Public Gardens as Sentinels Against Invasive Plants

Project Directors: Kurt Dreisilker, Morton Arboretum; Theresa Culley, Midwest Invasive Plant Network; Michelle Beloskur, Midwest Invasive Plant Network

In 2018, The Morton Arboretum partnered with the Midwest Invasive Plant Network to establish an invasive plant working group for public gardens, known as the Public Gardens as Sentinels against Invasive Plants Working Group (PGSIP Working Group). This name captures the desire of project participants of the public garden sector to become leaders on invasive plant issues by utilizing their horticultural and botanical expertise, and to help prevent the future spread of plant species being observed escaping from cultivation at public gardens by tracking and sharing this information. These plants are often species that are not widely recognized as invasive, not widely available within the nursery trade and/or are not commonly found on invasive species lists from region to region. However, spread from planting sites at public gardens is a possible indicator that the species could become invasive.

This group intends to train public garden professionals on implementation of shared standards for assessing and categorizing plants escaping from cultivation, and on how to share their findings through a shared database. Launched in 2020, the PGSIP database has undergone recent updates to reduce confusion over taxonomic synonymy and to allow working group personnel to easily edit records. Efforts in 2021 have largely focused on outreach to additional public gardens to drive contributions to the database. In addition, communication strategies for reaching non-garden audiences are being developed. 

Achievements

  • Featured in the Journal of the American Public Gardens Association in 2019
  • Virtual presentation at NAISMA 2020 sharing goals and vision for the working group
  • Created a database for public garden data in 2020 (15 gardens have entered data)
  • Four webinars encouraging increased public garden participation in 2021

Learn more on the Public Gardens as Sentinels Against Invasive Plants website.