Minutes of the Woody Landscape Plants CGC Meeting

June 21-22, 2006
McMinnville, Tenn.

The meeting was preceded by an optional tour led by Sandy Reed on Tuesday, June 20.  The tour included the Nursery Research Center, Pleasant Cove Nursery, a visit to Dry Creek Gulf to observe native Stewartia, and Shadow Nursery.

The meeting was called to order at 8:10 am on Wednesday, June 21, 2006.

In attendance:  Pam Allenstein (6/21), Thomas Ayala-Silva, Peter Bretting, Kevin Conrad, Richard Criley, John DeMott, Ned Garvey, Jason Griffin, Mark Krautmann, Brian Maynard, Richard Olsen, Harold Pellett, Margaret Pooler, Cecil Pounders, Sandy Reed (secretary), Tim Rinehart, Martin Scanlon, Scott Schlarbaum (6/21), Alan Whittemore, Mark Widrlechner, Susan Wiegrefe (chair), Keith Woeste

Minutes of the 2005 meeting (in Beltsville, Maryland) had been distributed and revised via e-mail following the previous meeting.  Minutes were approved without discussion.

Reports

(Note that written reports were provided by these members, so the minutes reflect primarily what was not covered in the written report or what was emphasized and discussed.)

Peter Bretting, National Program Staff, Beltsville, Maryland – See written report.  A workshop for NPGC curators of clonally-propagated crops was held at Corvallis in October 2005.  A joint publication of clonally-propagated genetic resource management activities was prepared as a result of this meeting.  Tomas Ayala-Silva offered to e-mail .pdf files of the article to everyone in our CGC as soon as it is published in HortScience.

Ned Garvey, National Germplasm Resources Laboratory (NGRL), Beltsville, Maryland – See written report.  The quarantine indexing and distribution of prohibited genera germplasm duties of the Plant Germplasm Quarantine Office (PGQO) were transferred to APHIS.  Three scientists from PGQO and their support staff have established the Plant Disease Research Unit within NGRL (NGRL-PDRU).  The written report lists NPGS plant explorations/exchanges for 2005 and 2006.  Kevin Conrad will be collecting woody ornamentals in Azerbaijan this fall.  The Plant Germplasm Operations Committee (PGOC) is looking at ways to enter molecular data into GRIN.  Also the Database Management Unit is planning to revamp the public interface of GRIN.  If anyone has ideas for improving the GRIN interface, contact Mark Widrlechner.

Alan Whittemore, U.S. National Arboretum (USNA) herbarium, Washington, D.C. – See written report.  The herbarium is concentrating on vouchering important collections of cultivated plants.  Also, since the Southwest U.S. is poorly covered in the USNA, vouchers were made of plants at three locations in Arizona.  Don Voss, a volunteer at the U.S. National Arboretum, has been checking and confirming the status of the type collections.   Mr. Voss has done considerable work with color charts, e.g. making comparisons between different editions of the RHS color chart.  If anyone has questions about color charts, he would be a good person to contact.

Kevin Conrad, Woody Landscape Plant Germplasm Repository (WLPGR), Beltsville, Maryland – See written report.  The move from Glenn Dale, Maryland to the South Farm on the Beltsville campus is progressing.  The new mailing address of the WLPGR is:

WLPGR FNPRU
U.S. National Arboretum
10300 Baltimore Ave
Bldg 010A Rm 233
Beltsville, Maryland 20705
The new facility at South Farm is still being set up.  Polyhouses are to be installed this summer by WLPGR staff.  Deer fence has been purchased and installed.

Tomas Ayala-Silva, Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, Miami, Florida – See written report.  About 45 species of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials were collected in Puerto Rico in 2005.  Approximately 80-85% of the material collected is already in the ground.  There have been a lot of requests recently for ornamental sugarcane.  Brazil has a good collection, but because of the CBD there are problems acquiring this germplasm.  Thailand also has a good collection, and is more amenable that Brazil to exchange of germplasm. 

Cecil Pounders and Tim Rinehart, Thad Cochran Southern Horticultural Laboratory, Poplarville, Mississippi – See written report.  Hurricane Katrina destroyed three greenhouses and damaged several others.  All buildings at the station suffered roof damage.  FEMA used the facility for several months after Katrina.  An article was recently published in HortScience outlining precautions that were taken to protect germplasm during the hurricane.  Tim Rinehart has his molecular marker laboratory up and running.  He has been working with Hydrangea and Lagerstroemia, but is open to cooperative projects focusing on additional genera.

