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Adopt a Seed
Here's a selection of six plants which are incredibly useful to humans, limited to only one habitat, endangered - or a combination of the three. Take them to your heart. Adopt them and find out more about the seeds and the work of the Millennium Seed Bank over the year. We'll thank you by sending an adoption pack which also makes a great gift. It includes an adoption certificate, a photograph of your plant or the habitat it survives in and more information about the Millennium Seed Bank partnership.
And if that isn't enough, you'll be helping to fund one of the most exciting and vital conservation projects the world has ever known. Find out how your donation will be spent.
Chamaegigas intrepidus -
the resurrection plant
This so-called 'resurrection plant' is found only in shallow pools of water on rock plates in Namibia. These pools can reach a water temperature of 40ºC and may dry out 15 or 20 times in the course of a season. Chamaegigas survives these extreme conditions by dying back to thin rhizomes buried in the sediment. From these thread-like roots, floating leaves can be produced within as little as two days of the pool being filled by the rains, and flowering occurs after only four days. The scientific name means, rather confusingly, 'intrepid dwarf giant'.
Gardenia nitida -
dangerous to collect!
After four hours of walking in temperatures of 35ºC, the MSB collecting team succeeded in finding only five individuals of this small tree, one of the rarest in Burkina Faso. It was growing along a 2km stretch of the Comoe River in dense forest. Despite their exhaustion, the team were able to make a collection and return to their vehicles before dark, when the local predators – chiefly lions and panthers – emerge to hunt.
Nematolepis wilsonii -
the shining nematolepis
Nematolepis wilsonii was confined to a single population in the catchment of the Yarra River, Australia. As a conservation measure, a few specimens had been removed with the intention of establishing new colonies, but due to prolonged drought these plants were still housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Melbourne and Cranbourne. Then came the devastating bush fires of Black Saturday, in which at least 210 people died and nearly half a million hectares of land were destroyed. As a result, the shining nematolepis is now extinct in the wild. Seed from the rescued plants will be banked and used to propagate additional specimens.
Gladiolus dzhavakheticus -
the sword plant
Gladiolus dzhavakheticus is endemic to the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia and Armenia, where it is found in sub-alpine hay meadows. Uprooting the plants for their edible corms or picking for cut flowers has greatly reduced their numbers. The Georgian seed collectors caused a stir amongst the locals when they announced they were looking for 'swords'; they were mistaken for an archaeological expedition, but 'swords' is actually the local name for this species (Gladiolus = 'little sword' in Latin).
Protea cryophila -
flowers in the snow
The snow protea is confined to a 25km strip along the snow line of the Cederberg Mountains, at an altitude of between 1750 and 1900m. It scrambles through rocks and scree, buried in snow in the winter but exposed to baking heat in the summer. Heavy snowfalls, needed to trigger flowering, are becoming less frequent. We were lucky enough to be in the Cederberg Wilderness after its heaviest snowfall for many years.
Thymelaea hirsuta -
known in Arabic as 'mitnan'
Thymelaea hirsuta, or mitnan in Arabic, is a tough shrub of the Saharo-Arabian deserts, where it sends down a 3.5m root in search of water. The MSB’s collection of this species came from the low-lying wadis around the ancient city of Petra in Jordan. Here, it is used to make the ropes used to anchor tents during sandstorms. Finished mitnan rope is strong enough to haul a man out of a well, hobble an animal, saddle a donkey, yoke a camel, and carry water buckets or jugs on a camel’s back.
