Showcase
Seed Conservation Projects Around the World
BGCI’s Global Seed Conservation Challenge
This Challenge aims to increase the contribution of botanic gardens towards the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The GSCC has created a hub for networking and learning about seed banking, and awards prizes for seed conservation at Global Botanic Garden Congresses. Discover some of the botanic gardens contributing to GSCC goals or view videos about partner seed conservation initiatives to learn more about the GSCC’s work.
Photo by Tim Kroessig
Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death Seed Banking Initiative
The Hawaiʻi Seed Bank Partnership is expanding capacity for collection and banking of ʻōhiʻa (endemic Metrosideros) seeds across the Hawaiian Islands, in response to the ongoing Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death crisis. Through community engagement and multi-agency collaboration, seeds of this keystone tree are preserved for disease resistance research and future restoration.
Photo by Anurag Dhyani
Conservation of Buchanania barberi in India
Buchanania barberi is an endemic, critically endangered plant in the Western Ghats. Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden, funded by the Mohamed bin Zayed Fund, aims to assess conservation status, collect and store seeds, overcome seed dormancy, and propagate seedlings of the species, while developing an environmental education campaign.
Photo by Uromi Goodale
GXU Regeneration Ecology, Seed Biophysiology and Conservation Laboratory
Research in this Guangxi University (Nanning, China) lab focuses on on plant physiological mechanisms underlying the ecological properties of species, communities and ecosystems, especially seed biophysiology and forest regeneration dynamics in tropical and subtropical systems, with the aim of integrating research findings into conservation and management plans.
Photo by Steve Blackwell
Conservation seed physiology of the ciénega endemic, Eryngium sparganophyllum
This open-access research (2020) investigated a critically endangered plant in desert wetlands of southwestern North America, through a collaboration between National Tropical Botanical Garden and Desert Botanical Garden. They present methods for breaking seed dormancy, and show that seeds are orthodox and can be conserved with conventional seed storage.
Photo by Marian Chau
Seed freeze sensitivity and ex situ longevity of 295 species in the native Hawaiian flora
This open-access research (2019) investigated seed storage behavior of the Hawaiian flora over 20+ years, through a collaboration across three Hawai‘i Seed Bank Partnership facilities. It is the first study to find freeze-sensitive seeds in a substantial proportion of a regional flora, and provides a new protocol for testing seed freeze-sensitivity.
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Seed photograph: Wattakaka volubilis (India), by Anurag Dhyani