PROJECT DETAILS

​Partnerships for Rare Orchid Conservation
Borderlands Restoration Network is a proud partner with the North American Orchid Conservation Center, part of the Smithsonian Institute. We are working to identify location for, collect seed of, and conserve rare orchid species in the Sky Islands of southern Arizona.

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Endangered Orchid Surveys 
BRN has received funding from the Arizona Department of Agriculture and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to conduct surveys for an endangered orchid species, Spiranthes delitescens, or the Canelo Hills Ladies’ Tresses in the cienegas of South Eastern Arizona. Little is known about this elusive orchid that is found only in a few cienegas in southern Arizona.

Our goal is to locate, monitor, and possibly collect seed of these rare plants for future conservation and research efforts in partnership with Desert Botanic Garden, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the North American Orchid Conservation Center.

Sensitive Species in Rapidly Changing Grasslands
The listing of a species as sensitive or endangered is often an indicator of larger ecosystem change; such is the case with Pectis imberbis or “beardless chinchweed”, a perennial forb found in the grasslands of the Arizona/Sonora borderlands. Our grasslands are changing rapidly as weather patterns shift and human influences intensify, resulting in increasing dominance of exotic species and woody shrub cover.

​We are working with funding from the Arizona Department of Agriculture and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to restore healthy grassland habitat and explore the propagation of beardless chinchweed on the Coronado National Memorial and Coronado National Forest Sierra Vista & Nogales districts.

Contact us at horticulture@borderlandsrestoration.org with questions about these project.