Glossary of Terms

Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS): refers to the way in which genetic resources (plants) may be accessed, and how the benefits that result from their use are shared between the people or countries using the resources (users) and the people or countries that provide them (providers).

Accession: plant material that is collected at same time and location from a single species which is typically propagated and given a unique accession number for identification and tracking purposes.

BGANZ: Botanic Gardens Australia and New Zealand Incorporated, a not-for-profit peak industry body formed to build and maintain links with relevant national and international bodies.

BGCI: Botanic Gardens Conservation International, an umbrella organisation for botanic gardens and arboreta all over the world with an emphasis on the conservation of plants and plant communities.

Biodiversity hotspot: a biogeographic area with an unusually high diversity of species that is threatened by human activities.

Biodiversity: the variety of life forms, the genes they contain and the ecosystems they form.

Convention on Biological Diversity: an international treaty that seeks to conserve biodiversity, promote sustainable use of its components, and advocate for the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.

Conservation: protection, care, management and maintenance actions to allow for the long-term preservation of plant taxa.

Conservation Management Plan: For heritage gardens, a heritage document which assesses the significance of a site and all its components and provides heritage related policies for its management. Not to be confused with plant conservation.

Cultivar: A variety of plant deliberately bred and/or selected for its specific, desirable characteristics. Differs from species, subspecies and varieties which are naturally occurring.

Exceptional species: plant species that cannot be effectively and efficiently conserved long term under conventional seed banking conditions. Includes species with few or no seeds available for banking and those whose seeds are intolerant of seed banking processes.

Ex situ conservation: conservation of living plant material away from its original, wild habitat.

Hybrid: the progeny of a cross between different taxa.

In situ: the original place; pertaining to the maintenance of plants in the wild.

Living Collection: a categorised group of living plants curated for a defined purpose.

Master Plan: integrated, long term, strategic plan for the development of a garden.

Metacollection: an individual plant or defined group of plants grown for agreed conservation outcomes across multiple organisations and locations (can be worldwide).

Provenance: The geographic location from which a plant is sourced, and which is known and documented.

Reintroduction: an attempt to establish a population in a site or habitat type where it no longer occurs (locally extinct).

Taxa: plural for taxon, a taxonomic group of any rank, such as family, genus, or species. In this document, 'taxa' often means the total of distinct plants at the lowest taxonomic rank—this can include varieties and cultivars.

Tree: A large, woody perennial plant typically having a single stem or trunk and bearing lateral branches. Also includes any large, perennial plants managed as part of arboricultural regimes such as palms.

Voucher specimen: a specimen that can be stored for future reference (e.g., in an herbarium) to confirm identification etc.

Wild Collected / Wild Sourced: living plant material that is sourced directly from natural habitats.