If one day a comet crashed into earth, so that life as we know it were wiped out, would there be any chance of a sparking a revival so that nature could recover and life on the planet could go on?

Scientists have pondered countermeasures, and believe that we ought to be conserving both wild and agricultural seeds, so that nature has a chance to recover. Consequently, species conservation has become an important endeavor in the first decades of this century.

The war to rescue plants

In fact, there’s no need to wait for a disaster from outer space. Factors such as long-term overdevelopment, the loss of rainforests, environmental pollution, and the burning of fossil fuels resulting in global warming, are destroying much habitat and eliminating many species.

How fast are species going extinct? The answer is startling.

“It is estimated that by 2050, one-fourth of the world’s species will have been wiped out,” says Professor Li Chia-wei, CEO of the Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center (KBCC). “By the end of the century, half of the world’s species may be lost.”

“Species conservation is a way for humanity to act in good conscience to stem this tide,” he continues. Consequently, various conservation plans have been launched one after another.

In 2000 London’s Kew Gardens launched the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, aiming to collect the seeds of 24,000 species over a period of ten years.

In 2008 Norway established the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, which stores the seeds of 1.5 million strains of staple food crops from around the world in underground tunnels at a temperature of −18°C. By preserving seeds for thousands of years, it provides a vital means of reviving the world’s flora. It has quickly earned descriptions such as “a Noah’s Ark of plants” and “a seed bank for doomsday.”

Located in the subtropics, Taiwan is not absent from the global seed conservation movement. The Taiwan Forestry Research Institute has established the Forest Seed Pool. The Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute’s National Plant Genetic Resources Center, meanwhile, preserves seeds of farmed plants. The KBCC, which is funded by Taiwan Cement chairman Leslie Koo, puts its focus on living collections of tropical­ and subtropical­ plants. In a short eight years it has acquired the world’s richest collection of living plants. In 2013 it also began a program of animal species conservation, which currently includes tortoises and chickens.

Sanctuary for tropical plants

Opening on January 19, 2008, the center was founded with a mission to serve as a shelter for tropical and subtropical plants in their living state.

Why tropical and subtropical plants? And why in their living state?

CEO Li Chia-wei points out that tropical rainforests are home to six out of ten of the world’s plants. Yet the seeds of tropical plants contain a lot of water and aren’t suited to being stored in arid low-temperature environments. The seeds quickly dry out and lose viability. So if you want to preserve tropical species, growing actual living plants in an artificial environment is the only way to go.

Preserving plants out of their natural habitat is extremely difficult.

Gaoshu, which has an average yearly temperature of 28°C and 2500 millimeters of annual rainfall, is highly suited to growing tropical plants. But the quarantine process that plants are subject to when they are imported presents major difficulties.

Take, for instance, succulents, most of which are purchased abroad. Joshua Haskell, the technician who takes care of the center’s succulents, cites the example of South Africa. Because South Africa is an area rife with plant-parasitic nematodes, it’s necessary to get rid of the roots of the imported plants, because that’s where the nematodes are. “Fortunately, many succulents can survive without roots, unlike woody plants, which find it very difficult to do without roots.”

Thanks to new conservation plans that the ROC has helped to draw up for the Solomon Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, Kiribati and other allied countries, great numbers of plants have been heading to the center from overseas. Imported plants quickly pass through customs, before being immediately brought to one of the isolation rooms at the center, where they are assessed on a monthly basis by government inspectors to see if they are diseased or infested with pests. Only if they are problem free for a year or two can they leave the isolation room.

Ensuring the plants’ continued survival is the next challenge. Some plants don’t propagate easily. Some are the sole survivor of single fruit. What happens if something goes wrong?

“Having backup is essential,” says Li. Before the end of the year, the center wants to start on its “Deep Freeze Plan.” It plans on taking some of its plants and submerging them in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of −196°C. This method won’t damage plants’ DNA, RNA, or genetic expression.

