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Conservation of threatened relict trees through living ex situ collections: lessons from the global survey of the genus Zelkova (Ulmaceae)

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Abstract

Maintaining living ex situ collections is one of the key conservation methods in botanic gardens worldwide. Despite of the existence of many other conservation approaches used nowadays, it offers for many endangered plants an important insurance policy for the future, especially for rare and threatened relict trees. The aim of this research was to investigate the global extent of living ex situ collections, to assess and discuss their viability and inform the development of conservation approaches that respond to latest global conservation challenges. We used as a model taxon the tree genus Zelkova (Ulmaceae). The genus includes six prominent Tertiary relict trees which survived the last glaciation in disjunct and isolated refugial regions. Our comprehensive worldwide survey shows that the majority of botanic institutions with Zelkova collections are in countries with a strong horticultural tradition and not in locations of their origin. More importantly, the acutely threatened Zelkova species are not the most represented in collections, and thus safeguarded through ex situ conservation. Less than 20% of the ex situ collections surveyed contain plant material of known wild provenance while the majority (90%) of collections are generally very small (1–10 trees). Botanic gardens and arboreta particularly in regions where iconic relict trees naturally occur should play a vital role in the conservation of these species. The coordination of conservation efforts between gardens has to be enhanced to prioritise action for the most threatened relict trees. Large scale genetic studies should be undertaken, ideally at genus level, in order to verify or clarify the provenance of ex situ collections of relict trees in cultivation. For the most threatened relict tree genera, well-coordinated specialist groups should be created.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Fondation Franklinia for its generous support to undertake this study. We would also like to thank B. Clement, H. Castella and S. Bollinger from the Botanical Garden of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) for their assistance during the manuscript preparation. Many botanic gardens around the world have provided data to the survey (see Appendix S2); their contributions are gratefully acknowledged. We would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the following organizations in the dissemination of the survey and the collection of data: American Public Gardens Association, Botanic Gardens Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and European Botanic Gardens Consortium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Botanic Garden, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 10, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Gregor Kozlowski & David Frey

  2. Natural History Museum, Chemin du Musée 6, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Gregor Kozlowski

  3. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), 199 Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3BW, United Kingdom

    Douglas Gibbs & Joachim Gratzfeld

  4. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun Township, Mengla County, Yunnan, 666303, China

    Fan Huan

  5. Department of Geosciences, Conservation Biogeography, University of Fribourg, Chemin du Musée 4, 1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    David Frey

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  1. Gregor Kozlowski
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  2. Douglas Gibbs
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  3. Fan Huan
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  4. David Frey
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  5. Joachim Gratzfeld
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Correspondence to Gregor Kozlowski.

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Supplementary material 1: Schematic distribution map of the six Zelkova species (PDF 133 kb)

10531_2011_207_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Supplementary material 2: List of all botanic gardens and arboreta with Zelkova ex situ collections used in our survey (PDF 82 kb)

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Kozlowski, G., Gibbs, D., Huan, F. et al. Conservation of threatened relict trees through living ex situ collections: lessons from the global survey of the genus Zelkova (Ulmaceae). Biodivers Conserv 21, 671–685 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-0207-9

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