We are using DNA data to further understand the reproductive biology of an under-studied oak, Quercus havardii, which will help inform seed collection strategies and collection management.
We are quantifying how many individuals need to be kept in botanical garden collections to best preserve genetic variation, using 10 species as case studies, which will provide advice for future seed collections.
Trees are removed from the Living Collections for various reasons, but just because a tree is no longer growing on the grounds, doesn’t mean we can’t still learn from it.
How do we detect whether a tree is ‘stressed’ or ‘vigorous’? The Tree Observatory aims to decipher the secret language of trees so that we may interpret the physiological and reproductive status through the holistic examination of individual tree’s life history and growth.
