Plant Rescues

The Arboretum’s regional leadership for rare species work has resulted in partnerships with both the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Natural Resources to assist in rescues of rare species populations that have been under immediate threat.

Some of our current rescue projects include: 

Ball cactus (Escobaria vivipara)

Started in 2020. Only 1 population in MN. Conducted in partnership with USFWS, The Nature Conservancy, UMN College of Biological Sciences Conservatory. We’re leading a project to seed bank and translocate plants of the only population in MN. The majority of the population is endangered by granite mining operations. This population is mostly unprotected with the largest subpopulations on two granite mining sites. The mines are applying for permits to become active and so we’re hoping to backup and move the threatened plants to protected areas (and bring to the Arb to display and educate about, as well). We have been banking seed from one of the quarries (and the other subpopulations not on quarry lands) and growing seedlings. We’ve successfully planted over 200 seedlings on federally protected land and Nature Conservancy land, which includes creation of a new population. We continue to work on seedling outplanting, and likely will be involved with the eventual transplanting of the adult plants and will monitor the results of this work, as well as train local volunteers to take on the responsibility of monitoring these populations. 

Undetermined campion species (Silene sp.)

2019-present. Partnered with some private citizens. A single population of a species new to the state was discovered and we were given seed. We’ve since grown a small number of plants and have magnified the seed to produce more plants. We’ll display and educate at the Arboretum, but also are working with people to positively identify the species and figure out what the next steps should be. 

Tuberous Indian plantain (Arnoglossum plantagineum)

2016-present. In partnership with MN DNR, we rescued one of the largest populations in the state for this threatened species from a mining operation. We collected and banked seed from these plants and transplanted individuals to several wild locations as well as the Arboretum’s prairie. Unfortunately, transplant survivorship has been low with the exception of the Arboretum plants. We continue to monitor sites for survivorship and recruitment to better inform future conservation for this species. 

Anoka Sand Plain Rare Plant Rescue Project

2019-present. This project is a collaboration with the Anoka Co. Conservation District, Critical Connections Ecological Services, Inc., and other conservation groups working in the Anoka Sand Plain area. The goal of this project is to protect Minnesota's biodiversity and natural heritage by rescuing rare plants or banking their seed, in cases where they would otherwise be destroyed by urban development. This project utilizes a large corps of volunteers to act quickly and efficiently. With this project, we have rescued, banked or transplanted over a dozen populations of plants.