From the Field to the Freezer By: Heather Schneider, PhD, Rare Plant Biologist
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or many people, the words “seed bank” conjure images of a cavernous vault nestled deep within a mountain surrounded by permafrost or walk-in freezers the size of warehouses. While most seed banks are not quite as elaborate as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway or the Kew Millennium Seed Bank in England, their contents are no less valuable. The journey every seed makes from the field to the freezer t ypically begins months, or even years, before it starts its cryogenic slumber. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is home to a regionally significant Conservation Seed Bank housing more than 850 accessions, or individual collections. Our seed bank represents nearly 300 different kinds of rare plants whose distributions range from Northern to Baja California and from the Channel Islands to the Nevada border. These carefully curated seed collections act as an insurance policy against extinction by providing a genetic backup of wild populations. In addition to long-term conservation, our seed collections are used for research, restoration, and reintroduction efforts, depending on the needs of each species or plant population. Seed banking is an important conservation strategy that complements The Garden’s efforts to save native plants in the wild. Earlier this year, our Rare Plant Conservation Team prepared for a field season that would take us thousands of miles across the state to understand, protect and restore rare plants. Over the course of seven months, we journeyed from populations near sea level to peaks above 11,000 feet in elevation– all in the service of California’s rare plants. The first step in planning for the season was to prioritize which rare plant species we wanted to target. How Do We Decide What Needs Our Attention? Of the more than 6,500 different kinds of native plants in California, 2,422 of them are considered rare by the California Native Plant Societ y (CNPS), making prioritizing our conservation efforts no small task. To start, we identified rare plants across the state in need of conservation support by assessing which species and populations had been seed banked in the past, as well as which populations were facing impending threats or other challenges that we could address via seed collection. Our final targets included plants that are protected under the Federal and California Endangered Species Acts as well as those listed as rare by CNPS but do not have any formal legal protections.
In 2018, rare plants not protected under an endangered species act found support when Governor Jerry Brown launched the California Biodiversit y Initiative, which focuses on protecting the state’s natural heritage. The plan highlighted seed banking as an important tool in safeguarding the state’s flora. It named California Plant Rescue (CaPR), a collaboration of federal, state and non-profit partners, as the governing body for securing at least one population of each of California’s rarest plants in conservation seed banks by 2025. This funding is driving the long-term conservation of plants that are extremely rare but lack protection under the endangered species act. As a CaPR member, The Garden is using this funding to make conservation seed collections and to house them in our nationally accredited Conservation Seed Bank. Researching and Mapping Our Rare Plant Targets Once we developed our target list, which included more than 130 different kinds of rare plants, we began scouring herbarium records and other data sources to determine where the plants occur, when they bloom and which specific populations we intended to visit. And we’re not just collecting seeds. Although long-term conservation is the end goal, we also collect seeds so we can grow plants in our greenhouse to produce more seeds for restoration and/or research. Other times, seed collection is part of a larger project aimed at investigating the status, biology or ecology of a rare plant and conservation seed banking is added on as a bonus to that work. Regardless of our motivations, we must have the who, what, where and when figured out before we can go into the field. Time to Take to the Open Road … and the Backcountry Although looking for plants may sound straightforward, rare plants can be challenging to find and difficult to identify. Our field work takes us to infrequently visited locales across the state, often requiring technical 4-wheel driving and rugged hiking to access remote plant populations. We search for rare plants in habitats ranging from sand dunes to grasslands, shrublands to forests, and even treeless mountain tops. Encounters with rattlesnakes and black bears are emblematic of the field season, as is bushwhacking through chaparral or cutting our way through head-high poison oak. These expeditions offer a unique glimpse into the wilds of California and provide opportunities to make important observations of ecosystems across the state. They are at once humbling and awe-inspiring.
opposite page: Dr. Heather Schneider, Rare Plant Biologist, collecting data along the Kings River in Sequoia National Forest
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