A grant has been awarded to the Chicago Botanic Gardens under the direction of Dr. Kayri Havens for partial support of a state-of-the-art Seed Biology Laboratory for processing, storing, genetically analyzing, and germinating seeds. The Laboratory will fill a national infrastructure need. Currently, similar comprehensive laboratories focus almost exclusively on crops, crop relatives and ornamental plants. The Garden's seed storage and research facility will build much-needed capacity in the upper Midwest to conduct seed related research and germplasm preservation for native plants (including those that are threatened and endangered) and assesses the invasive potential of new ornamental plant introductions to the Chicago region.
The Laboratory will support current seed-related research and restoration ecology, ex situ conservation methods, and horticulture. In addition, the new equipment will dramatically enhance the experience of undergraduate and graduate students involved in the Garden's REU program, Plant Conservation Certificate program with Loyola University, joint Master's program with Northwestern University, and doctoral students co-advised with University of Illinois Chicago.
The number and diversity of seed studies undertaken, most of which have applications beyond the Garden, will be substantially increased. Seed banking of globally imperiled plant taxa and of the entire flora of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem benefits society at large and serves as a genetic safety net, preventing extinction and mitigating against genetic erosion in wild populations. Several Garden studies address restoration genetics and the development of seed transfer zones. Federal, state and regional agency partners plan to implement the seed transfer guidelines developed in a variety of large-scale restoration projects. Research results will be disseminated to scientific, conservation, and horticultural communities and to the general public through on-site scientific interpretation, membership publications, and the Garden's web site.
