Activity of Volgograd regional botanical garden for conservation of biodiversity

The Volgograd regional botanical garden is a developing research-and-production organization founded by Committee of natural resources and protection of an environment of Administration of the Volgograd area in Spring of 2003. Major directions of the garden’s activity include the creation of collections of decorative plants of modern assortment, steady in the conditions of the region, preservation of rare and disappearing plants of the Volgograd region. Alongside the traditional ex situ the methods of plant conservation, the creation of gene banks in vitro are increasing in importance. The research and methodological framework for the creation and conservation of rare and valuable plant seed and meristem gene banks is being developed. In the creation of gene banks, special attention is paid to plant species representativeness and genetic stability preservation. Most of the plant material is stored in the conditions of decelerated growth. This article focuses on the activity of Volgograd regional botanical garden aimed at the creation of a collection of rare species, introduction, and the development of measures for introduction of promising species intro the culture and conservation in collection in vitro.