Atlantic. just outside London, England's Millennium Seed Bank Project has built a towering fortress to house all the world's plant life.

"We will have 10 percent of the world’s seeds by 2010 and we would like to go on and have a quarter of the world’s species by 2020,” says Paul Smith, director of the Millennium Seed Bank Project.

One in six of all wild plants are used for medicine. One in 10 are used for food, especially in developing countries. The need to bank seeds worldwide is urgent.

Even for the appropriately named "ugly lettuce" in Oregon. The pitiful looking plant might have some very important value.

“Exactly,” Raven says. “We could find the cure for AIDS in this or some other function, you don’t know until things are explored."

A billion seeds have been banked worldwide. It’s an environmental savings account where each deposit could mean a cure for disease.

Couric & Co Blog September 24, 2007

Sandra Hughes

It was a rainy day when we drove up the almost hidden driveway to the Berry Botanical Garden in suburban Portland, Oregon. Cameraman Max Stacey and I had missed the tiny sign and we were just going by addresses when we found it! But what a delightful find. Six acres of gardens and a beautiful old white house just up from the river road. But the real hidden gem was the project directors Ed Guerrant and Andrea Raven are working on inside; seed banking.

It’s not a new idea but saving the world's seeds has taken on a measure of urgency and Ed told me why, because he says "not since the age of dinosaurs have things been going extinct at the rate they are now."

Right now up to one-fifth of the earth's plants are in trouble--fluctuating temperatures from global warming mean some plants that need cold conditions are too warm, those that need rain, aren't getting it.

If you wonder why it's so important to save plants it's because plants are not only a source of food but are also a source of medicine. One in six of all wild plants are used for medicine, one in ten for food. Who knows what disease might yet be cured by some wild plant that is near extinction? And what about the delicate balance of the eco-system? Ed and Andrea explained to me that losing just one plant could throw things off. What bird or bug might eat that plant? Without that plant, the bird or bug dies. That, in turn, can affect many other animals.

So, the job of saving endangered plant species in the Northwest U.S. is the job of Ed and Andrea. They go out into the field and delicately (so they don't damage the plant) take seeds from endangered plants in the northwest. Like the pale larkspur, western lily and nelsons checker mallow. It’s an insurance policy against extinction. They take the seeds back for drying and ultimately freezing inside their seed bank.

The Berry Botanical Garden takes its seed banking seriously. The seed bank is a freezer that is kept in a fire-proof room behind a bank vault door. They are working on making the room completely earthquake safe, as well.

And if you think they're seed serious in Oregon you should see the seed bank just outside London! It’s called the Millennium Seed Project. A towering fortress of modern steel built to house all the world's seeds. It’s huge and quite modern looking and the idea is to hold the key to the entire world's plant life right there. They are well on their way. Officials at the Millennium Seed Project predict by 2010 they should have about ten percent of the world’s seeds!

The Oregonian Science Wednesday June 13, 2007

Richard Hill

A Horticultural Treasue

The six-acre garden is tough to find in the ritzy Dunthorpe neighborhood. No signs mark the narrow lane to the Berry Botanic Garden, leaving many Portlanders unaware of the horticultural jewel in their backyard. Despite its modest size and lack of local recognition -- a zoning rule bans signs and visits without an appointment -- "The Berry" has earned international esteem for helping to save many of the Northwest's native plants from extinction.

The 30-year-old nonprofit institution -- long known as a haven for plant aficionados -- has become a dynamic research center known for its pioneering techniques that are aiding plant conservationists worldwide.

At the heart of its preservation efforts is a state-of-the-art seed bank that houses nearly 3 million seeds representing more than 300 imperiled plants from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and northern California. Launched in 1984, the seed bank is believed to have been the first such facility devoted exclusively to saving a region's most vulnerable plants.

The Berry provides seeds and seedlings for state and federal agencies to reintroduce or expand imperiled plant populations.

"We're an insurance policy," said Ed Guerrant, the garden's conservation director. "We're preserving options to keep these vulnerable plants alive. If a particular species does go extinct in the wild, then we have the material to restore them."

The seeds are housed in a 7-by-9-foot climate-controlled vault with 8-inch-thick insulated walls. The fireproof room is kept at a constant 59 degrees Fahrenheit and 22 percent humidity.

