Missouri Botanical Garden is a non-profit organization with the mission: “To discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life.” The Garden maintains an extensive collection of living plants selected for their educational, scientific, and conservation value, and supports the use of its collections for these purposes.
Requests vary from collecting DNA specimens or propagules, to conducting experiments and making observations. Requests for plant material and/or access to the collections are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The Garden will provide assistance for most requests from researchers or fellow botanical gardens free of charge, as staff resources allow. The Garden reserves the right to deny access to plant material based on the restrictions placed on the material by the country of origin, owner, or specific permit conditions.
In compliance with the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity and following the “Principles on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-Sharing,” parties requesting wild-collected material will be required to sign non-commercialization agreements. Parties requesting plant material accept full responsibility for complying with their own local and national regulations regarding the import of plant material. Where required, the requester is responsible for providing proof of an import permit, issued by their national plant health inspection authorities.
Requests originating from foreign countries must be accompanied by the proper import permits and mailing labels for importation purposes. A fee will be charged to cover shipping and phytosanitary certificates for all international requests.
Full information on taxa currently present in the living collections is available at: http://livingcollections.org/mobot/Home.aspx
Please complete the following form to submit your request:
Request form