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Plant Conservation

Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens has been a member of the Center for Plant Conservation since 1989. Mercer maintains 30 endangered plant species for the National Collection of Endangered Plants and supports rare plant monitoring, seed collection, and reintroduction efforts in Southeast Texas. Many of these species can be seen in the Endangered Species and Native Garden.

Seed
1000000

seeds in Mercer's seed bank

Biodiversity
1987

start of Mercer's endangered species conservation

Sprout
30

rare species of Texas plants

Mercer manages the Harris County Prairie Dawn Preserve, a 3.6-acre pocket prairie that protects four rare plant species, including the endangered Texas Prairie Dawn (Hymenoxys texana).

View Mercer's Conservation Efforts

Herbarium

Preserved Plants
50000

preserved plant specimens

200
200

years of plants collected

Preserving plants
40

years of preserving plants

What is a herbarium?

An herbarium is a natural history collection of preserved plants. Like museums, herbaria maintain plant specimens from around the world to document a species’ history, biodiversity, ecology and taxonomy, serving as a permanent record of its existence.

About Mercer's herbarium

The Dr. Larry E. Brown Herbarium at Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens preserves valuable plant records from Harris County and Southeast Texas. In 2014, Mercer acquired the Robert A. Vines Environmental Science Center herbarium bringing the collection to over 50,000 specimens.

View Mercer's Herbarium Index

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