| Arboretum’s Botany Department Receives Grant |
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Posted: Thursday, May 12, 2011 11:20 pm
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Morris Arboretum’s Botany Department Receives Grant to Create
Recovery Plans for Most Critically Imperiled Pennsylvania Plant Species
The Botany Department at the Morris Arboretum has received a grant
from the Pennsylvania Wild Resource Conservation Program (WRCP) to
create resource recovery plans for three plant species considered
among the most critically imperiled in Pennsylvania. The species of
concern in this project are glade spurge (Euphorbia purpurea),
Torrey’s mountain-mint (Pynanthemum torreyi), and spreading globe-
flower (Trollius laxus).
These plans will delineate a strategy that promotes protection of the
species and their habitats and allows for species recovery and
stability. The ultimate goal is to create objective, measurable
criteria which, when met, would result in a determination that the
species be removed from Pennsylvania’s list of species of special
concern.
Morris Arboretum Botany Department staff will visit the few sites
where these species are known to occur to provide up-to-date data on
population information for extant populations. The data collected
will include population size, potential threats, reproductive
capacity, and overall population health.
Historic sites will also be visited to assess whether or not the
species could remain at those sites. The potential for previously
unknown sites will be assessed using geographic information system
(GIS) analysis based on various physical parameters. All background
and laboratory research associated with this project will be
conducted at the Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Wild Resource Conservation Program (WRCP) is part of
the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and is the only
dedicated source of funding for research and conservation of wild
plants in our state. Visit www.dcnr.state.pa.us/wrcp to find out how
you can help support this vitally important program.
The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania is located at
100 East Northwestern Avenue in the Chestnut Hill section of
Philadelphia.
For more information, visit www.morrisarboretum.org.
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