What’s more, because the center’s plants from tropical mountain cloud forests can’t withstand the heat of summer, the center has been forced to look for more suitable environments to transplant them to. To that end, the center has already launched the “Xi­tou Global Cloud Plant Forest Conservation Plan.”

Green thumbs of conservation

As the KBCC’s CEO, Li leads the center’s six collection managers, each of whom specializes in a different area, as well as a staff of 23 technicians and workers, to do all they can to care for the center’s botanical denizens.

Chen Wei-yen, the mild-mannered collection manager of the plant families Zingiberaceae (the ginger family), Melastomataceae (a large family of mostly tropical dicotyledonous flowering plants), Piperaceae (the pepper family) and Urticaceae (the nettle family), isn’t bothered by spending three hours in the greenhouses watering manually. “I both water the plants and observe them up close,” he says. “It kills two birds with one stone.”

The world is estimated to have more than 350,000 plant species. Over the past eight years the center has picked, bought, obtained through exchange or donation, or planted from seed a total of 27,135 subtropical and tropical plants. Among these, 70% are rare wild species and 30% are cultivars—horticultural varieties developed by artificial breeding and propagation.

Looking at just the 4300 native plant species of Taiwan, the KBCC has already collected more than 1000 rare or endangered species. Take, for instance, Taiwan’s endemic Adiantum meishanianum (a kind of maidenhair fern) and Wuwei camellia (Pyrenaria buisanensis), as well as Vanoverberghia sasakiana, a member of the ginger family that is found only on Orchid Island, and the newly discovered rat-tail orchid species Bulbophyllum fimbriperianthium. All of these are rare plants.

Li points out that in its first phase the center focused on 12 groups of plants: Orchidaceae (orchids), Bromeliaceae (bromeliads, which include pineapples), Musaceae (bananas), Arecaceae (palms), Theaceae (the tea family), Zingiberaceae (the ginger family), Araceae (the arum family), Heliconiaceae (heliconias), Marantaceae (arrowroots), Asclepiadoideae (milkweeds), Gesneriaceae (a large family of mostly tropical and subtropical flowering plants) and ferns. It then expanded into Begoniaceae (begonias), water plants, succulents, Rutaceae (citruses) and Bambusoideae (bamboos). Its collections of orchids, bromeliads, begonias and ferns are already the most extensive in the world.

Begonias: First affected

It’s worth noting that the center has 1,190 begonias as of June 2015, including 684 species, the most at any single site in the world. It deserves a lot of credit for conserving endangered species.

“Begonias are among the first plants to suffer when the environment is damaged,” says Chen Chun-ming, the collection manager. A begonia’s range may be confined to the mouth of cave or small spot beside a creek. If the habitat suffers damage, the entire population may be wiped out. Begonia ferox, a begonia from mainland China’s Guangxi Province collected by the KBCC, currently only has five plants growing in the center. Although they can be propagated from leaf cuttings, they grow very slowly.

What’s the point in collecting and conserving rare species? “In terms of their morphology and possible uses, there’s much more to learn about them, and they are an important part of global biodiversity,” says Li.

Take Begonia montaniformis, from northern Vietnam. The surfaces of its leaves are highly textured, almost resembling a kaarst landscape of tiny mountains and riverbeds. The patterns on the undersides of the leaves are also extremely unusual. Why do they look like they do? Some people conjecture that these features increase the plant’s ability to shed water, but in fact their function awaits study by experts.

“Our work is to ensure that the genetic material is passed down and that the living plants are cared for. Otherwise the plants can’t be made available to researchers.”

Around the world there are more than 1000 botanical gardens. Among them, the largest are Britain’s Kew Gardens, with more than 18,000 species, and the Missouri Botanical Garden, with more than 17,500 species.

Unlike large botanical gardens, the KBCC isn’t open to the general public. Instead, it is the exclusive realm of research scientists.

