FROM LEFT: Penstemon harringtonii, a native species monitored by the Gardens; collected flowers are pressed for the herbarium; at work in the field.
OUR NEW HEIGHTS:
• In partnership with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, we organized and facilitated a Bioblitz at a private ranch in southeast Colorado. Fifty professional biologists documented over 900 species (plants, fungi, animals) during the 24-hour period.
• Demographic data collected by our department over more than 15 years contributed to the decision by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to list the skiff milkvetch (Astragalus microcymbus) as a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
• In 2010 we were able to collect seed of four of the 12 species of plants in Colorado listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. We also collected seed of an additional four rare species in Colorado.
• Vera Evenson, curator of the Sam Mitchel Herbarium of Fungi, was selected as co-chief identifier at the North American Mycological Association meeting held at Snow Mountain Ranch in August. Over 200 different mycological species were identified during the three-day meeting.
• We published two manuals guiding revegetation after the removal of Tamarisk along waterways in the Southwest.
2010 Denver Botanic Gardens Annual Report
• In collaboration with the Nature Conservancy and the Rare Plant Conservation Initiative, we received funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to protect rare plants in Colorado. We were funded both to collect seed of our rarest species, and to conduct herbarium-based climate change research to identify impacts of climate change on Colorado species.
• Through our Kathryn Kalmbach Herbarium, we initiated or completed three large-scale floristic inventory projects. These projects document the flora in a region throughout the growing season. We added more than 700 accessions to our herbarium as a result of this work.
• Our volunteer program (RPM Stewards) contributed more than 1,100 hours to rare plant conservation in Colorado in 2010. Data collected by stewards had major impacts on both research and conservation through scouting seed collection locations, documenting populations of rare plants, conducting ecological-niche modeling and assisting in demographic monitoring and tissue collection for genetic analysis.
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