Special Features - The UK's seed bank gets its billionth seed

The UK's seed bank gets its billionth seed (02/05/07)

The billionth seed has just been collected by the UK Millennium Seed Bank, part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, for safekeeping and conservation.

Sadi Sanogo in Mali collecting the billionth seed, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, for the Millennium Seed Bank. (c) RBG Kew

Largest conservation project in the world

The Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) is the largest conservation project in the world. It is effectively a Noah's Ark for the biggest wild seed collection ever assembled, including 88 per cent of UK plants.

It is based on partnerships and collaborations with other organisations all over the globe and, although the projects vary in structure and scope, all aim to collect and conserve seeds.

By 2010 MSBP and its partners will have collected seeds from 10 per cent - 30,000 - of the world's wild plant species. These are not just common plants, but include the rarest, most threatened and most useful species known to man.

African bamboo plant

The latest – and billionth - addition to the bank is an African bamboo plant, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, which flowers only once every seven years. It is used by the people of Mali and other West African countries for furniture, building homes and even for making wine.

According to MSBP conserving the bamboo is a priority for a number of reasons: "it is a very useful plant, its natural habitat is under increasing threat and it seeds only once every seven years".

MSBP insurance policy

Paul Smith, head of MSBP said that "everyone in the world depends on nature and ecosystems for clean air and water to provide the conditions for a decent healthy and secure life. The need for the kind of insurance policy the MSBP provides has never been greater".

Although the UK Bank receives a duplicate of every seed collected, the collections themselves are kept in the country of origin in partner seed banks.

Seeds for the Bank are collected from all over the world. This one is the Eqyptian Juniperus phoenicea. (c) RBG Kew

Careful drying and storage

Most of the seeds are preserved by careful drying after which they are stored at minus 20 degrees celsius. Some will last for millennia, others for decades. But the idea is not to hide the seeds away for ever: where species are extinct these carefully stored supplies replenish the wild population.

Since the project started its collection in 2000 several countries have drawn on its depositry. For instance, drought-resistant forage plants have been sent to Pakistan and Mexico for animals to graze, and salt-tolerant forage plants have been used in Australia.

Samples available for research

Samples from the project's seed collection are available for research and conservation, both by organisations involved in collecting the seeds, and also by university departments and agricultural institutes. They have to sign agreements that the material sent to them can only be used for non-commercial scientific purposes and not exploited commercially.

The Seed Bank is supported by donations and grants from government, trusts and businesses in the UK, including the Wellcome Trust which houses MSBP's collection in its Millennium Building at Wakehurst Place in Sussex.

Visiting and more information

Visitors are also welcome and for more information about this and the Project's research programme, the countries in which it works and who its partners are, visit the website below.