Seed collecting in Madagascar

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Project is working in Madagascar with SNGF (Silo National des Graines Forestieres), the national seed bank. The broad aim is to collect 1000 of the rarest dryland species over 10 years, with seeds preserved at Wakehurst Place and in Madagascar. The fieldwork started in November 2000 and since then we have collected over 2 million seeds of about 450 species.

The collecting is both opportunistic and targeted. Just finding any plants in fruit in the dryland regions can be quite difficult so we collect whenever and whatever we can. However, even though over 90% of the flora of Madagascar is endemic, some plants are quite common while others are extremely rare and are seriously threatened with extinction from habitat loss and over exploitation. It is these rarest and most vulnerable species that are the focus of our collection trips. To help locate the plants we are working closely with two sister projects: the Millennium Seed Bank Enhancement Project and the Kew-Missouri Botanic Garden Madagascar Vegetation Mapping Project. The Enhancement Project is databasing 100,000 herbarium specimens in order to produce digital images, distribution maps and conservation ratings for 10,000 species covering the targets for 10 of the MSBP partner countries. The Vegetation Mapping Project is using satellite images to map the extent of the remaining natural vegetation in Madagascar. By combining the historical data with up-to-date satellite images we can narrow our search for the rarest plants.

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