\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Botanical gardens and arboreta perform the same functions as zoological gardens (\u201czoos\u201d).\u00a0 Although historically, they both were primarily created by avid collectors for amusement, now both strongly focus on education and conservation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Home gardeners are also often motivated by the urge to collect beautiful, interesting, or exotic plant species.\u00a0 The cultivation of rare plants in home gardens can help preserve species as long as it is done responsibly.\u00a0 The well-known Gingko tree, probably would not have survived if Chinese monks had not started cultivating them in their monasteries over 1000 years ago!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rare species are not often found in nurseries, except in states where they are more common.\u00a0 Gardeners should purchase plants, bulbs or seeds only from a reputable nursery (one that documents the sources of their stock).\u00a0 Many of our favorite cultivated flower bulb species are now rare or extinct in their native lands (mostly Eastern Europe) due to overcollection.\u00a0 Collection of wild plants should be done sensitively.\u00a0 Some plants such as many of our native orchids, have complex, semiparasitic life strategies and will not survive transplantation, so are better left alone.\u00a0 \u00a0Others can be propagated by judicious collection of seeds or cuttings.\u00a0 The digging of a whole plant should only be done if it is in danger by development, or if other methods are not viable\u2014as long as there is a large enough, sustainable population at the collection site!\u2014and you have permission of the property owner.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are over 400 rare vascular plants tracked by the Washington National Heritage Program<\/a> of the Department of Natural Resources.\u00a0 Listed separately are about 80 mosses, 130 lichens, 30 marine algae, and 60 macrofungi.\u00a0\u00a0 It is important to note that even though a plant is listed as rare in Washington, it may be common in other states.\u00a0 \u00a0Of the 31 rare plants listed for Pierce County, 16 are only known due to historical records.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Golden Chinkapin, Chrysolepis chrysophylla, is listed as a “sensitive” species in Washington State.<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 About 10% of the rare plants in Washington are sedges, rushes and reeds with another 5% miscellaneous water plants; 9% are grasses; 7% are ferns.\u00a0\u00a0 Few are woody species:\u00a0 several willows, a raspberry, some alpine heather-relatives, a currant, a gooseberry, a hawthorn, and a species related to chestnuts: the Golden Chinquapin<\/a>.\u00a0 Many rare plants are weedy-looking species that would have very little appeal to the home gardener, however many species are related to well-known cultivated species: several daisy-like fleabanes and asters, campanulas and lobelias, lupines, gentians, blue-eyed grasses, alliums, evening primroses, saxifrages, monkey flowers and penstemons, a nicotiana, and a violet.\u00a0 Click here<\/a> for a complete list and more information on each species.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The listing of endangered species is useful to help us identify critical habitats.\u00a0 Although the extinction of any single species is a sad event (excluding diseases and certain \u201cpest\u201d organisms), even more important is preserving habitat.\u00a0 As humans continue to encroach into \u201cundeveloped,\u201d wild areas, habitat preservation and restoration become more and more important to preserve the \u201cweb-of-life\u201d on which we all depend.\u00a0 That is why growing and planting native plants is one of my passions!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n (This article was first published in the Peninsula Gateway\u00a0<\/em>on June 16, 2010 as Should gardeners grow endangered species locally?)<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of the about 150 \u201cSpecies of Concern\u201d (Endangered, Threatened, Sensitive, or Candidate Species) listed by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 25% are birds, 21% are mammals, 21% are fish, 15% are insects (10% butterflies or moths), 7% mollusks, 6% amphibians, and\u00a0 5% reptiles, with one listed annelid:\u00a0 the Giant Palouse Earthworm!\u00a0 These<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Golden](\"http:\/\/habitathorticulturepnw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/DSCF3023-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>