Seeds collected from the wild are dried, cleaned, weighed and placed in protective packets before being placed in a freezer kept at 0 degrees F.

"These seeds can stay in storage for decades, maybe even centuries," said Guerrant, who has a doctorate in botany from the University of California at Berkeley. "We've become a critical resource for the much larger conservation community."

Guerrant and botanist Andrea Raven research the best techniques to preserve and germinate seeds. Seeds are germinated in chambers where the light and temperatures can be adjusted to determine the best growing conditions.

Information from their work is shared with three dozen other organizations that belong to the national Center for Plant Conservation in St. Louis.

"The Berry's impact is much larger than their work with regional plants," said Kathryn Kennedy, executive director of the center, which focuses on preventing native plants' extinction. "They're guiding work by scientists elsewhere in saving vulnerable plants -- they're small, but very influential because of their commitment and expertise."

Kennedy said that about 2,000 U.S. native plant species -- roughly 10 percent of the nation's native flora -- are at risk of extinction, and about 20 percent are declining because of habitat destruction or being crowded out by invasive species.

The need for a conservation facility in plant-rich Oregon is evident from the roster of the state's imperiled plants: 17 are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, and 61 plants are on the state's endangered and threatened list, according to the Oregon Natural Heritage Information Center.

The botanical garden, which began as the personal collection of avid gardener Rae Selling Berry, was established in 1978, two years after her death at age 96. Berry, who won numerous awards for her work, spent decades building the elaborate garden on her estate. The facility features lilies, primroses, rhododendrons and a large rock garden with alpine plants.

Guerrant and Raven, in addition to their specialty of "ex situ," or off-site, conservation work in the lab and seed bank, also study plants in their "in situ," or natural, habitats.

The botanic garden, which has been involved in several restoration programs in the past two decades, is working with federal agencies to restore five imperiled plants in their native habitat:

The Malheur wire lettuce, Stephanomeria malheurensis, became extinct in its only known habitat in remote southeastern Oregon. In the late 1980s, The Berry provided seedlings to the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for what is believed to have been the first plant reintroduction attempt under the federal Endangered Species Act. A new reintroduction project in Harney County is under way.

Koehler's rockcress, Arabis koehleri var. koehleri, is a rare plant that lives on rocky cliffs in the Roseburg area. Working with the BLM, the garden will augment a protected population with plantings in the fall.

Umpqua mariposa lily, Calochortus umpquaensis, is on the state endangered list and is found only along the Umpqua River in southwestern Oregon. The Berry and U.S. Forest Service are working to boost the lily's population in the Umpqua National Forest.

Macfarlane's four-o'clock, Mirabilis macfarlanei, is listed as threatened on the federal list and endangered by Oregon. The botanic garden is working with the U.S. Forest Service to establish new populations of the plant in its native Hells Canyon in northeastern Oregon and western Idaho.

Western lily, Lilium occidentale, is found in coastal bogs from Coos Bay to northwestern California. The Berry Botanic Garden is working with the BLM to expand populations of the lily.

Guerrant, who was the lead author on the federal recovery plan for the endangered lily, said few wildflowers can rival the beauty of the red-and-yellow flower that attracts hummingbirds.

The Berry Botanic Garden recently named the Western lily as its Wild Flower of the Year for its public education program.

Joan Seevers, the BLM's state botanist, praised Guerrant and his colleagues for the decadelong work they've done in aiding the agency in starting and monitoring new populations of the lily.

"The Berry has been invaluable to the bureau in our plant recovery and conservation efforts," Seevers said. "They're an extremely important part of the conservation picture in Oregon."

Russell Holmes, regional botanist for the Forest Service, agrees. "We have all of the Oregon forests represented in their seed bank, with 153 species of rare plants that we have on our regional sensitive species list -- all of these rare plants occur in Oregon," Holmes said.

"They may be a small organization, but they're recognized for their work all over the country."

Guerrant is co-editor of a key guidebook for scientists in preserving rare plant species, "Ex Situ Plant Conservation: Supporting Species Survival in the Wild," and has written other scientific articles about the work.

The Berry no longer is the Northwest's only seed bank for rare plants. A new vault to store seeds from Washington state opened four years ago at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture.

