Earthwatch Project: “Seed Bank of two species in danger of extinction “Peucedanum schottii & Silene sennenii”. All moneys raised will go to charity.

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Botanic Garden Marimurtra Project

Project title:

“Seed Bank of two species in danger of extinction – “Peucedanum Schottii & Silene Sennenii”

Project Overview

After a very intensive research with Vânia Lopes (Landscape Architect), the selection was the “Fundació Carl Faust”. The Botanic Garden Marimurtra from Blames, Girona, it is the most interesting botanic garden of the landscape point of view. This organization non-governmental have been focused the work in the biology, conservation and communication.
Due to in our days, we assist to the increase of many species of extinction, the botanic gardens are very important to contribute to the conservation of the global biodiversity.
The Botanic Garden Marimurtra is the first garden to have a “Germoplasma” security in Catalunya, so that means they have more than one frozen to prevent some issues. (http://www.jbotanicmarimurtra.org/).
They organized “Les primers jornadas catalanes de conservació de flora Catalana” on 2th of June 2008. They presented the “Cataleg de Flora amenaçada de Catalunya” that was approved by the “Govern de la Generalitat” (docuemnto).
In this booklet they have been included 59 species in danger of extinction and 123 “vulnerable” species. In the last legislation there only had 5 protected species, that means them progressing on.
This year, and because this project is expensive and they have a limited grant by “Fundació, Territori i Paisatge, Caixa Catalunya” and “DMAH” (Departament de Medi Ambient i Habitatge), they have been collecting 25 species.
With this project we are going to collect more two species and increase to 27 species in the initial project. And the most interesting is that these species should to be collected on September, so we could join the scientific group.
The responsible for this collection is Cesar Blanche, “Catedràtic de Botànica de la Facultat de Farmàcia, UB.”
Jordi Masbernat, the Director of the Botanic Garden of Marimurtra, was very friendly with us and we hit it off in our first meeting, so I am sure that we will make an interesting work.
The most important thing is that maybe we can preserve species that are also important to the biodiversity in general and specially in Catalunya, because indirectly are affected by the changes in the new uses of water and land.
“I would like to share with all of you this wonderful project.”

Project Staff:

– Viviana Lopes, Planning & Reporting Executive from BAT IBERIA

– Bet Figueras, Director of Landscape Architect office from Barcelona.

– Vania Lopes, Landscape Architect from Bet Figueras’s Office

– Jordi Masbernat, Director of the Botanic Garden Marimurtra

– Cèsar Blanché, Catedràtic de Botànica de la Facultat de Farmàcia, UB

– Alberto del Hoyo, Staff of the Botanic Garden Marimurtra

– Rosa Amma, Staff of the Botanic Garden Marimurtra

– Mª Carmen Martinell Andreu, Staff of the University from Barcelona

Description of the project:

1- Study of the best area for the collection, assigned by a scientific of the University from Barcelona……………………………………….………………………….……………………………..……August

2-Seed Collection………………..……………………………………………………………….…….September

3- Conservation Process (dry, deshidratation and frozen)…………………………..…starting in

September and it will be finished depending on seed characteristics

4- Gene Test to evaluate the potential of the seed………………………..…after seed processing

5- Plant the seed in the JB Marimurtra……………………………………………….………next spring

6- Analyze the evaluation of these species …………………………………..…during whole project

Total Budget:

Description of item/service required Cost:

• All the process until frozen step of the “ Silene Sennenii”            – 475€
• All the process until frozen step of the “ Peucedanum Schottii”    – 375€
• Gene test and plantation                                                          – 350€
• Vania’ s travel costs to Marimurtra                                            – 375€
• Viviana’ s travel costs to Barcelona and Marimurta                     – 400€
• Final Book of the Project                                                                0€
• Total cost:                                                                            – 1975€

Research Species:

Peucedanum schottii Bess. ex DC. (Apiaceae)

Protection Status
Spain: critically endangered, CR.
Catalunya: critically endangered, EN.
Garrotxa (Catalan region): critically endangered, CR.
This species is not protected but is included in the draft decree of threatened native flora of the “Generalitat of Catalunya” advertised in 2006 as a species in danger of extinction.

