Bicton Botanical Garden reaches endangered species landmark
Hibiscus storkii which is endemic to Fiji and extremely rare, threatened by land-use and climate change.Picture: Neville Evans - Credit: Neville Evans
Bicton Botanical Gardens has become a leading site for conserving rare and endangered tropical plants.
An ambitious target was set in 2017 to have three-quarters of the tropical plants grown at the gardens near Budleigh Salterton on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red Data List for threatened species.
Now that target has been realised and Bicton is home to plant material classified from ‘near threatened’ to ‘critically endangered’ through collaboration with Millennium Seed Bank as well as Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and Edinburgh.
More than 80 per cent of all trees and shrubs planted in the past few years have been collected from the wild.
Bicton Botanical Gardens curator Neville Evans said: “For visitors to have the opportunity to see these plants here in Devon is a great achievement for the gardens.
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“This is the level of conservation we aspire to carry out across the gardens.”
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