A targeted metacollection of Nordic gardens reveals horticultural endemism of threatened woody plants
Abstract
There is huge potential for bringing together international networks of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta and pooling their resources for coordinated action to conserve threatened species. Realising this potential requires effectively managing complex, largely independently acquired data for tens of thousands of species and many more individual plants with different wild or cultivated origins. Here we describe the establishment of a metacollection of threatened, temperate woody plant species held across 22 collections in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden. We align taxonomic data to the World Flora Online to identify priority taxa and then compare accession-level data using Botanic Garden Conservation International’s PlantSearch database to assess the conservation value of collections across the network. Taxonomic alignment reduced the numbers of apparently unique taxa recorded in names databases across the metacollection by 70% and numbers of threatened taxa by 36%. Going from names records to living plants, the metacollection includes 433 threatened taxa (a further reduction of 64%) represented by 3192 accessions spread unevenly across collections and taxa, 38% of which are wild or cultivated from wild origin. A third of the threatened taxa across the network are represented by single accessions (at a single site: horticultural endemics), most by three or fewer. Inconsistencies in data both inflate and hide rare species in collections. Taxonomic alignment and accession-level comparison reveals an urgent need to increase resilience through targeted exchange of conservation grade material. Through open data and standards, this regional metacollection can feed seamlessly into global conservation programmes.
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BibTeX
@misc{pirie2026targeted,
title = {{A targeted metacollection of Nordic gardens reveals horticultural endemism of threatened woody plants}},
author = {Michael D. Pirie and Heidi Lie Andersen and Anders Backlund and Jennifer Audrey Bamber and Rūta Katrīna Berga and Lars Birck and Sam Brockington and Ingunn W. Jolma and Tina Jørgensen and Tuomas Kauppila and Anneleen Kool and Madara Lazdane and Nils Lidbaum and Øystein Lofthus and Patricia Malcolm and Niels Arne Melballe and Sofie Nordström Olofsson and Allison Linnea Perrigo and Frøya Rakvaag and Jukka Reinikainen and Mari Rustan and Anders Ræbild and Jaakko Saarinen and Inkeri Salo and Johnny Schimmel and Henrik Sjöman and Linda Strode and Juha Ujula and Hannah Wilson and Tomas Zicha and Alan C. Elliott},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.32942/x2ph5w},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15564/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A targeted metacollection of Nordic gardens reveals horticultural endemism of threatened woody plants
AU - Michael D. Pirie
AU - Heidi Lie Andersen
AU - Anders Backlund
AU - Jennifer Audrey Bamber
AU - Rūta Katrīna Berga
AU - Lars Birck
AU - Sam Brockington
AU - Ingunn W. Jolma
AU - Tina Jørgensen
AU - Tuomas Kauppila
AU - Anneleen Kool
AU - Madara Lazdane
AU - Nils Lidbaum
AU - Øystein Lofthus
AU - Patricia Malcolm
AU - Niels Arne Melballe
AU - Sofie Nordström Olofsson
AU - Allison Linnea Perrigo
AU - Frøya Rakvaag
AU - Jukka Reinikainen
AU - Mari Rustan
AU - Anders Ræbild
AU - Jaakko Saarinen
AU - Inkeri Salo
AU - Johnny Schimmel
AU - Henrik Sjöman
AU - Linda Strode
AU - Juha Ujula
AU - Hannah Wilson
AU - Tomas Zicha
AU - Alan C. Elliott
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x2ph5w
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/15564/
AB - There is huge potential for bringing together international networks of Botanic Gardens and Arboreta and pooling their resources for coordinated action to conserve threatened species. Realising this potential requires effectively managing complex, largely independently acquired data for tens of thousands of species and many more individual plants with different wild or cultivated origins. Here we describe the establishment of a metacollection of threatened, temperate woody plant species held across 22 collections in Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden. We align taxonomic data to the World Flora Online to identify priority taxa and then compare accession-level data using Botanic Garden Conservation International’s PlantSearch database to assess the conservation value of collections across the network. Taxonomic alignment reduced the numbers of apparently unique taxa recorded in names databases across the metacollection by 70% and numbers of threatened taxa by 36%. Going from names records to living plants, the metacollection includes 433 threatened taxa (a further reduction of 64%) represented by 3192 accessions spread unevenly across collections and taxa, 38% of which are wild or cultivated from wild origin. A third of the threatened taxa across the network are represented by single accessions (at a single site: horticultural endemics), most by three or fewer. Inconsistencies in data both inflate and hide rare species in collections. Taxonomic alignment and accession-level comparison reveals an urgent need to increase resilience through targeted exchange of conservation grade material. Through open data and standards, this regional metacollection can feed seamlessly into global conservation programmes.
ER -