It’s nearly two years since I started the Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal, with the aim of raising enough money to help the Millennium Seed Bank save a species. We still have a way to go to reach the target ;(
It’s almost a year since I was invited to visit the MSB and take the tour, to see what’s going on behind the scenes. Unbelievably the photos have been languishing on my hard drive since then, and my notes in my notebook are becoming increasingly unintelligible even to me. So it’s time they all saw the light of day! And the MSB has just launched the UK Native Seed Hub at the Millennium Seed Bank – an initiative drawing on their extensive collection of UK native seeds, horticultural and scientific expertise to support organizations working to restore native plants to the UK countryside.
The photo above is the entrance to the MSB, which is housed at Kew’s second garden at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. The main garden in London is too close to the river, and sea level, to be a good choice for long-term storage – there is too great a risk that the facility would be damaged by flooding.
Outside the building you can see several raised beds, which are used to demonstrate the kinds of plants that grow wild in various habitats. On the far right is a greenhouse in which plants are grown out for identification or seed collection.
The ground floor of the MSB building has a large visitor centre, which gives details of the work they do and showcases some of the stunning seed photos taken by Wolfgang Stuppy.
There is no public access to the seed vault, and the behind-the-scenes seed processing areas.
Seeds sent to the MSB for storage have to be properly identified by experts (some countries have the expertise to do this, and clean and process their seeds, but many use the experts at Kew). These herbarium sheets are indispensable as they show all the necessary characteristics for identification – they are known as vouchers because they ‘vouch’ for the identity of the seeds.
Seeds are classified as either Orthodox or Recalcitrant. Orthodox seeds can be stored for long periods of time by drying them and freezing them – the same process would rapidly age recalcitrant seeds and render them non-viable. The ability to save orthodox seeds in a freezer is dependent on their moisture content – their relative humidity (RH). At the Millennium Seed Bank RH has to be below 20% for seeds added to the bank.
Once a batch of seed has been identified and classified as orthodox, it is processed to get it ready for long-term storage – look out for more pictures in my next MSB post.
The Alternative Kitchen Garden Seed Appeal is raising money to save an entire wild plant species in the Millennium Seed Bank. Click through to find out more, or donate directly via JustGiving. Thank you!