Mark Widrlechner, North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station (NCRPIS), Ames, Iowa – See written report.  The NCRPIS currently has a backlog of material needing to be regenerated, so there is currently relatively little emphasis on acquiring new collections.  Plants are moved from containers to the field quicker than previously, and cage-pollination is being used for seed regeneration.  During the past year, images of many of the NCRPIS ornamental accessions were loaded onto the GRIN database.  Software has been developed that makes it easy to mass-load image files onto GRIN.  In light of the Emerald Ash Borer threat, a coordinated plan for the ex situ conservation of North American Fraxinus is being made.  This involves the personnel from the NPGS, the NRCS, the U.S. Forest Service and the Canadian Genetic Resources Program.  A collecting strategy is currently being drafted.

Keith Woeste, U.S. Forest Service, West Lafayette, Indiana – Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration Center is a research and technology transfer unit.  Work at the center involves fine hardwoods, not ornamentals, but a few species overlap.  They are working on developing molecular markers for Juglans and Quercus.   They also have rooting research projects involving Prunus, Juglans and Quercus.

National Clonal Germplasm Repository, Davis, California – See written report.  Ed Stover was unable to attend the meeting.

USDA National Germplasm Repository, Corvallis, Oregon – See written report.  Neither Kim Hummer nor Joseph Postman was able to attend the meeting.

Richard Criley, University of Hawaii, Manoa, Hawaii – There is a position in Public Horticulture at the Assistant Professor level open at the University of Hawaii.  For those interested in tropical plants, “Tropical Garden Flora” by Staples and Herbst was recently published and is a great resource. ISHS will be hosting a symposium on woody landscape plants in the Czech Republic, probably in 2008.

Margaret Pooler, U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, D.C. – Breeding work is continuing with Cercis, Lagerstroemia, Prunus, Syringa, Deutzia and Corylopsis.  Breeding emphasis is on increased cold tolerance and smaller plant size.  Interspecific hybridization and molecular markers are being utilized in the breeding program.

Richard Olsen, U.S. National Arboretum, Washington, D.C. – Richard started work at the USNA in April 2006.  He is in position previously occupied by Denny Townsend.  The emphasis of his research will be to develop small trees for the urban environment.

Pam Allenstein, North American Plant Collections Consortium (NAPCC) Coordinator, American Public Gardens Association, Wilmington, Delaware – See written report.  The NAPCC has a recruiter network to help expand the NAPCC program.  They are also working on a project to develop a distributed database system that will allow a variety of incompatible database formats to be accessed to retrieve integrated results.  The American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta (AABGA) officially changed its name to the American Public Gardens Association (APGA).  Pam was asked about whether there were any curatorial practices guidelines published on-line.  She indicated that Tim Hohn had posted a set of guidelines on the web, but that these were most likely outdated.  (Note added later by Sandy Reed -- these are posted at: http://hort.edcc.edu/Curatorial%20Practices.pdf)

HRI/ANLA – Mark Teffeau was unable to attend the meeting.

Harold Pellett, Landscape Plant Development Center, Mound, Minnesota – Land in Minnesota was recently donated to the LPDC.  This will be a great location for screening for cold tolerance.  They started planting materials there this spring.  A small polyhouse and a potting shed have been set up at the Oregon station.  Work with Buddleia and Weigela is continuing in cooperation with Cornell University.  The first three introductions of the LPDC have been released.  They are ‘Center Glow’ ninebark, ‘Center Star’ clematis, and Silver Ball™ pear.

Jason Griffin, J.C. Pair Horticultural Research Center, Wichita, Kansas – They have a young but growing nursery industry in Kansas.  They need plants adapted to high pH soils.  Also this area has extreme weather conditions – hot summers and cold winters – that are a challenge to nursery producers.

Sue Wiegrefe, University of Wisconsin, River Falls, Wisconsin – METRIA will be holding its biennial meeting at University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen on June 26-28, 2006.  (Note: Proceedings of this symposium are posted at http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/fletcher/programs/nursery/metria.)  The Morton Arboretum has developed a new strategic plan which includes continuing the tree improvement program.
Susan reported on the Viburnum evaluation grant that she received in 2005.  An intern was hired to evaluate 17 populations for phenology, disease and insect tolerance, and flower and fruit characteristics.  All evaluations so far have been made on single plants, but she has started cutting propagation for replicated trials. 