Description:
Perennial grass and ascendant, 30 to 60 cm high. Woody rhizome, simple or branched. Thick more or less strain, covered with fibrous or scaly remains. Stems of variable length, usually branched at the top, or striated almost always grooved, solid or fistula, green, sometimes dyed red. Usually basil leaves are more divided than the caulinares, both being are divided several times, from more one to various times ternatisects or pinnatisects, limbo contour broadly lanceolate, triangular or polygonal, foliar divisions last order from linear or oval shape to elliptical, full margin, jagged, often thickened and very thinly indented. Umbels compound, with 6-60 radii, usually with rugged nerves on the underside. Bracts more or less linear, occasionally non-existent. Umbélulas with 6-45 flowers, with radii almost always somewhat rugged. Bracteola linear, usually drooping. Calyx with tiny teeth, not very noticeable, triangular. Petals of less than 2.5mm, broadly oval, whole or emarginated, white, yellow or sometimes pinkish, homogeneous. Estilopodio wide, conical, more or less depressed. Styles similar to the length of estilopodio,, filiform divergent. Fruits heavily compressed on the back, contour suborbicular, oval or elliptical, often in emarginated apex and base, glabrous; mericarpos of primary dorsal ribs little not noticeable and prominent, the winged margins; Vita usually 1 by valécule and 2 by commissural. Seeds with winding endosperm, flat or convex in the face commissural.
Hábitat
Meadows of Festuca gautieri, in high and shady locations, approximately at 1100m.

Population
Fluctuating number of copies reproducing over the years. Part of the population does not reproduce due to the intense grazing in the area.
Data base of 2007: 97 ind. widgets y 157 ind. with stalks eaten by livestock.

Occupation taxon: 0.4 km2. Unique population in the Iberia region.

Diagnosis
Plant very rare and not very abundant in the locality, and difficult to find seeing as it can be confused with other species of the same family (Seseli montanum) present in the area. We must carry out prospecting in the fruit-bearing period, because it is easier to differentiate from similar taxa. With major fluctuations in the number of breeders, fruit bearing strems, and suffers an intense predation (sheep and goats).

Period prospecting
Second half of September and first half of October.

Parameters to follow
Number of copies players, number of  non-breeding copies, number of stem, number of copies with impact (eaten or stunted), area of occupancy and rate by coating sectors.

Observations
All indicators that have been registered, although the record is not very long, show the worrying situation of the town:
• few breeders, with significant fluctuations and with a tendency to decrease.
• a low proportion of branches that produce fruitful results, a high percentage of stunted stalks and especially eaten
Impacts and current threats
Grazing (sheep and goats) with intense predation on the plant, dumping of construction debris, trampling and habitat degradation. In addition, vehicle traffic and possible reforms of nearby buildings.

Recommendations
Do not alter the pastures where it grows. Increase their habitat through clearing rubble and restoring degraded areas where there are still some exemples. These actions could increase the number of individuals.
Priority Action: dramatically reduce the pressure of livestock (elimination of goats and installation of an electrified fence to prevent access of sheep throughout in all potential areas at the time of development of the plant).
Regulation of public and vehicle transit in certain areas.
Surveys in similar environments in the area.

Silene Sennenii

Overview: Endangered

Description:

Family Caryophyllaceae

Herbs annual or perennial, rarely subshrubs or shrub. Stems and branches usually swollen at nodes. Leaves opposite, decussate, rarely alternate or verticillate , simple , entire , usually connate at base ; stipules scarious , bristly , or often absent. Inflorescence of cymes or cymose panicles, rarely flowers solitary or few in racemes, capitula, pseudoverticillasters, or umbels. Flowers actinomorphic , bisexual , rarely unisexual , occasionally cleistogamous . Sepals (4 or) 5, free, imbricate, or connate into a tube , leaflike or scarious, persistent , sometimes bracteate below calyx. Petals (4 or) 5, rarely absent, free, often comprising claw and limb; limb entire or split, usually with coronal scales at juncture of claw and limb. Stamens (2–) 5–10, in 1 or 2 series. Pistil 1; carpels 2–5, united into a compound ovary. Ovary superior, 1-loculed or basally imperfectly 2–5-loculed. Gynophore present or absent. Placentation free, central, rarely basal; ovules (1 or) few or numerous, campylotropous. Styles (1 or) 2–5, sometimes united at base. Fruit usually a capsule, with pericarp crustaceous, scarious, or papery, dehiscing by teeth or valves 1 or 2 Ã? as many as styles, rarely berrylike with irregular dehiscence or an achene. Seeds 1 to numerous, reniform , ovoid , or rarely dorsiventrally compressed , abaxially grooved , blunt , or sharply pointed , rarely fimbriate-pectinate; testa granular , striate or tuberculate , rarely smooth or spongy ; embryo strongly curved and surrounding perisperm or straight but eccentric ; perisperm mealy.

Between 75 and 80 genera and ca. 2000 species: widespread but mainly of temperate or warm-temperate occurrence in the N hemisphere, with principal centers of distribution in the Mediterranean region and W Asia to W China and the Himalayas, fewer species in Africa S of the Sahara, America, and Oceania; 30 genera (two endemic) and 390 species (193 endemic) in China.

