Many plant collections of historical and conservation focus are housed within botanic gardens worldwide, serving as important sources of research, conservation, and education. Botanists have long been interested in cycads with their links to early seed plant evolution. In 2024, the Missouri Botanical Garden's extensive cycad collection contains forty-nine taxa and nine of the ten extant genera. Many of these plants have an eclectic history and some of the living accessions can be traced back to the 1904 World's Fair, and several cycads in the living collections at Missouri Botanical Garden could have enhanced conservation value if their provenance can be determined via genomics and morphological comparisons. Plant conservation is increasingly being hailed as a central tenant of the mission of contemporary botanic gardens during the Anthropocene, and engaging in cycad conservation via ex situ conservation, research, and education will serve to forward this critical mission.

Rare plant species identified in project areas where land is to be developed or altered may need to be extracted for ex-situ conservation under human control. During ex-situ conservation, it is important to minimize the impact of adverse factors including the potentially limited environmental adaptability of rare plants under cultivation and possible losses of genetic diversity due to inbreeding if the number of conserved individuals is low. Here we evaluate the conservation difficulty and genetic diversity of populations of the rare plant Violα raddeana at five sites based on harmful gene accumulation and gene duplication data gathered using RNA-seq. Moreover, we evaluate the genetic diversity and structure of these populations using SNP data acquired using MIG-seq. The results obtained indicate that the V. raddeana populations have declined but remain robust towards environmental changes and can undergo voluntary mating at all sites. Moreover, there is clear genetic differentiation between two populations in close geographic proximity. If the majority of the remaining individuals of V. raddeana in each genetically related population were transplanted and cultivated, it would be possible to maintain their genetic diversity through ex-situ conservation.

Plants, as immobile organisms, depend on their roots to access soil resources efficiently and cost-effectively. To achieve this goal as well as develop more productive crops and adapt to variable challenging conditions plants rely on root phenotypic plasticity. This includes changes in root morphology, growth angles, diameter, elongation, branching density, and rotation rate. In simpler terms, a plant root system is a dynamic structure that can change its branching structure in response to changes in biotic and abiotic conditions such as water availability, soil mineral nutrient content, soil compaction, salinity, and the formation of symbiotic relationships with other organisms or anchored in the substrate. However, the complexity of these responses and their impact on plant fitness are not well understood. In this study, we have reviewed different aspects of the morphological plasticity of the root system. The results show that root flexibility can greatly help plant adaptation. Thus, gaining a comprehensive understanding of root plasticity can lead to improved and sustainable plant production.