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Montgomery Botanical Center’s primary visitors are botanists, particularly those who study palms and cycads, but MBC also serves entomologists, geologists, and scientists in many other disciplines. Specializing in living plant research collections, MBC maintains:

• Genetically diverse population samples of wild-collected palms and cycads

• Thorough documentation of each plant throughout its life history

• Expertly identified plants

• Easy access to the plants

• The ability to manipulate plants as required by research protocols.

• Security and protection for the study plants over the length of a project

• On-site accommodations on a space-available basis

Montgomery Botanical Center’s scientific and educational collections are being developed primarily as a documented, wild-collected, population-based collection of palms and cycads. Population-based collections strive to represent the full morphologic and genetic diversities within a species throughout its known native geographic range.

For many types of research projects, monitoring of individual plants is required over numerous years and study of individual plants is often necessary. Whenever individual plants are monitored for many years, MBC ensures that the plants are protected so as to not affect the outcome of an experiment.

Internationally, MBC is considered one of the leading gardens with respect to the amount and accessibility of documentation associated with each seed, and the resulting plant from that seed, contained within our collections. The collections development and horticulture teams track the progress of each seed, typically on a monthly basis, from the time it is collected in the wild, to the seedling stage in the nursery, to planting it into the ground, and then to final maturity. Digital images visually document the growth and development of one plant from each population sample every two years once the plant is placed into the ground. In addition, digital images are obtained of reproductive structures, such as cones, flowers, and fruits. All of the above data are collected and added to MBC’s database. All plants are surveyed and incorporated into MBC’s computer mapping system so that scientists are able to find the site for a particular plant or group of plants they are interested in studying.

If you require research material from MBC’s collections, but are not able to visit the garden, MBC staff are available in some cases to collect and ship material.

If you are interested in learning more about research opportunities and the facilities provided at MBC, please contact us.
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