“Since it was first established,” says Li, “the center has had only one goal: We have focused all our energy on conservation work.” There are endless numbers of plants to rescue around the world, notes Li. The center lacks the time and energy to put into opening for the public.

Ex-situ arks

Center staff are actively introducing and protecting plant species, and are also helping allied and friendly nations to establish seedbanks of their own. Three years ago they took the first step in a plan to help develop such a center for the Solomon Islands.

Li points out that the Solomon Islands have only about two-thirds of Taiwan’s land area, but the archipelago has more twice as many vascular plants. Its botanical diversity is staggering.

Beginning three years ago, Taiwan’s International Cooperation and Development Fund began helping to fund housing, vehicles and nurseries, and the cost of stationing a manager there. The KBCC began to actively collect plants there, and it helped to establish a local plant bank, to build greenhouses and to train local youths in botanical conservation. The ICDF, the National Science Museum and the KBCC have also joined hands to devise a plant conservation plan for the Caribbean nation of St. Vincent, which will be launched early next year.

“Due to rapid development and insufficient local consciousness and capabilities, plants are under threat,” say Li. “Consequently, the local governments and Taiwan both want to move together to promote conservation.” 

In comparison with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, with its solemn stance of “storing but not using,” Taiwan’s Dr. Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Center finds itself in an urgent race with time, fervently awaiting the day when plants can return to their wild habitats.

“My ultimate goal is to restore nature,” says Li Chia-wei. “In the current stage we are limited to conservation efforts!” He points out that conservation of plant species represents an awakening of human consciousness: “May countless botanical arks be launched throughout the world!”

The silver cloak fern (Cheilanthes argentea) is a member of the family Pteridaceae. During long dry spells, the leaves curl up and inward, leaving only the backs of the leaves exposed, so as to provide protection against the sun and retain water. The plant enters a dormant state, awaiting the next rainfall.

The orchid species Neuwiedia zollingeri is native to Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and the islands of the Pacific.

Brazilian edelweiss (Sinningia leucotricha) is a member of the family Gesneriaceae and native to Brazil. Its leaves feature silver hairs. A famous succulent, it likes sun and is drought tolerant.

The succulent plant Whitesloanea crassa is found only in Somalia. Its body features four sharply angled ridges. It was once thought to be extinct, but a small group of the plants was found just a few years ago.

The maidenhair fern species Adiantum meishanianum is an endemic plant of Taiwan, first described in 2009. With only one group of the plants remaining in the wild, the species is highly vulnerable to habitat loss through human development.

The Wuwei camellia (Pyrenaria buisanensis) hasn’t been seen in the wild for 80 years. One of Taiwan’s endemic tea plants, it was first collected by the Irish plantsman and sinologist Augustine Henry in Southern Taiwan in 1892.

The crimson cattleya (Cattleya labiate) is an orchid native to Brazil. It features a large cylindrical labellum with a wrinkled edge, resembling a trumpet shrouded in lace.

Begonia ferox, which was first described by botanists in 2013, is native to mainland China’s Guangxi Province. There are only a small number of these begonias growing in a single limestone cave. The plant features a very unique leaf surface morphology.

Chen Chun-ming (right), a senior staffer at the KBCC, brings tremendous passion and patience to managing plant cultivation and to mentoring interns. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

Kuo Jui-hsuan manages the KBCC’s collections of bromeliads, carnivorous plants and birds of the family Phasianidae. Originally an aerospace engineer, he’s always had a great passion for plants and has thrown himself happily into his work at the center. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

The fanged pitcher plant (Nepenthes bicalcarata), a native of northwest Borneo, is a famous ant plant (myrmecophyte) that enjoys a mutualistic association with a species of ants. Living in the plants’ hollow tendrils, the ants help by preying on flies that attempt to steal the carnivorous plant’s insect quarry. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)

Chen Wei-yen manages the collection of plants in the ginger family at KBCC and is responsible for implementing a conservation plan in the Solomon Islands. Every year he goes abroad to collect new plants for the center.