Collaborative conservation

of rare plants and natural communities in the state of Tennessee since 2017

Our Mission

The mission of the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance is to promote and coordinate the cooperative conservation of our rare plant species and natural communities to ensure no local extinctions.

Our Vision

Our vision for the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance is to serve as a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to promoting and conserving Tennessee’s abundant botanical diversity.

Why Us?

We improve the effectiveness of native plant conservation in Tennessee and increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of native plants and natural communities.

There are more than 500 species on Tennessee’s rare plant list!

We only have a handful of botanists
and ecologists officially managing these species.
If we want to prevent the local extinction of our rare plants, it’ll require a collaborative effort from many different partners including public agencies, botanical gardens, nurseries, nonprofits, universities, and anyone else interested in rare plant conservation.

Plant Conservation

One of the core components of the TPCA is the annual meeting to determine the conservation priorities in our state. This meeting will be attended by botanists who have an intimate knowledge of the flora in Tennessee as well as partners that will step up as project leaders for each of the conservation priorities.

The project leader could be a horticulturalist at a botanic garden or nursery, a researcher at a university (student or professor), an enthusiastic gardener or naturalist, a landowner…the list goes on. Whoever the project leader is, they are able to tap into the TPCA network for support as they begin their conservation efforts.

The first annual meeting to determine the plant conservation priorities will be at Austin Peay State University on January 29, 2019. Though the first meeting has not occurred, a short list of conservation priorities was determined and work on them has begun.

These species include:

– Trifolium calcaricum
– Helianthus verticillatus
– Agalinis plukenetii
– Platanthera integrilabia
– Isotria medeoloides

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Collaborative conservation​