Davidsonia

Davidsonia returns after a twenty year hiatus, opening with an article by Roy Taylor, the founding editor of the journal. Many changes have taken place since the last publication. Garden staff moved into their own headquarters at the north end of the Dvid C. Lam Asian Garden.

Research efforts are expanding at the garden. Andrew Riseman, appointed as a full-time faculty researcher, set up a tisue culture lab and will develop a woody plant breeding program to work with the Plant Introduction Scheme of the Botanical Garden (PISBG).

Dr. Roy Taylor announces the return of Davidsonia. The principal reason for creating the journal was to provide information about the activities and research at the garden. Many new horticultural plant resources are available to researchers since the journal was last published twenty years ago. The return of Davidsonia gives the Botanical Garden the opportunity to influence the development of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at UBC and to bring an understanding of botanical and ecological issues to the greater community.

Peter Wharton, curator of the David C. Lam Asian Garden, recounts five weeks of botanical exploration in the Yunnan-Myanmar area in 2001, with an expedition organized by the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and the Kunming Institute of Botany. The Kunming Institute of Botany, one of the leading botanical research institutes in China, offers exciting opportunities for future research collaboration.

The University of British Columbia Plant Introduction Scheme of the Botanical Garden has been introducing and recommending plants since 1985. Roy Taylor, then the director of the Botanical Garden, established the program in 1980 to foster strong links with the nursery industry and provide the public with a continuing source of interesting and reliable landscape plants.

A table of climatological records at the University of British Columbia campus for January, February and March 2002.

The April installment of Judy Newton's popular series describing what to see at the UBC Botanical Garden each month of the year.

Brent Hine writes about the UBC Botanical Garden Index Seminum, which lists seeds for exchange with other botanic gardens.

The Garry Oak Ecosystem Recovery Team (GOERT) is preparing a series of fact sheets about plants at risk in Garry oak and associated ecosystems. The fact sheets will be arranged in a field manual for use by public and private land managers of Garry oak ecosystems.

A year of transition for the UBC Botanical Garden, 2000-2001 brought several staff changes including the retirement of Director Bruce Macdonald, who had held the position since 1987. Establishment of the UBC Botanical Garden Centre for Plant Research (BGCPR) was approved and strategic and master plans were adopted. A website for the centre was launched (http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/research/).

Visitor numbers and donations to the garden were up from previous years. Notable additions to the UBCBG include a large collection Sempervivum and Jovibarba spp. donated by the estate of renowned local cactus and succulent collector Grace Rollerson. The Botanical Garden was also the recipient of a number of rhododendrons, maples and associated plants from seed collected in the mountainous regions of northern Yunnan, China, given by the Rhododendron Species Foundation.