Plant conservation and stewardship are hallmarks of Omaha’s Lauritzen Gardens. Jim Locklear, the gardens’ director of conservation, will talk about those efforts in a 1:30 p.m. Feb. 25 lecture in the Nebraska Union Auditorium.
The lecture, “More Than a Pretty Place: Conservation Initiatives at Lauritzen Gardens,” highlights the work being done at one of the Great Plains most valuable botanical gardens. The talk is free and open to the public.
Lauritzen Gardens is a participating institution in the Center for Plant Conservation, a coalition of the nation’s leading botanical institutions working to prevent the extinction of America’s endangered plants. Lauritzen’s conservation work is focused on the Great Plains region where more than 100 plants are in danger of becoming extinct in their native habitat. The work of conserving endangered plants involves research, seed banking, and restoration projects.
Research by Lauritzen Gardens has identified 382 plants with geographic distributions that are mostly limited to the Central Grassland of North America. Of these “endemic” and uniquely grassland plants, 124 or 33 percent are at risk of extinction.
Locklear has headed Lauritzen’s conservation efforts since 2010. He has conducted conservation assessments of imperiled plants in the Great Plains for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, the Colorado Natural Areas Program, and the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. He is a former director of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum.
He is editor of “Jewels of the Plains: Wildflowers of the Great Plains Grasslands and Hills.” This classic guide, originally written by the late South Dakota plantsman Claude A. Barr, was updated by Locklear and republished by University of Minnesota Press in 2015. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
The talk is sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Garden Friends, who advocate for and support the university’s botanical garden and arboretum.