North American China Plant Exploration Consortium (NACPEC) – Martin Scanlon recently went on a NACPEC collecting trip to China.  The Director of the Beijing Arboretum coordinated the trip for them.  The trip was a success and it set up good contacts for future trips.  Alan Whittemore added that NACPEC has good contacts in China.  For more information, contact Kevin Conrad, Martin Scanlon or Tony Aiello (Morris Arboretum).   

Issues

Acquisition – Ned Garvey indicated that the NPGS has a new protocol for bringing in plants from outside the U.S.  APHIS is no longer involved at ports of entry; this is now under Homeland Security.  Plants are sent to the Beltsville inspection center.  It was suggested that someone from APHIS be invited to attend our next meeting.

Peter Bretting provided an update on the situation with China.  The main problem is that we don’t yet know who the critical contact is for the CBD in China.  We used to be able to get permission at the provincial level, but new legislation requires national level permission. However, we do seem to be making progress in this area.

Ned Garvey explained that regardless of who is collecting plant material, it is necessary to get National Access Permission from the country in which you want to collect.  Differences between individuals, commercial interests, private institutions and the NPGS relate to what strings are attached to the material once it is brought back to the U.S.  Sometimes the material comes with restrictions that do not meet the guidelines of the NPGS.  For example, permission may be given to collect and use in research, but not to distribute.  This would not be compatible with NPGS’s mission and distribution policy. 

Mark Widrlechner addressed how the CBD issue affects Index Seminum material.  He said that most institutions will include a statement concerning CBD compliance.  If the conditions are not acceptable for NPGS, then material should not be requested.  Researchers might be able to accept material that curators could not; and, for ARS researchers, the Office of Technology Transfer should be consulted to clarify this. 

Ned Garvey added that when plants come in from commercial sources, NPGS will ask how materials were collected and whether permission had been granted by the source country.  Germplasm that comes in now often has a Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) attached.

Peter Bretting’s report to this CGC includes the URL for the State Department site (http://www.state.gov/g/oes/rls/or/25962.htm) that gives information for collecting germplasm outside the U.S.

Sue Wiegrefe questioned whether NAPCC is making sure all collections are free of restrictions concerning their distribution.  It was suggested that when an institution applies for membership in NAPCC would be a good time to look at this issue.  NAPCC is not policing this issue; it is up to each institution as to how they implement it.

Mark Widrlechner brought up the fact that there are some collections in the NPGS that have some restrictions concerning their distribution and that this shows up in GRIN.  He suggested that NAPCC organizations also enter this information into their databases.

Peter Bretting said that, at the request of some foreign governments, the NPGS will maintain some collections for safeguarding, but that we don’t distribute those collections.  For example, we backup Paraguay’s germplasm collection at Fort Collins.  Also, at the request of the Plant Variety Protection Office, we maintain PVP cultivars, but we do not distribute them until the PVP certificate expires.

Documentation/Retrieval – According to Pam Allenstein vouchering of NAPCC collections depends on the individual institution or collection.  Kevin Conrad has helped some institutions with this at their request.  Alan Whittemore added that the USNA Herbarium is always glad to get vouchers of important collections, but they may or may not be able to help with the vouchering.  Pam Allenstein mentioned that the federated schema associated with the new database querying system includes a place for entering whether the sample has been vouchered.

Evaluation – The RFP for Evaluation of Woody Landscape Plant Germplasm was reviewed by the members in attendance.  Main changes involved including links to our status report and to the full list of temperate and tropical genera with their ranks.  Ned Garvey indicated that he would contact Mark Bohning about adding the full ranking list. There was discussion as to whether there should be a separate CGC for tropicals, but the consensus was that this would just “cut the pie into smaller pieces”.  It was decided that the priority rankings would be reviewed every 7 years, which means that the first revision will occur in 2009. 

Preservation – Kevin Conrad expressed concern about the long-term viability of the South Farm location for the WLPGR.  The University of Maryland wants a spur of I-95 extended through South Farm.  The property belongs to the federal government and the Beltsville Area Office is opposed to the construction of the road.  However, since the position of the WLPGR in the middle of a growing urban area makes it vulnerable, Kevin plans to back up the collection at other sites.  These sites will include: the main campus at the USNA in D.C.; public gardens in the D.C. area; and, the landscape at BARC.  Richard Olsen emphasized that at the current time the South Farm in non-functional for his breeding purposes.

