The living collections at Limeledge will fulfill several objectives. As the young plants grow and mature, the reference collections will be a valuable educational resource for professional and amateur naturalists alike. In some cases, the plants at Limeledge may be the only ones of their kind anywhere in New York, and in some cases in all of Eastern North America. Some of the plants have even been recognized as belonging to species that have not yet been described, and are new to science.
The core principles guiding our acquisitions and designs of the living collections are:
Ex situ conservation of wild material
Reference collections of difficult species complexes
Preservation of cultivar germplasm
Emphasizing native New York woody plant species
Germplasm for climate change resilience
Assessment for invasive potential
The legendary Langtry oak, aka the lost oak of the Pecos, announces its arrival in Upstate New York with bold semi-evergreen foliage. This unusual taxon is believed to only inhabit steep slopes along the tributaries of the Rio Grande, many of which are now flooded from dam construction. Once thought to be a hybrid, new research seems to indicate that it is likely a new, currently undescribed species. Read more about this long-time botanical enigma here.
A wild-collected Sorbus (mountain-ash) from Guizhou, China that is believed to be a species new to science. The mountain-ash species in Asia are a complicated, challenging group that is poorly represented in most North American collections. Since many of them are of both conservation concern and garden merit, Limeledge will host a reference collection.
Hinckley oak, a federally-listed threatened species kindly shared from a cultivated source at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. Likely the first introduction ever to Upstate New York.
