Micropropagation or tissue culture has been in existance for a relatively short period of time, and in that period of time, a very small percentage of all plants have been subjected to studies involving this form of propagation. There are several reasons that more species have not been studied. The first is that many species can be propagated easily through traditional horticultural methods such as cuttings, division, and layering, not to mention seeds. The second reason that more species have not been worked on is due to the fact that different species within a genera or within a family react differently to a particular formulation of artificial media. This means additional time and effort in working out the exact formulation which is conducive to growth by that particular specie. This of course drives up the cost of the research in both time and money. There comes a time however when necessity outweighs the cost factor, and with increased urbanization of rural areas and loss of natural areas, that time is soon approaching. The list of plant species that are now placed on what is known as "The Red List", which is a list of threatened and endangered species is growing daily, and once a specie reaches extinction,it is too late. It is with this situation in mind that we have committed our resources in an effort to slow or eliminate this future for as many species as possible. While many of these species fall into the category of being easily propagated by traditional methods, the problem herein is the fact that this method requires large quantities of plant material in the form of cuttings in order to produce more. In vitro micropropagation or tissue culture however offers a solution in which several thousands of plants can be produced from the same amount of material that is required to produce a single new plant by traditional methods. This would enable us to gradually replenish the population of a threatened specie to where it is entirely removed from the list. It could also take an endangered population and move it to only a threatened status within a short period of time. This will take a concerted effort by many organizations to have a positive impact, but at least we have identified a possible solution. The problem now is working out the method which must be employed to sucessfully reach our intended goal. Botresearch USA is now committed to finding the formulations and the methods required which will have this desired impact on a single plant family, in hopes that it will set the standard, and encourage others to follow suit with regard to other plant families. © BOTRESEARCH USA 1998-2008