Biuletyn Ogr. Bot. 16(1): 47-184, 2007

KOLEKCJE ROŚLIN CHRONIONYCH I ZAGROŻONYCH ORAZ GATUNKÓW OBJĘTYCH KONWENCJĄ BERNEŃSKĄ W POLSKICH OGRODACH BOTANICZNYCH - Collections of protected law and endangered plants and of species protected by Bern Convention in Polish Botanical Gardens

Summary: Botanical gardens are usually the key institutions for the ex situ conservation of the native plants threatened with extinction. The global and European strategy of plant conservation assumes that by the year 2010 in the ex situcollections of botanical gardens and in seed banks there should be collected 60% of the threatened species and at least 10% of them should be included in the program of reintroduction to their natural localities. In Poland among 2.750 them of vascular plants 446 species were listed as nationally threatened plants in the Polish Red List and in Red Data Book of Poland. Among these 2750 taxa, 403 vascular species are legally protected by national law and 34 species are protected in Europe according to the Bern Convention. In Poland there are 33 botanical gardens, arboretums, gardens of medicinal plants and palm house organized in the national network called “The Council of the Botanical Gardens” (see map). To work out the number of endangered species collected in the Polish gardens, the Botanical Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw prepared a questionnaire on ex situ collections of the threatened or protected plant species, including in total 633 species of the native vascular flora of Poland. The questionnaire was submitted to all members of the national network of the botanical gardens and included information about the names of plants, their origin, the form of conservation in living plants collections, seed banks or in vitro collections and the condition of plants in ex situ collections. The responses were received from 27 botanical gardens. The list of gardens that answered the questionnaire was presented in Table 1. As was predicted, the number of endangered and protected species in particular gardens is largely varied. Many gardens have rich collections comprising of over 150 species, whereas some garden have more modest collections. It is connected with many factors, such as the specificity of the garden, its area and the presence of adequate staff. On the basis of the obtained information, the national database of ex situ collections of threatened or protected vascular plants in Poland was established. As shown in Table 2, in all Polish botanical gardens available in ex situ collections are 275 taxa out of 446 threatened plants (61,7%). From among the species protected by law in Poland 299 are cultivated as living plant collections or seed bank collections in botanical gardens, which makes 74% of the total number of legally protected plants. Grown in the gardens are also 23 (67,6%) of the species included in the Bern Convention. What is unsettling, however, is that as many as 122 plant species is conserved ex situ in only one botanical garden and further 66 species in only two botanical gardens. For a species to be considered fully protected it needs to be grown in at least three botanical gardens. In Poland there are only 250 such species (39,4%). Encouraging is the fact that over 55% of species grown in the gardens’ collections come either directly or indirectly from nature positions.

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