The Status of Carex elongata (Cyperaceae) in Yorkshire

Gingerbread or Elongated Sedge Carex elongata L. is a rare plant in eastern England and the Yorkshire populations are isolated from the main distribution. It has only ever naturally occurred at five sites and is extant at two of them, one of which probably results from a recent colonisation event. It has been re-introduced near another of its historic sites. At its principal site, Askham Bog near York, the plant has expanded its population considerably over the last 40 years. Its local distribution appears to be strictly limited by topography and winter flooding. Its ability to colonise new sites and to expand populations show that earlier concern about seed viability was misplaced.

Rare plant species in Zavodska hromada (Myrhorod district, Poltava region, Ukraine)

According to our own observations, literature data and herbarium data, we compiled a list of rare plant species of Zavodska hromada (Myrhorod district, Poltava region, Ukraine) including the information on the findings of them. We have posted plant observations on iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/people/igor_olshanskyi. There are two species that are included in Annex I of the Bern Convention [according to the oflcial translation into Ukrainian: https:// zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/995_032#Text] (Jurinea cyanoides and Salvinia natans), five species that are listed in the Red Data Book of Ukraine (2009) (Anacamptis palustris, Astragalus dasyanthus, Dactylorhiza incarnata, Gladiolus tenuis and Salvinia natans) and eight species are rare in Poltava region (Amygdalus nana, Convallaria majalis, Inula helenium, Nymphaea alba, Sanguisorba officinalis, Utricularia vulgaris, Valeriana officinalis, Vinca minor). On the territory of Zavodska hromada, rare plant species are more common in rivers, meadows and swamps in the floodplains of the rivers Sula, Artopolot and Bodakva. Also, they grow on steppe slopes and in forests.

Collection of rare plants of natural flora of Ukraine of the O. V. Fomin Botanical Garden: current state and prospects of development

Data on the collection of rare plant species of natural flora of Ukraine of the O. V. Fomin Botanical Gar- den of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv are presented. The history of its origin and development and the problematic issues of its further existence are characterized. Data on the inventory of the part of the collection related to perennials, as well as the introduction of new species from the Northern Prychornomor’ya, Pryazov’ya, Middle-Russian Upland are given. 89 species have been marked within the area of rare perennial herbaceous plants. During the last 3 years the collection was enriched with 17 new species, included in the Red Data Book of Ukraine, populations of 13 rare taxa were restored and increased in size.

Collection of rare woody plants species in M. M. Gryshko National Botanical garden of NAS of Ukraine

Preservation of rare plant species in nature (in situ) is an effective method of protection and maintenance of genetic diversity, but the preservation of plants ex situ is a necessary complement in modern conditions. In the M.M. Gry- shko National Botanical Garden of NAS of Ukraine to preserve and replenish the collections of plants listed in the Red Book of Ukraine and other protection lists is defined as one of the strategic tasks of the institution. In total, the institution has collected 190 species of plants protected by the law “On the Red Book of Ukraine”.The collection of rare and en- dangered tree and shrub plants is represented by 21 species, among which: Vulnerable — 9 (43%), Rare — 7 (33%), Endangered — 4 (14%), Not Evaluated — 1 (5%). This number of species and their representativeness is not suflcient for their successful protection ex situ. There is great prospects for expanding the collection to preserve species and spread the plants to other botanical gardens and arboretums of Ukraine.

Some rare plant species in the Aktolagay cretaceous massif (Republic of Kazakhstan): the characteristics of populations

Cretaceous massifs of the Eurasian continent is unique not only for its geological features, but also for the peculiar flora, therefore, identification and study of the biodiversity of these unique objects is currently an urgent task. Comprehensive studies of the flora and vegetation of the Aktolagay cretaceous massif (Republic of Kazakhstan) were carried out in 2019. One aspect was the consideration of the ecological and biological features of several plant species characteristic for this territory. The research is devoted to the study of 5 plant species: Astragalus lasiophyllus Lеdеb., Astragalus vulpinus Willd., Matthiola tatarica (Pall.) DC., Eremurus inderiensis (M. Bieb.) Regel, Tragopogon ruber S.G. Gmel. on the territory of the Cretaceous massif Aktolagai. The coenopopulations of the species are located in the lower parts of the slopes, as well as aligned areas at the foot on cretaceous substrates, and on sandstone soils. The arithmetic density of the studied CPs varies from 2.2 to 6.6 ind./m2, the effective density varies from 1.6 to 4.9 ind./m2. The studied coenopopulations belong to normal incomplete ones. The most typical feature is the absence of seedlings, juvenile and senile individuals in the spectrum, while the peak falls on mature generative individuals, in the Mattiolla tatarica coenopopulations - on virginile individuals. Coenopopulations are heterogeneous in their type ("delta-omega" criterion): the Matthiola tatarica one is young, the CP of Astragalus lasiophyllus is transitional, the CPs of Astragalus vulpinus and Eremurus inderiensis are maturing, and the CP of Tragogon ruber is mature. The recruitment index in the studied populations is rather high (0.36–3.05), the agting index is equal or close to zero. Most morphometric features show low levels of variability and plasticity.

Optimization of annealing temperature for amplification of EhoscnOla locus in pranajiwa (Euchresta horsfieldii) plant collected from mountains, urban and coastal areas in Bali

Pranajiwa plant is a medicinal plant that grows wildly and is classified as a rare plant. Currently, its existence is increasingly threatened. Pranajiwa grows around Indonesia and is known with several scientific names and morphological features due to unclear identification. Molecular identification is recommended to clarify its species. DNA Barcoding is considered the suitable method to identify pranajiwa plant molecularly. The purpose of this study was to optimized the PCR annealing temperature of EhcSnOla locus barcoding marker of pranajiwa plants collected from the coastal (Jimbaran), urban (Renon), and mountain (Bedugul) areas, representing three different areas in Bali. Research procedures include total DNA extraction, PCR procedure, and electrophoresis. The primers used in this study were EhoScnOla forward primer and EhoscnOla reverse primer. Five different temperatures were used for annealing temperature optimization: 51°C, 52°C, 55°C, 57°C, and 60°C. The result showed that all temperatures produced a clear, thick, and single electrophoresis band, indicating that all temperatures were suitable for the annealing temperature and the most optimal temperature is in the Mountains sample (Bedugul) which is 60°C. The Jimbaran, Renon, and Bedugul samples produced 882, 820, and 889 bp, respectively. EhcSnOla locus can be used as the barcoding marker to identify pranajiwa molecularly.

Efficient Drone-Based Rare Plant Monitoring Using a Species Distribution Model and AI-Based Object Detection

Monitoring rare plant species is used to confirm presence, assess health, and verify population trends. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are ideal tools for monitoring rare plants because they can efficiently collect data without impacting the plant or endangering personnel. However, UAS flight planning can be subjective, resulting in ineffective use of flight time and overcollection of imagery. This study used a Maxent machine-learning predictive model to create targeted flight areas to monitor Geum radiatum, an endangered plant endemic to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. The Maxent model was developed with ten environmental layers as predictors and known plant locations as training data. UAS flight areas were derived from the resulting probability raster as isolines delineated from a probability threshold based on flight parameters. Visual analysis of UAS imagery verified the locations of 33 known plants and discovered four previously undocumented occurrences. Semi-automated detection of plant species was explored using a neural network object detector. Although the approach was successful in detecting plants in on-ground images, no plants were identified in the UAS aerial imagery, indicating that further improvements are needed in both data acquisition and computer vision techniques. Despite this limitation, the presented research provides a data-driven approach to plan targeted UAS flight areas from predictive modeling, improving UAS data collection for rare plant monitoring.