the Codonopsis clematis It smells like a skunk, Tulipa toctogolica It has a strange, elongated bulb Fritillaria imperialis Exceptionally tall. But for gardeners who have traveled to remote alpine meadows and forests to find these rare wild-growing flowers this year, they are nothing less than “jewels of the earth.”
Now, seeds of these and hundreds of other wild plants collected in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan have entered the living collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
After sending gardeners on plant collecting trips abroad, where they collaborated with local botanists to locate local plants and harvest them sustainably, Kew Gardens in London was able to add more than 300 seeds of rare wild plants to its living collections this year.
It is the largest introduction of wild plants into Kew’s living collections in the past decade.
“Having live specimens in the collection is really important,” said Dr. Elijah Leach, a plant geneticist at Keio University. “Many analyzes to identify plants containing new bioactive compounds that could be used as medicines can only be done on live plants, because some chemicals in plants are not particularly stable when dried. So live plants enable you to pick up things you might otherwise miss.” In dried samples.
Plant specialists at Kew are still working to identify all the different rare species collected in Kyrgyzstan – a process that is likely to take years, as some plants must be fully grown in order to be classified. It is possible that up to 10 to 15 species belong to new species not yet known to Western scientists.
“If they have not been studied before, you do not know what new treasures they hold for science and for humanity,” Leach said, adding that biochemical analysis of living plants can reveal properties that may be of medical value to patients. From infections, dementia, or even cancer.
“Plants produce different chemicals in different parts of the plant, where they perform different functions. For example, in a leaf, a plant may produce a chemical to prevent the leaf from being eaten, while in a flower, it produces different scents and colours.
Kew is already running a project that aims to use artificial intelligence to predict which types of plants contain molecules Pharmaceutical potential for malaria control.
The desire to find such “new treasures of science” is one reason why botanical gardens like Kew look to expand their living collections by funding plant collecting expeditions. “As the entire plant grows, you can analyze the roots, stems, leaves and flowers,” Leach says.
She added that the DNA of a living plant can also be extracted “in the best way” to sequence its genome and look at its evolution and the genes that support metabolic pathways. “We can only perform high-quality sequencing by harvesting material from a living plant.”
There are also compelling conservationist reasons to undertake plant collecting campaigns. As global temperatures rise, alpine plants – which need cooler climates to thrive – are facing decline, so collecting endangered species, such as the wild tulips that grow in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, is now a race against time.
“Many of the species we have collected may already be at risk of extinction – but by being able to collect seeds and then grow plants at Kew and other botanical gardens, they are being preserved, as well as their long-term future survival,” Leach said.
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She said living plant collections are important not only for environmentalists and scientists today, but for future generations who may be able to use plants to achieve scientific breakthroughs that are currently unimaginable: “We don’t know what new techniques for studying plants are just around the corner.”
Botanical horticulturist Millie Woodley collected 209 new seeds that entered the Kew Living Collection on a month-long expedition to Kyrgyzstan, which was led by a team from Cambridge Botanic Gardens. “Almost every day, we would set up a new camp at the base of the mountains we would be climbing the next day – and wake up to amazing views,” the 22-year-old said, adding that the trip was the hardest thing she had ever done. finished. “And I would do it again.”
About 93% of Kyrgyzstan is located at an altitude of 1,000 meters above sea level. “What makes these mountainous areas so exciting is the way the habitats and plants change. You go from semi-desert to juniper forest to high alpine meadow. We felt like we were crossing into different worlds, where every group of plants is different every day,” she said.
She compared collecting seeds to finding the jewels of the earth. “It was very exciting not knowing what we were going to encounter.”
Now she’s on alert to see what will grow from everything she’s put back. The first flower of tulipa toctogolica, An extremely rare wild tulip species discovered by Cambridge scientists It was officially described for the first time in 2022would be particularly exciting, but she also collected wild roses, honeysuckle and rare alliums. “The goal is to eventually plant some of them in the garden and display them to the public.”