Kevin wants to move the WLPGR in the direction of using cages and insect-mediated pollination for seed regeneration. A first attempt was made but due to weather conditions it was not as successful as hoped.

The question was raised as to whether universities could be involved in woody germplasm preservation.  Several people emphasized that universities are generally not interested in this work.  Cooperative arrangements concerning germplasm preservation that were made in the past, such as the establishment of the four Regional Plant Introduction Stations about 55 years ago would probably not be agreed upon currently.  This is especially true for universities in growing metropolitan areas. 

Peter Bretting emphasized that there are several issues involved here.  First, the WLPGR budget is strained.  For any project working under a fixed budget, operational funds are reduced by 5 – 10%/year due to inflation and pay increases.  This is what has happened with the WLPGR budget.  Second, South Farm is federal land and there is a certain amount of buffering that occurs when the land is owned by the federal government.  To place germplasm elsewhere, we would need to have at least a 50-year lease on the land and it is unlikely that universities would agree to that long a lease.  Transfer of land requires an act of Congress, and so changes in land ownership within the federal government do not happen quickly.  He also mentioned that the Floral and Nursery Plant Initiative may need to be revisited.  For example, in the 1996 document, there was no mention of invasiveness, as this problem was not in the limelight.  In addition, the industry needs to be made aware that without woody plant landscape germplasm banks, plants can become extinct.  He suggested that we revisit our status report to include emerging issues, such as sudden oak death and Emerald Ash Borer.  However, it is not the role of this committee to provide input as to possible sources of funding for germplasm efforts.

Mark Krautmann emphasized the need for this committee to make industry aware of the importance of germplasm maintenance.  He suggested articles in industry publications and talks at trade shows to increase awareness of this committee and its role.  Sandy Reed and Kevin Conrad will work on getting articles written for trade magazines and industry newsletters.  Mark Krautmann also suggested that private nurseries should be included in the preservation of germplasm and that the committee should consider how they would rate a company’s qualifications as a site for a germplasm conservation.  While there was agreement from several members of the committee that a commercial nursery might be well-suited for growing large populations, there were concerns as to long-term commitments for private companies.  Mark Widrlechner said he had tried growing populations at nurseries for the purpose of long-term evaluation, but that all three nurseries were forced to end the relationship before the evaluations could be completed. 

The WLPGR has not sent any material yet to Fort Collins for cryostorage, but Mark Widrlechner has been working on cryostorage of willows.  Gayle Volk at Fort Collins is looking for people to collaborate with on the cryostorage of vegetative materials.

Multi-site options for storage of germplasm were discussed.  The group was in consensus that back-up storage of woody landscape plant germplasm is critical.  According to Kevin Conrad, only 10% of the WLPGR material is currently backed up at Fort Collins. 

Use/Support/Awareness – Ned Garvey circulated a draft of the Associate Germplasm Collection policy for the NPGS.  Discussion centered on: the eventual need to include private collections; documentation that CBD guidelines had been followed; and, the ability of institutions to distribute germplasm. 

Status Report Revisitation – The 2002 status report was circulated.  Mark Widrlechner and Margaret Pooler agreed to coordinate the revision of this report, with help from other committee members for particular sections.  Main changes suggested by the committee involved updating statistical data, adding in new threats to germplasm, updating status of WLPGR, and including information about project to link databases.  A target date of Sept. 1, 2006 for the draft revision was accepted. 

Future

Membership – Sandy Reed will send letter to all members of the WLPCGC asking if they wish to remain on the committee.  Based on replies, she will submit the revised membership list to Mark Bohning.  Kevin Conrad will approach Michael Melendrez (New Mexico nurseryman) about joining the committee.  Mark Krautmann will contact Bill Hendrix (Klehm Nursery) and Richard Criley will speak with Loren Oki (Univ. of California). 

Election of Secretary – Jason Griffin was elected Secretary. 

2007 Meeting – Tentative plans are to meet in conjunction with the FarWest Trade Show in Portland, Oregon.  The pre-meeting tour would be on Wednesday, August 22.  On Thursday, Aug. 23, the committee would meet in the morning to mainly consider “house-keeping items” (reports, etc.)  On Friday morning, the committee would meet to discuss substantive issues.  Industry leaders would be invited to attend and participate in the Friday morning session.  Afternoons would be left free for visiting the trade show floor.  Mark Krautmann will check with the Oregon Association of Nurserymen to see if this is suitable with them and if a meeting room can be arranged.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 am on Thursday, June 22.