At the end of September, the island of Terceira hosted the International Symposium FloraMac 2025, bringing together researchers and technicians dedicated to the study and conservation of Macaronesian flora.

The team from the Azores Seed Bank and Faial Botanic Garden attended the event with a poster presentation entitled: ‘Ex situ propagation of Euphrasia azorica from Corvo Island’.

Euphrasia azorica is a plant endemic to the Azores and is threatened, being restricted to the islands of Corvo and Flores. The Habitats Directive protects the species, and despite this status, it has been classified as having an unfavourable-bad conservation status (U2) since the first assessments.

Since 2019, this species has been one of the focuses of the LIFE IP AZORES NATURA project, which has been developing actions with the following objectives:

– To deepen knowledge about its distribution and population size;

– To develop ex situ propagation protocols;

– To establish long-term viable in situ populations.

The participation of the Regional Directorate for Environment and Climate Action team in this meeting, through poster presentations and scientific interaction, is part of Action E2 – Dissemination, transfer and replication of project actions, reinforcing the commitment to the conservation of the Azores’ flora.