New Island Section

New Island Section at the Garden

Story & Photos by Betsy Collins, Director of Horticulture

Plants of the Channel Islands have been a major focus of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s research, collections and displays since our very beginning in 1926. As one of the eight original Garden sections conceived by the Garden’s founders, the Island Section was first located where the present day entrance and lower parking lot now occur. The Section was relocated to the Canyon in 1966 where it struggled until the 2009 Jesusita Fire destroyed it. However, the heavy soils and cool canyon location proved inhospitable for many island species and plantings often performed poorly. Staff have long planned to move the section to the ridgetop east of Mission Canyon Road where growing conditions are perfect and a visual connection to the islands themselves is apparent. Well, that long dreamed for day is finally here!

We broke ground on a new Island Section this spring that is situated on the slopes below the Island View Garden at the Pritzlaff Conservation Center. These plantings differ from those in the Island View Garden in that their goal is to contain the full diversity of species found on the 16 California Islands. The plantings in all our displays comprise the Living Collections which is an accredited scientific collection. We keep extensive records on where specimens were obtained, their history of storage, propagation and planting in the Garden, and the reasons and timing of death. An accession number, which functions as a sort of social security number, is attached to specimens through every phase of their life. The value of these collections is enormous: they serve to delight and educate our visitors, are used in various avenues of research, and help to conserve some of the rarest plants in California.

Because our collections are so old and so diverse (we began keeping records in 1934), they contain plants that are now very rare or extinct in the wild. A greater genetic diversity currently exists in gardens (including ours) than in the wild of species like the island barberry (Berberis pinnata ssp. insularis). These documented Garden specimens are now being propagated to help recover wild populations. We unfortunately lost some very valuable plants to the Jesusita Fire and are now actively working with the National Park Service, Nature Conservancy, Navy, and the Catalina Conservancy to rebuild our collections.

We are currently planting the area on the south toe of the ridge with plants from the Baja California islands. Although it may seem strange to grow plants from Mexico in our Garden dedicated to California native plants, these species are included in Living Collections because they occur within the California Floristic Province (CFP). The CFP, which includes parts of southern Oregon and northern Baja, is the strip of Mediterranean-type climate found along the Pacific coast of North America. Characterized by hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters, it is a global biodiversity hotspot. The eight Baja islands within the CFP are: Los Coronados, Todos Santos, San Martin, San Geronimo, San Benitos, Cedros, Natividad and Guadalupe. Many of the accessions collected on a March 2016 expedition Garden staff took to six of these islands are now ready to plant.

The new section is laid out in a roughly south to north arrangement around the ridge - beginning with the Baja islands on the south slopes and ending with Santa Rosa and San Miguel islands to the northwest. A lovely new footpath that runs through the collections has been created mid-slope by volunteer-ofthe-year Don Jack. 28 species have been planted so far including plants found nowhere else in the Garden: Acmipson strigogsus, Atriplex barclayana, Bahiopsis lanata, Eriogonum molle, Malva pacifica, Sphaeralcea sulphurea, and Teucrium glandulosum. Growing conditions are proving all we hoped for as these precious plants are performing beautifully. We will be working over the next several years to develop the rest of the displays and create the finest collection of California Islands plants in the world.

Although it may seem strange to grow plants from Mexico in our Garden dedicated to California native plants, these species are included in Living Collections because they occur within the California Floristic Province.