Dustin Wolkis

Banking on Pollen When seed saving doesn’t work, pollen may be the answer to preserving botanical heritage.

🌺 In-depth @biographic.bsky.social article by @toughcitywriter.bsky.social on #pollen banking for plant #conservation; fun, thoughtful, with voices of 3 pollen bankers worldwide.

🌴 Pollen banking is a critical tool for conserving plant diversity.

www.biographic.com/banking-on-p...

👨‍🎓 Student research alert!

🌱 John Steinhorst's MSc work now published in @ashs-hort.bsky.social #HortScience!

🌺 Capparis sandwichiana (Maiapilo) seeds have physiological dormancy. This knowledge will help stakeholders in the conservation of this endemic Hawaiian species.

doi.org/10.21273/HOR...

Honored to be featured in this article!

The full programme for this year’s ISSS Conference is now available! Take a look at the exciting line-up of talks and workshops planned for what promises to be one of the year’s top events in hashtag#SeedScience. More information on the following link: lnkd.in/evaVjrRg

JLS The Journal of Lost Species (JLS) is a peer-reviewed record of the ongoing mass extinction event. Our goals are to advance scientific understanding of extinction, support the development of methods fo...

🥀 The Journal of Lost Species (JLS) is a #peer-reviewed record of the ongoing mass #extinction event.

🆓 All articles will be freely available with no publication charges.

📃 We are recruiting articles for the first issue! For info on the journal & article types visit;

www.journaloflostspecies.org

Meet ‘Pua Pilo,’ the corpse flower about to raise a stink on Kauai A corpse flower plant on Kauai is about to bloom for the very first time

🌺 @ntbgarden.bsky.social 's #Amorphophallus titanum ( #Araceae) named Pua Pilo ("stinky flower") featured on @hawaiinewsnow.com

🖌️ We will pollinate with collaborator #pollen, bank and reciprocate Pua Pilo's pollen.

🌱 #Metacollection in action!

www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2025/07/17/m...

We're hiring! 🌱for positions in #Hawaii and #Florida. Interested in joining the NTBG team? Browse job opportunities at ntbg.org/about/jobs/ #Miami #Kauai

Sensitivity to elevated salinity in coastal dune plants - Oecologia Coastal dune plants provide critical ecosystem and cultural services, which are severely threatened by ongoing climate change and sea-level rise. Coastal habitats account for a disproportionate extent...

🌊 Out now in #Oecologia, Sensitivity to elevated salinity in coastal dune plants!

🌱 Despite growing near the ocean, Hawaiʻi’s coastal plants are highly variable in salinity tolerance, emphasizing the need for urgent conservation actions.

🔗 doi.org/10.1007/s004...

2025 Star Award: Dr. Dustin Wolkis - Center for Plant Conservation [...]Read More...

Honored and elated to receive the 2025 Center for Plant Conservation Star Award. Read more about the award and watch the video that brought tears to my eyes in the June 2025 CPC Newsletter;

saveplants.org/2025-star-aw...

Contributing to Hawaiian plant conservation is the honor of a lifetime.

Karolina Heyduk, taking a selfie on fieldwork. She is in a dry landscape with brown, parched vegetation. Above is a strikingly blue sky. She is looking into the camera, wearing a cactus-themed top, a light brown sun hat and sunglasses. In one lens of the sunglasses is a reflection of her hand taking the selfie. I've remembered I'm colour-blind, so take any references to brown with a pinch of salt.

Meet the botanist, Karolina Heyduk. She works at the University of Connecticut, where she investigates photosynthesis, the process where plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into food. So why would she in the lab at midnight?

wp.me/pdRZhH-lY2

#Botany #PlantScience 🧪

The Sceptical Botanist Do trees talk to one another? Can a plant use up the oxygen in a room while you sleep? What is a native plant and what is a weed? Are some plants truly immortal? Through 50 beautifully crafted essays...

My new book is in press! Due out later this year (August 2025; CSIRO Publishing) but you can pre-order...
www.publish.csiro.au/book/8151/#a...

Figure 1 from Sezate, E., Aguraiuja, R., Demotta, M., Flynn, T., Shadle, S., Wolkis, D., Wood, K. R., & Rønsted, N. (2025). Herbarium specimens as a potential source of viable spores for conservation of rare and endangered Hawaiian ferns. American Fern Journal, 115(2), 126–141. https://doi.org/10.1640/0002-8444-115.2.126. Pellaea ternifolia (Cav.) Link, a native Hawaiian fern species successfully germinated from herbarium specimens in this project. a) Habitat, Wailua Iki, Maui, photo by Ken Wood, b) Herbarium specimen Ken Wood 10960 (PTBG), collected in 2004, c) Gametophyte, photo by Emily Sezate, d) First leaf, photo by Emily Sezate, e) Mature sporophyte, photo by Emily Sezate, f) Locality map of Kaua‘i, Hawai‘i, produced by Ben Nyberg. Downloaded

🌿 Out now in @bioone.bsky.social American Fern Journal we explore #herbarium specimens as a potential source of viable spores for #conservation of rare #Hawaiian #ferns.

🔬 Germination occurred in 24 specimens representing 8 of 9 included species.

@ninaronsted.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1640/0002...

Thank you @caordonezparra.bsky.social !

Thank you @droseta-intermedia.bsky.social !

Dustin Wolkis holding the 2025 Center for Plant Conservation Star Award on 1 May 2025 at Missouri Botanical Garden, St Louis, MO, US.

