February 19, 2024 Dallas Chapter, NPSOT meeting with Adam Black.
Plant conservationists often tend to focus on glamorous species like intriguing carnivorous plants, showy rare orchids and other flashy wildflowers while almost completely ignoring the many scrawny, inconspicuous, yet ecologically important components of our floral diversity. Learning to value the subtle beauty of these ungainly low-key species and their critical role in their ecosystem can hopefully generate greater support of these aesthetically unexceptional plants in need of help.
Adam Black is currently the Director of Horticulture and Plant Conservation at Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories and Arboretum in Charlotte, NC. A former Texas resident, he remains very active with collaborative ex-situ conservation of the state’s many imperiled plant species. In addition to extensive familiarity of the southern US flora, he has been involved in field work and plant explorations in New Caledonia, Taiwan, The Philippines, South Africa and beyond.