UK Seed Collecting Re-established

Team collecting Sagina nodosa in 1999.

This autumn, the Millennium Seed Bank has re-established its UK seed collecting programme and will be visiting sites throughout the south east to harvest seed. There are a number of reasons why this needs to be done.

Firstly, the Millennium Seed Bank does not yet have all of the UK’s flowering plants banked: of the approximate 1450 species on its target list, there are 68 still to collect. It is important that these few remaining plants are safeguarded.

Fruit of Marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) collected in 1999.

Secondly, it is not enough to collect just one population of each species. The seed bank needs to capture maximum genetic variation, which means collecting and banking as many different populations across the species range as possible.

The third reason is that the Millennium Seed Bank is constantly using seeds, which need to be replaced. The seed collection – just like the money in a current account - is there to be used. Seeds are used in research, seed exchange programmes, habitat restoration, species reintroductions and so on. A recent example of the latter has been the reintroduction of 60 star fruit (Damasonium alisma) plants and 300 seeds to cattle-trampled margins of ponds on Greenham Common.

The final reason that the UK seed collecting programme is starting again is because, for many of the people who help that are usually desk bound, it is simply nice to get out into the field!

(September 2007)