{"id":34136,"date":"2015-04-29T09:59:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T19:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=34136"},"modified":"2023-03-15T13:54:02","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T23:54:02","slug":"saving-endangered-native-hawaiian-plants-one-seed-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/04\/29\/saving-endangered-native-hawaiian-plants-one-seed-at-a-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving endangered Native Hawaiian plants one seed at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Youtube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8XkfjRTX4mI\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Deep in the heart of M\u0101noa Valley resides the largest collection of Native Hawaiian seeds in the world, and one of the only places where you can find some of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span>\u2019s rarest native plant species.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34143\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34143\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-chau-m.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-34143\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-chau-m.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-chau-m.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-chau-m-260x171.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34143\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Seed Lab Manager Marian Chau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34144\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34144\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-seedling.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-34144\" src=\"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-seedling.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-seedling.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/manoa-arboretum-seedling-260x171.jpg 260w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34144\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">P\u014dpolo K\u016b Mai (<em>Solanum incompletum<\/em>), an endangered Native Hawaiian plant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"clear-photo\">The <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/lyonarboretum\/seed-conservation-laboratory-hawaiian-rare-plant-program\/\">Seed Conservation Lab<\/a> is part of the Hawaiian Rare Plant Program at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> at M\u0101noa\u2019s <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/lyonarboretum\/\">Lyon Arboretum<\/a>. The lab stores close to 10 million seeds representing over 550 different species, or about 40 percent of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span>\u2019s native plants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of these species are endemic to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span>, they evolved here in isolation over millions of years, so they\u2019re unique and they\u2019re organisms that are found no where else,\u201d said <strong>Tim Kroessig<\/strong>, research support\/conservation horticulturalist for the Seed Conservation Lab. The lab conducts crucial research in collecting, preserving and propagating the seeds of Native Hawaiian plant species, many of which are close to extinction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll dry the seeds down to the appropriate relative humidity that we\u2019ve determined by our research and then once they\u2019ve dried, usually about a month in the drying chamber then that\u2019s when we would store them,\u201d explained <strong>Marian Chau<\/strong>, seed lab manager.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the seeds are stored while some are sown in the lab, where they can be carefully monitored to determine their ability to grow and survive in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll have them in our growth chamber for a couple weeks to let them establish, grow some roots and then we\u2019ll transfer them out into the green house\u201d added Kroessig. Matured seedlings can then be out-planted in their native habitat, strengthening the wild population and contributing to healthy forest restoration.<\/p>\n<h2>Fruits of labor<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great to know that the work we\u2019re doing here makes a difference and we get to take rare and endangered plants that are endemic to <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> and then actually germinate them and put them out back in the wild where they belong,\u201d said <strong>Kristyn Schuller<\/strong>, student research assistant.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, the seed lab along with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pepphi.org\/\">Plant Extinction Prevention Program<\/a> participated in a project to help reestablish <em>Cyanea grimesiana<\/em> subspecies <em>grimesiana<\/em>, a flowering plant native to <span aria-label=\"Oahu\">O\u02bbahu<\/span> and <span aria-label=\"Molokai\">Moloka\u02bbi<\/span> but thought to be extinct in the wild. Seed samples were successfully collected and propagated at Lyon Arboretum and seedlings were grown to maturity in the greenhouse before the team was finally able to reintroduce the samples back into the wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo we work with some of the rarest of the rare species, things that most people never even get to see or might not even know about and it\u2019s just a real privilege and just a special thing to be able to work with these rare amazing beautiful plants.\u201d said Chau.<\/p>\n<p>View photos on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/uhawaii\/sets\/72157649803480508\/\">University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> Flickr site<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014By <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi\u02bbolani<\/span> Ching<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Seed Conservation Lab at <abbr>¶«¾«Ó°Òµ<\/abbr> M&#257;noa&#8217;s Lyon Arboretum collects, preserves, and propagates Native Hawaiian seeds for restoration efforts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,12],"tags":[33,192,731,9,56],"class_list":["post-34136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-video","tag-hawaiian","tag-lyon-arboretum","tag-plants","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34136"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174263,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34136\/revisions\/174263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}