Why does native plant conservation matter?
California is home to an incredible diversity of habitat types and natural areas, which host one of the most unique floras in the world - the California Floristic Province. The Province, spanning most of California (the areas with a Mediterranean climate), is an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot, one of only 25 in the world. Over 6,500 plant taxa (species and subspecies) are native to California, around one third of which are found only in the California Floristic Province (known as endemic). Unfortunately, California's rich botanical diversity is also facing many threats. Urban, natural resource, and agricultural development contribute to habitat destruction and fragmentation, the introduction of non-native species, changing fire regimes, and a changing climate. As a result, 35% of the California's plant taxa have been recognized as rare or threatened by the California Native Plant Society's Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants. Only through collaboration and communication can we efficiently and effectively conserve this great, and threatened, diversity.
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California Plant Rescue partners each work to conserve rare plants. Little is known about many of California's rare plant species, and nearly all would benefit from increased monitoring and research, as well as from being represented in ex situ collections. Species with federal or state recognition as threatened or endangered are well represented in regional seed banks (71%), likely because there are funding mechanisms in place to support these struggling taxa. Yet, this is only a small number of the species in need of ex situ conservation. When considering all of California's rare plant taxa, only 23% are represented in banks. Furthermore, many of the species that are collected are only represented by one or a few populations. Ideally we strive to conserve representative samples of all populations of a species' to conserve its genetic diversity. To accomplish more efficiently and effectively, the botanical institutions need to work collaboratively to share information and set priorities. Learn more about the benefits of seed banking California's rare plants from members of staff at member institutions. [this link currently goes to the Meyer et al., 2014 paper...but we could consider creating a more public friendly resource summarizing the paper (graphic/article/presentation, etc.) if we think this page is more for general public education?] |
Milestones Reached
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In 2019, California Plant Rescue received funding from the State of California to bank the rare and threatened flora of the state. Since then our collection efforts have surged and in 2025 we achieved our initial goal to collect 1,166 species classified as 1B Rare Plant Species (species that are rare, threatened, or endangered that can be conventionally seed banked).
Additionally, we’ve been able to secure infrastructure which improves our curation of the collected seeds and record information from wild populations to support conservation through land management efforts. These steps are contributing to our ultimate goal of ongoing seed preservation for all California native plant taxa so that we may secure the future of the state’s native flora through long term preservation in regional seed banks. |
1,166 1B Rare Plant Species Collected
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The Plants We Rescue
Each of the species pictured below is a California native plant that is rare or threatened to some degree. Fortunately, each has been collected by one of our collaborating institutions. An ex situ collection of seeds or living plants now exists to provide plant material for research, restoration, and to provide insurance against loss in wild populations. Clicking on a photo will take you directly to the species profile for that plant in the CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants, where you can learn more about the unique elements of California's flora.