40,000 species
World’s largest seed bank in England celebrates milestone
Millennium Seed Bank’s seed rooms in West Sussex store more than 2.4 billion plant seeds. photo
© Jim Holden Rbg Kew/PA Media/dpa
Two fifths of all plant species are threatened with extinction. In England, the world’s largest seed bank stands for rare, endangered and important wild plants. A striking mark has now been broken there.
Less spectacular than the famous seed vault on Norway’s Spitsbergen, but no less significant: the British seed bank Millennium Seed Bank has passed the mark of 40,000 species in its stocks. This was announced by the Kew Botanical Institute.
While grain and crops are primarily stored on Spitsbergen, rare, endangered and important wild plant species from around the world are kept in Wakehurst in the southeastern English county of Sussex. With more than 2.4 billion plant seeds, the Millennium Seed Bank holds the Guinness Record as the largest seed bank in the world.
Recently added species include a tiny orchid named Orchis coriophora and the critically endangered baobab tree Adansonia perrieri.
“Kew scientists estimate that two-fifths of all plants in the wild are threatened with extinction,” said Kate Hardwick, coordinator for Conservation Partnership at Millennium Seed Bank, according to the release. This shows how big the crisis of biodiversity is, which is mainly triggered by the loss of habitats and climate change.
The Millennium Seed Bank was founded more than 20 years ago to prevent the disappearance of endangered plant species. The seeds are stored in a dried state with only three to six percent of their moisture content at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius. Preserved for centuries, they are thawed every ten years to test their ability to sprout.