Posted May 20, 2011 by Jennifer Ramp Neale, Director of Research & Conservation
Denver Botanic Gardens staff and volunteers conduct annual monitoring of the Colorado hookless cactus
Did you know that more than 1350 species in the US are protected under the Endangered Species Act? A whopping 792 (57%) of them are plants. Today is the sixth annual Endangered Species Day, a day to celebrate our endangered species. There are 29 species in Colorado listed as Threatened or Endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Thirteen of them are plants and we at Denver Botanic Gardens are working to conserve each of them.
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Posted July 12, 2010 by Anna Sher, Adjunct Research & Conservation Researcher
Denver Botanic Gardens and University of Denver (DU) are currently collaborating to conduct research that documents climate change effects on native flora in Colorado. We have been using preserved specimens from the Gardens Kathryn Kalmbach Herbarium and other regional herbaria to determine if flowering time has changed over the last 100 years. A preserved plant with reliable label data is proof positive that it existed in a specific place at a specific time in the state it is shown. Such specimens show that some Colorado species were blooming on average as much as three weeks later 100 years ago than today– a reflection of warming temperatures that are causing earlier springs.
Amelia Bowman, ‘09 University of Denver (DU) graduate, first discovered this trend investigating a set of six early blooming species that were collected in Colorado
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