About us
This is a group for anyone interested in supporting the Washington Native Plant Society (WNPS). Our mission is to promote the appreciation and conservation of Washington's native plants and their habitats through study, education and advocacy.
The Central Puget Sound Chapter (CPS) hosts regular monthly membership meetings 7 times a year in Seattle and 4 times a year in Bellevue. Following a brief business discussion and announcements, each meeting features a guest speaker who is an expert on a native plant topic such as native plants found on WA hikes, the impact of climate change and wildfires on native plants, and landscaping with native plants. The Seattle meetings also have a plant identification workshop prior to the start of the meeting.
The CPS Chapter also sponsors a Native Plant Steward training program, which provides 100 hours of free instruction on native plants and environmental stewardship in exchange for a commitment of 100 hours of volunteer work. The organization also has 2 native plant sales a year, where you can find both common and rare species of plants.
For more details about our chapter see: http://www.wnps.org/cps/index3.html
Upcoming events
2
The Role of Seed Banking in Native Plant Conservation
Bellevue Botanical Garden, 12001 Main St, Bellevue, WA 98005, USA, Bellevue, WA, USTucked away in a freezer housed within a concrete vault in Seattle is a treasure trove of genes. These genes represent the genetic diversity of some of Washington’s rarest native plants and are packaged in nature’s most efficient storage containers — seeds. The Miller Seed Vault currently holds over 1 million seeds representing over 150 rare, native species. Managed by Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation (Rare Care), the seed vault’s mission is to collect and conserve seeds of the rare, native plant species of Washington for long-term protection. Come learn from the Rare Care staff how seeds are collected from wild populations and journey their way into our vault, safeguarding Washington’s biodiversity for generations to come. All the while learning about the biology of seeds, the science of seed banking, and some of the ways we break seed dormancy to initiate germination.
The Washington Rare Plant Care and Conservation Program (Rare Care) at the University of Washington Botanic Gardens is a conservation initiative dedicated to protecting Washington state's native rare, threatened, and endangered vascular plants. Rare Care’s Program Manager is Wendy Gibble and their Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator is Naomi Reibold.
Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026 7:00pm
Bellevue Botanical Garden, Aaron Education Center, 12001 Main St, Bellevue, WA 98005Program will be in-person & live streamed via Zoom. For information on how to sign up for Zoom, please contact our event web page:
https://www.wnps.org/cps-events/the-role-of-seed-banking-in-native-plant-conservation
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.Stewart Wechsler, our Botanist Fellow, will host a plant ID workshops prior to this program at 6:30 PM. In addition to any plant samples the chapter botanists bring, attendees are welcome to bring in plant samples for identification.
Public invited, admission is free, donations appreciated
3 attendees
25 years of exploring the PNW Vascular Plant Flora at the UW Herbarium
The Mountaineers, 7700 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115, USA, Seattle, WA, USPlease note the change from the first to the second Thursday this month only.
The University of Washington Herbarium at the Burke Museum holds the largest collection of Pacific Northwest vascular plant specimens. This collection was built through nearly 150 years of plant collecting throughout the region. These specimens have been and continue to support a wide range of activities including the description of new species, the discovery and documentation of rare plant populations, the arrival and spread of invasive species, potential climate change impacts on native plants, and the production of multiple floras providing identification keys to and descriptions of the region's vascular plant diversity. In this presentation, Herbarium Collections Manager and Research Botanist, David Giblin will provide an overview of the Herbarium's field- and collections-based activities over the past 25 years.
David Giblin is Collections Manager and Research Botanist at the University of Washington Herbarium of the Burke Museum. David's research focuses on the distribution and diversity of the Pacific Northwest vascular plant flora, for which he has conducted extensive field work throughout the region. He manages the Plants of Washington Image Gallery, Washington Flora Checklist, and Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria online databases. He is lead editor and co-author for Flora of the Pacific Northwest, 2nd edition, co-author of wildflower guides to Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades national parks, co-creator of the Washington Wildflowers identification app, and Taxon Editor of several families for the Flora of North America Project.
Thursday Nov. 12, 2026, 7:00 PM
The Mountaineers, Cascade Room, 7700 Sand Point Way, NE, SeattleProgram will be in-person & live streamed via Zoom. For information on how to sign up for Zoom, please contact our event web page:
https://www.wnps.org/.../exploring-pacific-northwest...
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Stewart Wechsler, our Botanist Fellow, will host a plant ID workshops prior to this program at 6:30 PM. In addition to any plant samples the chapter botanists bring, attendees are welcome to bring in plant samples for identification.
Public invited, admission is free, donations appreciated
4 attendees
Past events
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