Teaching children about endangered plants is the goal of a new University of Guelph program that aims to provide rare plants in zero-maintenance glass vessels to schoolkids across Ontario.
Under an event called Conservation Through Propagation to be run by the University this fall, custom-made Living Glass orbs containing endangered Canadian plants will be sent to registered Grade 6-12 classes across Ontario.
The project is sponsored by World Wildlife Fund Canada’s Go Wild school grant program and Living Glass, a new company founded by fourth-year biomedical sciences student Dennis Zhu. He is working on the project with Dr. Max Jones, a professor in the Ontario Agricultural College.
A specialist in plant tissue culture, Jones belongs to U of G’s Gosling Research Institute for Plant Preservation, which uses micropropagation and cryopreservation to help conserve endangered plant species.