Montgomery Botanical Center, Inc.

In order to determine ideal collection protocols for the Caribbean cycad plant species, Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) will use its grant for a one-year mission-based collections planning research project on the species. The Montgomery Botanical Center plans to continue and further the research on its collection planning in order to ensure genetic diversity in the collection, which has only been done once previously. The botanical center plans to use Bay Rush, a Caribbean island cycad species that is different from the other cycads and palms that have been studied and that is expected to have the best biological and geographic features, for this project. The findings will be disseminated through the website, tours, programming, conferences, publications, reports, and articles.