Chelsea Physic Garden (CPG) – has announced that it has grown a vital new partnership to help save critically endangered conifers from extinction.

The 352-year-old Physic Garden has started collaborating with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh by becoming a “safe site” in its International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP).

The programme currently has over 300 outposts that take in rare tree species facing extinction in their natural habitats, largely due to deforestation and mining.

 

 

This summer, CPG will take a consignment of various trees that are in urgent need of protection. These include Mulanje cedar, Widdringtonia whytei, which is only found in the wilds on Mount Mulanje in Malawi and a cypress called Xanthocyparis vietnamensis, which normally only grows in Vietnam and China.

 

The plants are to be driven to London by Emily Hazell, Head of Plant Collections at CPG. Ms Hazell said: ‘I am excited to get these unique species safely back to Chelsea, as our garden gets to widen its conifer collection. This is the beginning of our important relationship with the ICCP, helping to conserve and communicate about these threatened conifers, long into the future.’
Dr Hannah Wilson, Head of the ICCP, added: ‘Right now, around 30 percent of all tree species are at risk of extinction. Conifers represent a group that is even more at risk, with 34 percent of all species recognised as threatened.

‘By expanding our network to include Chelsea Physic Garden we are building stronger safeguards for some of the planet’s most remarkable and vulnerable trees. At the same time, we are helping raise public awareness of the threats facing the world’s trees and the collaborative efforts being made to protect them.’

Chelsea Physic Garden here
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh here