LYON ARBORETUM ASSOCIATION

The lyon arboretum micropropagation lab has successfully grown over 300 hawaiian plant taxa using micropropagation techniques. Micropropagation is a vital tool in plant recovery work, particularly in the case of immature seeds, rare taxa, or unhealthy plant stock. This medium-term storage method is high maintenance, but enables the growing of this irreplaceable germplasm in large numbers under disease-free, climate-controlled conditions. Fla continues to support this important program as lyon arboretum maintains and houses almost 25,000 plants, representing over 200 native plant taxa (of which more than 60% are federally listed as endangered or threatened. Research also includes developing and optimizing protocols for the maintenance of in vitro collections and acclimatization to transition them to greenhouse conditions. In the last two years, over 2,000 plants have been sent out of the lab and greenhouse for restoration purposes.