Arenaria, Silene, and Stellaria contain over half the species in the family in China. They are mostly concentrated in the Qinghai-Xizang plateau, and are especially rich from the Hengduan Mountains to the Himalayas. The main uses of this family are medicinal and ornamental. Dianthus superbus, Pseudostellaria heterophylla, Stellaria dichotoma var. lanceolata, and Vaccaria hispanica are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine. Some species of Arenaria, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Psammosilene, and Silene are used as medicinal herbs among the people or are habitually used in local Chinese medicine. Many species of Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Saponaria, and Silene are grown as ornamentals. Atocion armeria (Linnaeus) Rafinesque ( Silene armeria Linnaeus), native to Russia and Europe, is also cultivated in China. It differs from Silene in having a corymbose inflorescence and obscure calyx veins. Wu Cheng-yih, Ke Ping, Zhou Li-hua, Tang Chang-lin & Lu De-quan. 1996. Caryophyllaceae. In: Tang Chang-lin, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 26: 47â??449.1

Genus Silene

Herbs, annual, biennial, or perennial, often decumbent at base or sometimes cespitose. Taproots slender or often stout, deep, branched caudex often present, some species stoloniferous or rhizomatous. Stems simple or branched, terete or sometimes angular. Leaves opposite or occasionally whorled, connate proximally, petiolate (basal leaves) or sessile (most cauline leaves); blade 1-5-veined, linear to obovate or spatulate, herbaceous, apex acute to obtuse. Inflorescences terminal or sometimes axillary, simple or branched, sometimes condensed cymes, frequently flowers few or solitary, frequently glandular-pubescent and viscid; bracts paired, herbaceous or scarious, or absent; involucel bracteoles absent. Pedicels erect, rarely flowers sessile or subsessile. Flowers bisexual , sometimes unisexual (rarely so on separate plants ) ; sepals connate proximally into tube , (4-) 10-28(-40) mm; tube green, whitish, and/or purplish, 10-30-veined, cylindric to campanulate , urceolate , or clavate , terete, frequently inflated , membranous or more rarely herbaceous, commissures between sepals 1-veined, herbaceous; lobes green or purplish, 1-5-veined, broadly triangular to lance-oblong or linear, usually shorter than tube, margins whitish, scarious, apex acute to obtuse; petals 5, white, pink, scarlet, dusky purple, or off-white tinged with purple, clawed, claw usually conspicuous , sometimes small, rarely absent, auricles 2, coronal appendages 2, variously shaped or dissected ; limb usually exserted and conspicuous, oblanceolate to obovate, apex 2-lobed, sometimes dissected into 1-4 linear lobes or irregular teeth, or fimbriate, rarely entire ; nectaries at filament bases; stamens 10, rarely fewer or absent, frequently dimorphic with longer opposite petals, arising with petals from carpophore; filaments distinct nearly to base; staminodes absent (rarely to 10 in pistillate flowers, arising with petals from carpophore, filiform ) ; ovary 1- or 3-5-locular; styles 3 or 5, occasionally 4 (absent in staminate flowers ), filiform, 1.5-20 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 3 or 5, occasionally 4, linear along adaxial surface of styles, papillate (30×) . Capsules ovoid to globose , opening along sutures into 3-5 valves , frequently splitting into 6-10 equal teeth; carpophore usually present. Seeds ca. (5-) 15-100(-500+), reddish to gray or black, reniform to globose, usually tuberculate or papillate, papillae around margins sometimes larger and inflated, marginal wing sometimes present, appendage absent; embryo peripheral, curved . x = (10) 12.

Species ca. 700: mainly Northern Hemisphere.

Silene includes several important weeds and some very beautiful horticultural plants. In addition to the species described in this account, several others have occurred in the flora area as chance introductions or garden escapes, but they have not become established and most have not been seen recently. They include S. coeli-rosa (Linnaeus) Godron, S. cretica Linnaeus, S. (Lychnis) fulgens (Fischer) E. H. L. Krause, S. italica Persoon, and S. nutans Linnaeus.

In this account, Lychnis, Melandrium, and Viscaria have been included in Silene, their previous recognition as distinct genera having resulted in a great deal of confusion in both nomenclature and taxonomy. I have not presented an infrageneric classification of Silene because existing systems either do not include those other genera (e.g., P. K. Chowdhuri 1957) or do not deal with most of our native North American taxa [e.g., W. Greuter (1995) and the molecular studies by Oxelman and coworkers (e.g., B . Oxelman et al. 1997, 2000). The recent molecular study by J. G. Burleigh and T. P. Holtsford (2003) provides little support for existing morphologically based sectional classifications within Silene insofar as they relate to endemic North American taxa. However, it does indicate the distinctness of our arctic alpine species (S. involucrata??as S. furcata, and S. acaulis) that are circumpolar in their distribution.2

Physical Description

Habit: Clumping perennial. evergreen.