⭐ I am honored and humbled to receive the 2025 Center for Plant #Conservation Star #Award.

🌺 This award honors those who demonstrate the concern, cooperation, and personal investment needed to conserve our imperiled native plants.

🌟 Learn more and watch the video at;
saveplants.org/about-us/cpc...

🌱 #Postdoc opportunity in the #Conservation and Sustainable #Horticulture Lab (myweb.fiu.edu/akhoddam/res...) within the International Center for Tropical Botany at the Kampong (environment.fiu.edu/ictb/) @fiu.bsky.social

✏️ Apply to #Job Opening ID 534749 at careers.fiu.edu by June 10, 2025.

Exploring NTBG's Multi-Strategy Approach to Saving Hawaiian Seeds - National Tropical Botanical Garden By Dr. Dustin Wolkis, Scientific Curator of Seed Conservation One of NTBG’s core activities is […]

🗞️Check out my popular article in "The Bulletin: The Newsletter of the @ntbgarden.bsky.social"

🌱I discuss a multi-strategy approach to conserving Hawaiian seeds by highlighting 5 different groups of species; #Metrosideros, #Pritchardia, #Hibiscus, #Melicope, #Campanulaceae.

ntbg.org/stories/savi...

peach coloured graphic with a drawing of a salamander and text that reads 2025 graduate researchers award

🦎 Are you a master's or PhD student ? 🎓

The 2025 Graduate Researchers Award will provide 💰 2x€5,000 prizes highlighting research and discovery in biodiversity informatics by graduate students whose studies rely on GBIF-mediated data. 🧬

Learn more 🔗 gbif.link/gra-2025

Student research helps preserve endangered plant species on Kaua’i With funding and faculty support from Willamette, Laulea Miike BS’27 conducts essential conservation research on her home island.

Laulea Miike's #pollen #conservation #internship
@ntbgarden.bsky.social helps preserve the endangered plant species, Ochrosia kauaiensis ( #Apocynaceae ), on Kauaʻi!

news.willamette.edu/library/2025...

@willametteu.bsky.social

Seed longevity: analysing post-storage germination data in R to fit the viability equation | Seed Science Research | Cambridge Core Seed longevity: analysing post-storage germination data in R to fit the viability equation

Probit analysis is key to modelling seed viability loss over time. A new Methods paper in #SeedScienceResearch led by @dustinwolkis.bsky.social provides R code for fitting survival curves and assessing seed longevity under different storage conditions! #Botany #PlantScience 🧪

Dustin Wolkis: the "kuleana" of working with the native Hawaiian Flora Botany One interviews Dr Dustin Wolkis, a passionate for seed conservation working in one of the most biodiverse yet...

Contrary to popular belief, pollen is quite alive. Dr. Wolkis explains this and other botanical misconceptions while documenting his journey from apothecary to seed conservation.

Read more:

Opinion | Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? Gene banks are like a survivalist cache: our nation’s safeguard against all future challenges to growing the food we need.

Why Did Elon Musk Go After Bunkers Full of Seeds? www.nytimes.com/2025/03/22/o...

My new book, The Forbidden Garden is out in the US this week. It’s the true story of the botanists who worked at the world’s first seed bank during the siege of Leningrad. A lovely review from the NYT today describes it as ‘ethically haunted’: t.co/risSuDm2Qt

Be sure to check out this interview with NTBG's very own @dustinwolkis.bsky.social on his passion for seed conservation and research. Great interview!

Dustin Wolkis: the "kuleana" of working with the native Hawaiian Flora Botany One interviews Dr Dustin Wolkis, a passionate for seed conservation working in one of the most biodiverse yet endangered islands.

My latest interview for @botany.one features the amazing work by @dustinwolkis.bsky.social in Hawaiʻi.

By working on seed germination and conservation, Dustin aims to fulfil his personal duty of preserving one of the most diverse islands worldwide #Botany #PlantScience 🧪 botany.one/2025/03/dust...

🎨🔬The intersection of #art & #science gives me #PlantJoy!

🌱We are using Bidens torta (#Asteraceae) seeds to test hypotheses about speciation and loss of dispersibility.

🖌️Botanical Illustrator Veronica Fannin drew seeds to showcase native Hawaiian seed diversity.

earthartmagic.love #SeedScience

I am elated and honored to work @ntbgarden.bsky.social where women are represented at the highest levels of leadership including; CEO, CFO, Philanthropy Director, Science & Conservation Director, Limahuli Garden Director, HR Director, Nursery Mngr Horticulture Mngr, and many more at all levels.

Karen Sommerville: The Quest for Conserving Australian Rainforest Plants Botany One interviews Dr. Karen Sommerville and her current research that aims to conserve Australian Rainforest plants.

"I looked up at the trees. Each one was enormous, hundreds of years old, and every trunk and branch supported its own community of vines, ferns, orchids, mosses and lichens. I was awed by the sight..."

#Botany #PlantScience 🧪

🌴 Botanical #internship!

🌿 @ntbgarden.bsky.social announced their 2025 Fall Internship Program! It's like "Botanical Garden 101" in Hawaii where the flora is 90% endemic and extremely endangered. Learn #conservation, #science, #horticulture, etc.

Deadline = 30 April 2025
ntbg.org/education/co...

🌺 For rare species the # of seeds per collection is often limited. Ever wonder how these small accessions should be used for viability testing?

🧮 In our new paper we use math to aid in this decision making.

🌱 We hope the equations will improved management of ex situ seed collections.

#SeedScience