Plants are an essential resource for human existence. Plants provide services such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, nutrient cycling, and ecosystem benefits—providing food and shelter for other wildlife. Despite their importance, many plants across the planet are facing external threats that could lead to extinction. It is estimated that there are around 400,000 plant species in the world, of which at least 25% are now threatened with extinction, largely due to habitat destruction from human activities, but also due to climate change.

In the face of this threat, public gardens, botanical gardens, and conservation organizations are working together on projects to help protect the genetic information of these plants. Some of this work is happening right here in your neighborhood park. Madison Square Park is a member of the Plant Collections Network—a group of organizations that work in partnership with the USDA Agricultural Research Service and other organizations across the continent. Madison Square Park is home to a nationally accredited plant collection of witch hazel, Hamamelis spp. consisting of over 70 different varieties. 

While much of the Witch Hazel Collection in Madison Square Park are registered cultivars, we are also a site cultivating native populations. Hamamelis virginiana, American witch hazel, is a fall-flowering understory tree species native to North America, distributed east of the Great Plains and north into parts of southeastern Canada. In 2024, the Morton Arboretum, in partnership with the United States Forest Service and the American Public Gardens Plant Collections Network, collected herbarium vouchers and seed from six witch hazel populations vulnerable to changing climatic conditions and land use in Wisconsin. These sites were chosen due to considerable drought experienced in the target counties.

Plant material collected from this project will be shared with other institutions holding witch hazel collections across the country, including Madison Square Park. While it will still take some time for the seeds collected from this project to grow into saplings large enough to thrive in the park, we’re excited to host this important conservation project here in Manhattan.

Hybrid witch hazels are blooming now through April in Madison Square Park. On your next stroll, be sure to look for their bright yellow, red, orange, and purple fragrant spiderlike flowers.