Australia

Tasmania

Seed collected in April 2005 on Mt. Field of Trochocarpa thymifolia (blue), Coprosma nitida (orange), Gaultheria hispida (white), and Leptecophylla junipera (red).

Late November 2004, two days after the signing up of the Northern Territory of Australia, Tasmania became another partner in Australia to join the Millennium Seed Bank Project. The project, baptised “Seed Safe”, has three partners in Tasmania, each providing a different aspect of the collaboration. The Conservation Branch of the Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW) hosts the MSB-supported seed collector and overall project co-ordinator; it also provides much knowledge on flora and vegetation as a backup. The Royal Tasmanian Botanic Gardens (RTBG) host the seed bank, officially titled the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Center, in a refurbished part of one of their buildings as well as the MSB-supported seed bank Curator. Lastly the Tasmanian Herbarium provides the verification of field identifications and preparation of voucher material, generated by the project.

Vegetation with the endemic Richea pandanifolia on Mt. Field, April 2005

This partnership is one of seven Australian partnerships in the Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP); the project is foreseen to last for six years and targets the ex situ conservation of an overall 800 species.

This project recalls the long-standing historical links between field botany in the then colony of Tasmania and the distinguished Directors of Kew in the 19th century such as William Jackson Hooker and Joseph Dalton Hooker. This long history will aide the public relations for the current seed bank project.

The main purpose of the project is to support plant conservation in Tasmania by complementing existing in situ plant conservation activities at a state level through a program of increased collection, storage and ex situ maintenance of seed from target species, and the undertaking of research to understand the germination and long-term storage requirements for this seed.

Six key project outputs have been formulated to address this purpose, as follows:
(1) an enhanced and strengthened capacity of Tasmania to collect and conserve Tasmania’s threatened and priority plant species through the establishment of the Tasmanian Seed Conservation Centre,
(2) an increase in the number of long-term seed conservation collections of the Tasmanian flora using the most current and appropriate seed banking and collecting technologies,
(3) an improvement of seed management procedures to safeguard long-term conservation of seed collections, as well as,
(4) an improved availability of seed, seed management information, and protocols.
(5) The enhancement of preserved collections of the targeted flora at the Tasmanian Herbarium for taxonomic reference and research, and,
(6) the incidental collection of data on species populations and threats, relevant to the assessment of risk of extinction and future taxonomic research.

Micah Visoiu preparing herbarium specimens of the endemic conifer Microcachrys tetragona, summit of Mt. Field, April 2005

As to the targeted species there will be special emphasis on the 320 endemic and 420 threatened ones, found in an overall Tasmanian flora of a bit less than 2000. Other priorities will include species that belong to threatened ecosystems or that represent key ecological communities, high utility species used in revegetation programs, and species that are primitive and considered of evolutionary significance. In the course of the six years the project expects to discover and conserve several species that are new to science.
Research on selected species will commence later in the project and will support the ongoing collecting and long term conservation activities. Students from, among others, the University of Tasmania are foreseen to be engaged in the research programme.