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Published: 20 December 2010
Native seeds for posterity
A collaboration between the New South Wales Seedbank and the Millennium Seed Bank in the UK is helping Australian scientists conserve native plant species for the future.
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A collector from the Royal Botanic Gardens NSW harvesting seeds from a native tree. Credit: Royal Botanic Gardens NSW
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Funding and technical expertise from the Millennium Seed Bank has enabled its NSW partner to collect wild seed and develop the technology to hold seeds in suspended animation for centuries. Since the partnership was established in 2003, over 37 per cent of NSW plant species have been banked and duplicate seeds have been deposited with the Millennium Seed Bank.
It is the first time many of the Australian species have been collected, and the conditions under which they survive, germinate and grow studied and documented. The work has led to a new technique for storing Australian orchid seeds and the fungus they need for germination, and seed storage techniques for Australian rainforest species that can be applied globally.
The Seedbank collection also supports a range of research projects, from plant breeding and horticultural development of native plants, to specific conservation projects such as the Wollemi Pine.
