Scientists at the Missouri Botanical Garden discovered more than 180 new species of plants in 2015, a number which will likely represent approximately 10 percent of all new species discovered in the world last year. More than 60 Garden researchers were credited as authors of new species descriptions. 

In June, the Missouri Botanical Garden and its partner organizations released two crowdsourcing games in an effort to improve access to books and journals in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL).  One of those games, Smorball, was recently named Best Learning Game at the Boston Festival of Indie Games. The award recognizes games that promote civic engagement and have an impact on culture at large.

The Missouri Botanical Garden and its partner organizations released two crowdsourcing games today in an effort to improve access to books and journals in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). The games were created as part of “Purposeful Gaming and BHL” an Institute of Library Services (IMLS) grant-funded project established in 2013 at the Garden with partners from Harvard University, Cornell University and The New York Botanical Garden.

The Missouri Botanical Garden has reached a major milestone in its Art of Life project – over 1 million biodiversity images have been uploaded to Flickr from the books and journals of the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). In 2012, the Garden received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the Art of Life project whose goal is to increase access to the natural history illustrations found within the BHL.

Conservation experts from the world’s leading botanical gardens met in St. Louis this week and called for a renewed effort to link ecological restoration with the elimination of poverty in natural resource-dependent communities. In Madagascar, for example, the Missouri Botanical Garden provides training and jobs to local people who in turn assist with ecological restoration in diversity-rich areas. All too often, there are no viable economic alternatives to the degradation of biodiverse ecosystems. Member gardens are committed to offering alternatives that restore damaged land while providing income for those living in these areas.

The Missouri Botanical Garden and their partner organizations are pleased to announce a designer has been selected for the project “Purposeful Gaming and the BHL” which will serve to improve access to texts in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) through online gaming. Dartmouth College’s Tiltfactor was selected as designer. The Garden is working with Harvard University, Cornell University and The New York Botanical Garden on the project.

The William L. Brown Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden selected Dr. Cary Fowler for the Center’s 7^th William L. Brown Award for Excellence in Genetic Resource Conservation. Dr. Fowler has been committed to the conservation of plant resources throughout his career.

The Missouri Botanical Garden’s Herbarium collection reached 6.5 million specimens with the addition of a new genus described by Garden curator Dr. Carmen Ulloa in collaboration with Dr. Fabián Michelangeli and Karla Sosa of The New York Botanical Garden. Their discovery, “Quipuanthus, a New Genus of Melastomataceae from the foothills of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru” was published today in the scientific journal “Systematic Botany.”

After an extensive search, the Missouri Botanical Garden has named Dr. James Miller to the position of Senior Vice President, Science and Conservation. Dr. Miller previously worked at the Garden for more than 20 years before departing in 2007 to serve as Dean and Vice President for Science at The New York Botanical Garden. He begins his new role on December 30.

The Missouri Botanical Garden was recently awarded a $449,641 grant by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to test new means of using crowd sourcing and gaming to support the enhancement of texts from the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). Grant funding begins in December 2013 and ends in December 2015. The Garden will partner with Harvard University, Cornell University and the New York Botanical Garden on the project.