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Hansen's Northwest Native Plant Database |
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Hansen's Northwest Native Plant Database |
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Sidalcea nelsoniana (Nelson's Checker-Mallow)
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| This plant is listed by the U.S. federal government and by the two states in which it naturally occurs as shown at right. I could not believe it when I spotted a patch of this beauty growing alongside the road near Corvallis. |
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The Missouri Botanical Garden sponsors the Center for Plant
Conservation. Their mission statement is this: The mission of the Center for Plant Conservation is to conserve and restore the imperiled native plants of the United States to secure them from extinction. America's flora is at risk. Today nearly 30 percent of the native flora in the United States is considered to be of conservation concern. Without human intervention, many of these plants may be gone within our lifetime. Eighty percent of the at-risk species are closely related to plants with economic value somewhere in the world, and more than 50 percent are related to crop species. |
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Of the 38 botanical institutions participating in this
work, the Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank & Plant Conservation Program in Oregon and
the University Of Washington Botanic Gardens are our local warriors. The
cooperative CPC network maintains the National Collection of Endangered Plants.
Believed to be the largest living collections of rare plants in the world, the
collection contains more than 750 of America's most imperiled native plants.
www.centerforplantconservation.org/collection/cpc_viewprofile.asp?CPCNum=3980 The Berry Seed Bank was formerly housed at the Berry Botanical Garden in Portland. Unfortunately, funding for this public garden dwindled so much that the garden was forced to close in 2010. Since that time, the Seed Bank has moved to Portland State University facilities and plans to continue their very important work. |
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These are my own photos taken with a simple but efficient 8
plus years old Cannon. I confess to using the point and click option exclusively
but it is fluent in the photo-speak I aim to learn the basics of over the
next few years. If you enjoy stalking the wild plants which are native to the Pacific northwest, I urge you to take photographs of your findings. Documenting the plant form, leaves, bloom, fruit and the surrounding location of native plants. The neighborhoods in which they are growing is key to understanding the plants themselves and helps teach us to mimic optimum growing conditions in our own gardens. Think I'll take my 93-year old mom for a ride out in the country where we used to go 'weed-picking' on a nice day. She can help spot natives while I do the driving. |
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Photos We Share!
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