Assessing seed storage needs
Not all seeds store easily, so before storage any likely problems need to be identified.
The largest of these two seeds is orthodox (Acer platanoides, the Norway maple) and the smaller one at the top (Acer pseudoplatanus, the sycamore) is intermediate.
Most species are 'orthodox', (where drying will not kill them) having seeds that stay viable when dried to the low moisture levels necessary for long-term storage. ‘Recalcitrant’ and ‘intermediate‘ species have seeds which are not tolerant to drying and cannot be conserved long-term in a seed bank (but there are other ways to deal with these species). Collectors keep an eye open for such likely problem species when in the field. However, as a precaution and before the collections are despatched, the collectors send a list of species collected to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank where it is checked against the Seed Information Database for seed storage behaviour.
If a species has been collected that is closely related to a known recalcitrant or intermediate species its seeds are tested before drying. This test involves viability tests before and after drying on a small sample of the collection. Similarly, if a collection arrives that has very large seeds (which is an indication of the possible risk of being killed by desiccation) then it might be tested for its storage behaviour.
More information can be found in our series of information sheets Identifying desiccation-sensitive seeds
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