"We now focus more on Oregon's rare plants," said Scott Vergara, a plant geneticist and The Berry garden's executive director. "Our goal is to make the public more aware of these unique Northwest plants that could one day no longer be around. That's what makes it fun and interesting to work here -- we feel we're filling a need and making a difference."

NPR Morning Edition May 23, 2007

Ketzel Levine

The ancient Mesopotamians were so good at harvesting seeds from crops, they needed someplace safe and dry to bank them. Then, as needed, they took out what they put in.

Sound familiar? Yes, indeed, seed banks are the model for the way we bank money today.

True, you're not likely to see a run on a seed bank, with people desperate to get their crops and native plants out. But the Millennium Seed Bank's Robin Probert is aware of a certain panic to get plants in.

"The whole urgency for this kind of work has heightened as we've begun to understand more about the pace of climate change," Probert says.

Imagine alpine plants that love the cold, but can't outclimb rising temperatures. Or fresh water plants choking down saltwater as floods bring oceans inland. Extreme cases, yes, but it could happen. The Millennium Seed Bank, part of Britain's Royal Botanic Gardens, is an insurance plan for keeping threatened plants alive, Probert says.

"We know that a huge number of wild plant species are important to people for all kinds of reasons," he says. "One in six of all wild plants are used for medicine. One in 10 of all wild plants are used for sources of food particularly in developing countries, where many of those species are now threatened with extinction. The least we can do is get them stored in a seed bank such as ours."

Or if not in Britain, then in China, Brazil or South Korea. Or perhaps in Russia, Mexico or Norway.

Seed banks of all sizes are taking in plants around the globe.

In the United States, the Berry Botanic Garden in Portland, Ore., — a six-acre public emerald oasis in an exclusive city neighborhood — was the first seed bank to collect seeds of rare and endangered Northwest plants.

"One in five plants are in danger of going extinct in this country," says Berry botanist Andrea Raven.

"I don't like to argue numbers," says Ed Guerrant, head of the Berry bank. "But it's pretty clear that biodiversity is being lost at a rate we really haven't seen since the dinosaurs."

Guerrant and Raven, with the help of volunteers, are collecting and freezing seeds of threatened Northwest native plants. Then, on what seems a crisis-to-crisis basis, they're restoring lost populations to the wild.

"In fact, we're working on a project right now doing just that," Raven says.

The plant is called Malheur wire lettuce.

"It's not a stunningly attractive plant!" Raven laughs.

But the fact that it exists at all is reason enough to preserve it, she says. Its looks are irrelevant; what matters is that it plays some part in the ecosystem. "There are any number of reasons why people want and need to save rare plants."

And not just rare plants. If you recall those ancient bankers, the Mesopotamians, their very lives depended on the crops they saved, whether chick pea, barley or wheat. Now let's consider their descendants, some of whom farm that same region, the Fertile Crescent.

In 1996, Iraqi botanists dipped into their own seed bank, packed up 200 kinds of seed, and sent them for safekeeping in Syria. It was a wise move. Once the Iraq war began, their seed bank was looted. It had been kept in the town of Abu Ghraib.

"The fact that Iraq has had large-scale destruction and may at some point still be able to bring those crops back is a very hopeful thing," Raven says.

Whether it's seed from crops or rare native species, seed banks are all about preserving genetic diversity. And what clever chlorophyllic creatures plants are. They've evolved to handle whatever's been thrown at them — hot and humid, wet and mucky, dark and dry.

But as any gardener knows, put the wrong plant in the wrong place and you're courting catastrophe. For instance, water-loving iris resents being high and dry. Yet if it can't keep up with the fast pace of climate change, how will that iris survive?

Perhaps by borrowing a little DNA from some next-of-kin cactus. And that's what gene-splicing scientists with access to seed banks may some day want to do.

At the Berry Botanic Garden, seeds are stored in freezer-ready, iron-sealed aluminum packets. The packets are then put in a standard-size meat freezer (minus the defrost cycle) which sits inside a temperature-controlled, concrete-lined vault.

The packets seem to contain a great deal more than genetic code. Each banked seed is an act of faith; a defense against war, climate change, environmental catastrophe; and the raw material to regrow the world.