Critical Infrastructure Upgrades to Safeguard Botanical Research Collections and Enhance Research Use

This project advances the NSF mission to promote the progress of science by strengthening critical infrastructure that supports botanical research, biodiversity conservation, and STEM education. Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) is a 122-acre research botanical garden in Coral Gables that maintains internationally significant living collections of palms, cycads, and other tropical plants for scientific research, conservation, and education. Located in one of the only regions of the United States (U.S.) that can grow tropical plants outdoors, MBC represents a nationally important resource for botanical science. Montgomery will implement two infrastructure upgrades: installation of an automatic backup generator for the garden’s irrigation system and acquisition of a −80 °C ultra-low freezer for long-term germplasm preservation (e.g., pollen, plant tissues, DNA). These improvements will strengthen the resilience and long-term accessibility of the research collections, safeguard rare and threatened plant diversity, and boost MBC’s ability to support STEM research and education and training for all Americans. MBC’s living collections support broader impacts in education and public engagement through internships, tours, workshops, and collaborations with K–12 schools, colleges, universities, and community organizations. The automatic backup generator and ultra-low-temperature freezer are essential to the continued care, preservation, and research use of one of the most significant collections of tropical palms and cycads in the U.S. Montgomery’s wild-collected, population-based, documented research collection is unique worldwide and is curated to the highest standards. The backup generator will ensure uninterrupted operation of MBC’s irrigation infrastructure during power outages. A reliable water supply is vital to maintaining the health, longevity, and scientific value of its living research collections, safeguarding more than 22,000 plants maintained across MBC’s grounds and nursery facilities. The ultra-low freezer will expand MBC’s capacity to preserve pollen, genomic samples, and flash-frozen tissues, creating new opportunities for research in pollination biology, artificial propagation, conservation genetics, and ex situ preservation of rare and endangered tropical plant species. Together, these infrastructure improvements will increase the resilience and long-term accessibility of MBC’s living plant collections, while strengthening national capacity for botanical research, education, conservation, and scientific collaboration. This project aligns with the NSF’s biotechnology priority area. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2610535 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Joanna Tucker Lima | Institution: Montgomery Botanical Center, CORAL GABLES, FL | Award Amount: $74,785 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2610535 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2610535.html