The Council Of Heads Of Australian Botanic Gardens Incorporated
CHABG through the Australian Seed Bank Partnership, it’s primary conservation program, is supporting ex situ and in situ plant conservation activities aligned with four focus areas: Climate Action: Perth and southwest WA experienced its warmest and driest summer on record in 202324 with the death of many street trees in the city and dieback of forest and shrublands across the region. The Western Australian Botanic Garden is prioritising climate adaptation through the development of climate and landscaperesilient collections. New and existing spaces within Kings Park and Botanic Garden, are being used as trial beds for building landscape resilience, providing opportunities to grow and assess species for their landscape suitability and display potential over the longer term. Banking the bush: The Australian PlantBank in collaboration with the NSW Government s Saving our Species program, focused on collecting and maintaining separate maternal seed lines of some of the most threatened flora in New South Wales. Maternal seed collecting is supporting existing and forthcoming genetic data, and will improve the overall quality and representativeness of collections, and their utility for threatened plant recovery projects such as translocation or augmenting populations. Partnering to preserve The South Australian Seed Conservation Centre is partnering with the Foundation for Australia s Most Endangered to work on highpriority South Australian species. Seed was collected for six species and is being used to propagate plants to establish insurance populations. This includes invitro symbiotic germination of endangered orchids such as the Lowly Greenhood (Pterostylis despectans) and Bayonet Spiderorchid (Caladenia gladiolata). Supporting First Nations Goals: The National Seed Bank (NSB) is deepening relationships with A angu Traditional Owners from Ulu uKata Tju a National Park (UKTNP) with a successful seed collection trip in September 2023 as part of the Partnership s Rare Bloom Project Collecting culturally important species alongside 12 A angu Mala Rangers enabled two way learning about these species on their Country, as well as training for the Rangers in conservation seed banking methods. 28 seed collections from 27 taxa were made with the help of the rangers including the first collections of Mistletoe to be banked in Australia. Four mistletoe species including Lysiana exocarpi, Amyema preissii, A. maidenii and A. sanguinea, are now in the bank, allowing the NSB to develop collecting and processing protocols and undertake research to determine their storage and germination requirements.