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International Symposium: Revision of Flora Brasiliensis: challenges and opportunitiesMBG Profile
Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) is the nation's oldest continuously operating botanical garden, founded in 1859 by Henry Shaw (1800-1889) to provide recreational and aesthetic benefits and to expand and apply knowledge about the natural world. Shaw's advisors, some of the nineteenth century's outstanding scientists, helped focus MBG on horticultural displays, public instruction, the acquisition of important works and herbarium specimens, and botanical research, all of which continue today. With more than 750,000 annual visitors, MBG is one of the most popular botanical gardens in the United States and has one of the most actively growing research and conservation programs in the world. The Missouri Botanical Garden's mission, "To discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment, in order to preserve and enrich life," encompasses the many activities that occur at MBG, ranging from horticultural, taxonomic, and applied research to conservation, public outreach, community service, and educational programs.
Henry Shaw's emphasis on research has been maintained and in recent years has grown increasingly conservation-oriented in scope. Driven by the urgent imperatives of species and ecosystem extinction, MBG's 48 Ph.D. botanists and conservationists conduct the most active and geographically widespread botanical research and conservation program in the world. Working in more than two dozen countries, MBG discovers and shares information about plants and their habitats, trains local scientists and conservationists, and develops solutions to pressing environmental challenges. Research staff and collaborators work in priority regions for biodiversity exploration and conservation, including Latin America, Africa and Madagascar, China, Russia, and Vietnam. The research programs are dedicated to collaborating with host country partners-to meet local needs for botanical expertise and information, to conserve biodiversity, and to build the capacity of citizens in developing nations to protect and manage their natural resources sustainably and in accordance with local and national objectives.
Plant collections and their associated data play a central role in taxonomic, ecological, and conservation research and are a critical resource for understanding biodiversity and ensuring its long-term protection. MBG has developed the world's largest botanical database, TROPICOS, with information on over 1.9 million specimens made available to users through the W3TROPICOS Web interface (accessible at http://www.tropicos.org). MBG's Herbarium is among the largest in the world with almost 6 million specimens, largely collected by staff and collaborators working in priority regions for biodiversity exploration and conservation. MBG's excellent collections and its traditional research strengths in the areas of inventory, description, and assimilation of information on plant diversity directly support conservation efforts and strategies for sustainable ecosystem management.
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