Kew's Millennium Seed Bank - About the landscape
The areas around Kew's Millennium Seed Bank have been landscaped to provide a seamless link between Bethlehem Wood and the Oaks.
Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst
Original landscape plan
These plantings are now becoming well established and present a maturing treescape.
Material of local provenance, which is best adapted to the site conditions, was obtained for the initial hedge and shaw plantings from local sources. Tree seed was also collected from the Wakehurst estate and grown in the nursery before being planted in the landscape. This included ash, hornbeam, hazel, field maple, wild cherry and oak. Italian alder and silver birch were planted to support the early growth of the larger trees and will be thinned out as these plantings mature.
From the initial days of the project the grass areas were mown, and then early in 2006 a flock of Southdown sheep was introduced to Wakehurst. This flock was allowed to graze before the meadow flowers began to grow.
Trees are now well established in front of the building.
Early in the project native herbaceous plant seed was harvested from Hanging Meadow in the Loder Valley Nature Reserve and stored in Kew's Millennium Seed Bank. These collections have now been sown to increase the diversity of the meadow plantings.
These meadows are now managed using sheep grazing as part of general practice.
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Latest news
A new typology of seed development in late winter-flowering temperate woodland plants
23 May 2013
Research at the Millennium Seed Bank (RBG Kew) and the University of Reading has identified a new typology of seed development.
What are hard seeds for?
14 May 2013
A new hypothesis has been proposed on why some seeds are hard.
New initiative from Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank to protect UK trees takes root
10 May 2013
With a host of new pests and diseases attacking the United Kingdom’s native treescape, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank is tackling the threat by establishing the country’s first national collection of tree seeds – the UK National Tree Seed Project.
Collections from the Caribbean
by: David Hickmott, Millennium Seed Bank blog 28 Feb 2012
Follow a Millennium Seed Bank collector on an expedition to the Dominican Republic to save threatened and useful plants.
- 74 likes
- 3 comments
Observations on a strange vegetable - the snake gourd
by: Wolfgang Stuppy, Millennium Seed Bank blog 25 Jan 2013
He may be a Seed Morphologist but Wolfgang Stuppy of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank discovers there is more to the snake gourd than just some strange fruit and eccentric seeds.
- 42 likes
- 9 comments
Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership ‘top banana’ as it celebrates banking 10% of the world’s wild plant species.
15 Oct 2009
Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership is celebrating collecting, banking and conserving 10% of the world’s wild plant species by banking its 24,200th plant species.
