In what might be the best investment for our future, a third of the State’s flora is now stored in seedbanks in New South Wales and the UK as insurance against climate change.
 
Executive Director of the Botanic Gardens Trust, Dr Tim Entwisle said the 1000th seed sample has been sent to the UK, representing a significant achievement for the conservation of NSW plants.

“We now have a third of the State’s flora in our seedbank,” Dr Entwisle said. “The 1000th collection is from the rare Acacia pubescens, known as Downy Wattle or Hairy-stemmed Wattle, listed as a vulnerable species.
 
“We’ve duplicated 1000 of our collections to Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank in an effort to contribute to the global effort to conserve 10 per cent of the world’s flora by 2010.

“Our next big challenge is to focus on rainforest seeds.  Nearly 2000 Australian rainforest species have seeds that are sensitive to drying out and can’t be stored easily in our seedbank. Rainforest plants have evolved odd ways to distribute and germinate their seed, such as the fruit travelling through the gut of Cassowaries, but the seed just doesn’t last.
 
“We’ll be able to collect a variety of rainforest species and test cryostorage and other techniques thanks to funding from Allianz Insurance and an anonymous donor,” he said.

The seed collection is undertaken by SeedQuest NSW, an international partnership for plant conservation between the NSW Seedbank, part of the Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney and the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK.

Leader of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project Dr Paul Smith said with future climate change scenarios and the ever-increasing impact of human activities, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project is already looking towards the next 10 years.

“By 2010, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project and its partners in over 50 countries around the world will have collected and conserved seeds from 10 per cent of the world’s wild flowering plant species,” Dr Smith said.  “Between 2010 and 2020, we aim to significantly increase collecting targets and associated conservation programmes with partners around the world.  To help us achieve our ambitious vision and targets for the next ten years to 2020 we must attract funding.

“The species for collection and conservation are prioritised by Kew’s partners and include the rarest, most threatened and most useful species known to man. These seed collections are actively used in scientific research and the potential benefits of the chosen species range from food, medicine and building materials for rural communities to disease-resistant crops for agriculture,” he said.

Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project is the largest ex situ conservation project ever conceived.  Its Seed Bank is the largest in the world for the conservation of seed from wild species and has the capacity to store up to half of the world’s wild flowering plant species.

Australia’s native biodiversity is of global significance, making its contribution to the project of immense importance.  It’s home to 14 per cent of globally threatened plant species and is one of only 12 ‘mega diverse’ countries. The estimated 20,000 flowering plant species found in Australia make up 6.5 per cent of the worlds’ total.