Flowers: Single pink or pale pink flowers in April, May, June, July. Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. Petals 5, clawed. Limb crimson, 2cm long, 6mm broad, notched at apex, glabrous. Claw -2cm long, mostly scarious but reddish near apex, glabrous. Fornices 2, 3-4mm long, erect, red. Stamens 10, half adnate at base of petals, half not adnate to petals, exserted. Filaments 2.4cm long, glabrous, greenish-white below, reddish near apex. Anthers 3mm long, 2-lobed, greyish-green. Ovary on small gynophore(to 1.5mm long), cylindric , yellow-green, 6mm long, -2mm in diameter. Placentation free-central. Ovules many. Styles 3, white below, red above, -2cm long. Calyx tube to 1.7cm long, 5-lobed, densely glandular pubescent , often with a reddish tinge, 10-nerved, glabrous internally. Lobes acute, triangular, 4mm long.

Foliage: Narrow, strap-like lanceolate leaves. Stems and the bases of flowers are covered with sticky hairs. Leaves of basal rosette spatulate , petiolate , to +/-15cm long (with petiole ), 2cm broad, acute, entire . Blades mostly glabrous . Margins ciliate , especially on petiole. Cauline leaves opposite, becoming sessile, lanceolate to lance-linear, entire, viscid glandular pubescent , acute, reduced upward, typically less than 8 pairs on a stem.

Size/Age/Growth

Size: 12-18″ tall.

Landscaping

Landscape Uses: Rock gardens. Wildflower gardens. Shade gardens. • Care: Tolerates coastal conditions.

Habitat

Ecology: This perennial herb generally grows in primary or secondary habitats dominated by Brachypodietum phoenicoidis. (Ref. 83280)

Biology

Growth

Culture: Space 15-18″ apart.

Soil: Moderately fertile , well-drained soil.

Sunlight: Sun Exposure: Sun to partial shade. Likes sun.

Moisture: Water Requirements: Drought tolerant .

Temperature: Cold Hardiness: 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b, 5a, 5b, 6a, 6b, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11. (map)

Decription of a Seed Bank:

It is a collection of seeds conserved in a special conditions witch ensure the viability for a long period of time.

1-    Preview selection of the species to be conserved
2-    A review of the bibliography information
3-    Plan of the expedition for the recollection
4-    Recollection of the fruits and seeds
5-    Registration in the data base
This includes:

• o    Taxonomic information (family, genre, specie and author)
• o    Recollection date
• o    Local of recollection (town, UTM and high)
• o    Information of the recollection

6-        Creation of the “pliego” de herbarium (testimony of the recollection)
7-        Cleaning of the seeds
8-        Dehydration (humidity of 3-7%)
9-        Hermetic bottle
10-      Conservation of the seeds:

• •    Medium and long term (> 3 years) – fridge at – 18 degrees
• •    Short term (< 3 years) – fridge at 4 degrees

11- Control of the viability: germination test

• •    Before to conserve
• •    Each 5 – 10 years to ensure the viability with time

But…:
The seed bank never has to be an excuse to substitute the natural population.
It should act like a reserve to ensure the future of this population in CASE OF NECESITY.

Management:

The “Fundació” and his team have an ambitious Project especially in the conservation of the biology, la recerca and the divulgation.
In a time where we realize the accelerated process of species in danger of extinction, due to entropic factors, the botanic gardens have an important role to maintain the biodiversity.
It is essential to combat climate change and the conservation of the species in danger of extinction. Fully aware, the “Fundació Carl Faust” proposes that the Botanic Garden Marimurtra change to a centre for the conservation of species in danger of extinction and for a scientific work, especially in the Mediterranean area, seeking to promote civic awareness around the urgency of preserving the green layer of the earth, irreplaceable source of life and health.

The implication of the Botanic Gardens of S.XXI the conservation of the diversity:
After the II World Congress of Botanic Gardens celebrated in Barcelona in 2004, there is not doubt about the main goal of these institutions, as conservators of the biology diversity, working in the international cooperation (CBCN Newsletter, Vol. 8 number1).
The new propose from the “Comisió Horitzo 2006” for the JBMiM, established as the strategic orientation, his implication as a garden for the conservation.
This new concept of garden is on line with the main cause for the crisis of the biodiversity, ie, the Global Change, like is demanded by the high World institutions (United Nations) and Continent Institutions (European Union – EEA-European Environmental Agency). Because of this, instead of the orientation for the conservation, the future activities of the garden will contribute for the study of the consequences about the biodiversity and measures of the effects of the climate change, in line with the worries social environment for the future of the planet.

This starting point will be passed in the design and on the role of a modern garden. Some examples of this show us the new tendency of the botanic gardens, such as Climate Change Observations in Botanic Gardens Around the Globe Global, http://www.bgci.org/conservation/news/0323/, Jardin Botanico Canario 2006 (download the Gran Canaria declaration on Climate Change as a pdf).