Sir David Attenborough finds safe home for precious Easter Island seeds at Kew Gardens

An intimate ceremony held on Tuesday at the Tropical Nurseries in Kew Gardens, West London, saw Sir David Attenborough donate a precious collection of seeds from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to the nurseries’ team of expert horticulturists. 

In the presence of Richard Deverell, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Richard Barley MBE, Director of Gardens at RBG Kew, 31 seeds of Sophora toromiro were presented to Sir David by his friend Dr Sonia Haoa Cardinalli, a Rapa Nui archaeologist and author of Cultural and Environmental Changes of Rapa Nui. The famed naturalist then donated the seeds to his ‘friends at Kew’, believing they will find a safe home among the living collections tended to at the historic botanical garden. 

Sophora toromiro, commonly known as the toromiro tree, is a plant from the legume family that is endemic to the remote Pacific island of Rapa Nui. It is particularly recognised for its striking rose-coloured wood, which has been historically used for intricate wood carvings. 

Unfortunately, the plant is classified as Extinct in the Wild on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The plant’s decline has been attributed human activities, such as deforestation and the introduction of agricultural animals to the island in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, with its extinction in the wild sealed in the 1960s. 

When Norwegian ethnographer and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl visited the island in the 1950s, he found only one surviving toromiro tree. He collected seeds that were subsequently sent to Gothenburg Botanical Garden in Sweden, with specimens later cultivated at a botanical garden in Menton, Southern France. 

And though that last surviving specimen on Rapa Nui has long vanished, there is hope on the horizon: toromiro plants still exist in cultivation in botanic gardens across the globe, including toromiro hybrids grown at Kew Gardens. Attempts to reintroduce the plant to Rapa Nui have also seen some degree of success with a number of specimens now thriving on the island, including some in the garden of Dr Haoa Cardinali. 

Before the seeds could be donated to Kew they were inspected and given the green light by Joanna Bates, Head of Plant Health and Quarantine at RBG Kew. The movement of plant material in and out of the Gardens is strictly monitored and anything arriving in the UK from abroad must have a valid phytosanitary certificate – a document certifying the plant material is free of pests and disease and meets all the legal requirements to cross UK borders.

RBG Kew’s expert horticulturists will now set aside a number of the seeds to germinate and grow for display in the Temperate House, the world’s biggest surviving Victorian glasshouse. Some of the seeds may also be deposited in the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst, RBG Kew’s wild botanic garden in Sussex, where they will be dried, frozen and preserved for conservation in underground vaults.

On the edge of extinction

During his visit to the Tropical Nurseries, Sir David was shown some of the rare and threatened species being looked after at Kew, including Aloe bellatula and Aloe albiflora, two critically endangered species of aloe last seen in the wild in 1976 and 1955, respectively. Another highlight included Aloe suzannae that was previously thought extinct until Malagasy botanists from RBG Kew rediscovered a small population. 

Paul Rees, Nursery Manager, gave a short presentation to the visiting group, explaining why human activities and poaching, in particular, pose such a grave threat to wild plant life. As an example, he showcased Conophytum chrisocruxum, a critically endangered species known from a single ridge where its population has declined by 80% since 2019, due in part because of poaching. 

Notes to Editors: 

About Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a world-famous scientific organisation, internationally respected for its outstanding collections and scientific expertise in plant and fungal diversity, conservation, and sustainable development in the UK and around the globe. Kew’s scientists and partners lead the way in the fight against biodiversity loss and finding nature-based solutions to the climate crisis, aided by five key scientific priorities outlined in Kew’s Science Strategy 2021-2025. Kew Gardens is also a major international and top London visitor attraction. Kew’s 132 hectares of historic, landscaped gardens, and Wakehurst, Kew’s Wild Botanic Garden and ‘living laboratory’, attract over 2.5 million visits every year. Kew Gardens was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2003 and celebrated its 260th anniversary in 2019. Wakehurst is home to the Millennium Seed Bank, the largest wild plant seed bank in the world and a safeguard against the disastrous effects of climate change and biodiversity loss. RBG Kew received approximately one third of its funding from Government through the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and research councils. Further funding needs to support RBG Kew’s vital scientific and educational work comes from donors, memberships and commercial activity including ticket sales. For tickets, please visit www.kew.org/kew-gardens/visit-kew-gardens/tickets. In the first six months since implementing a new accessibility scheme for those in receipt of Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Legacy Benefits, Kew has welcomed over 45,000 visitors with £1 tickets.

About Kew Science 

Kew Science is the driving force behind RBG Kew’s mission to understand and protect plants and fungi, for the well-being of people and the future of all life on Earth. Over 470 Kew scientists work with partners in more than 100 countries worldwide to halt biodiversity loss, uncover secrets of the natural world, and to conserve and restore the extraordinary diversity of plants and fungi. Kew’s Science Strategy 2021–2025 lays out five scientific priorities to aid these goals: research into the protection of biodiversity through Ecosystem Stewardship, understanding the variety and evolution of traits in plants and fungi through Trait Diversity and Function; digitising and sharing tools to analyse Kew’s scientific collections through Digital Revolution; using new technologies to speed up the naming and characterisation of plants and fungi through Accelerated Taxonomy; and cultivating new scientific and commercial partnerships in the UK and globally through Enhanced Partnerships. One of Kew’s greatest international collaborations is the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, which has to date stored more than 2.4 billion seeds of over 40,000 wild species of plants across the globe. In 2023, Kew scientists estimated in the State of the World’s Plants and Fungi report that 45% of all known flowering plants are threatened with extinction.