seed banking Archives - Center for Plant Conservation

November News 2022

Posted on November 1, 2022 (November 3, 2022) by Shannon Fowler

Soft-leaved indian paintbrush (Castilleja mollis) seed.

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Conservation Champion: Joe Davitt

Posted on November 1, 2022 (November 3, 2022) by Shannon Fowler

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Putting Magnify In Magnificent 🧐

To appreciate the scale of this endeavor, the leaf in this shot is about the size of your thumbnail! Cute as a button, you’ll need a hand lens to appreciate the flower of Lepanthes rupestris. This orchid native to Puerto Rico was recently collected and seed banked at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. […]

Tetrazolium Chloride Testing to Establish Seed Viability

Understanding what percentage of a seed collection is viable is of utmost importance. Generally germination trials will be conducted on seed, however in instances where germination tests are not ideal, other methods might also be used to ascertain viability. Tetrazolium chloride is a chemical that is used to stain seed, allowing the researcher to determine […]

What to Know Before You Go: Maximizing Genetic Diversity in Seed Collections

The goal of any conservation seed collection is to capture the genetic diversity represented within the target population and conserve it ex-situ. But it’s not always as simple as it sounds. Every population of every plant species is different. In this video we’ll discuss how we can use a species’ natural history to guide our […]

Conserving the Biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest

Posted on February 2, 2022 (February 8, 2022) by Center for Plant Conservation

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Seed Banking in Hawai’i through Changes and Challenges | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Posted on September 28, 2021 (October 1, 2021) by Center for Plant Conservation

Several pots of sprawling Na'ena'e plants on nursery benches.

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The Conservation Garden of the Great Plains | Lauritzen Gardens

Posted on September 28, 2021 (October 1, 2021) by Center for Plant Conservation

Image of Lauritzen Gardens Visitor and Education Center and the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory

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Updates to the Missouri Botanical Garden Seed Bank

Meg Engelhardt, Missouri Botanical Garden As a founding member of the CPC, the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) has been seed banking for decades. The seed bank contains three core collections resulting from MBG’s global field programs in plant conservation, horticulture, and ethnobotany. It currently holds over 2,400 accessions of orthodox seeds representing 1,190 different species, of […]

Seedbanking of Scotts Valley Polygonum

Holly Forbes, University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley Polygonum hickmanii (Scotts Valley polygonum) is a small annual species in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) restricted to a small area of Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz County, California. Populations have historically occurred across three privately owned properties. Population numbers were critically low in 2009 when the 5-Year Review […]

Conservation on the Home Front

Jim Locklear, Lauritzen Gardens Lauritzen Gardens is dedicated to the conservation of plants and the biological diversity they support. Seed banking projects and rare plant surveys are major elements of our conservation program, but the subjects of this work are mostly obscure species growing in remote settings in faraway places. Having an on-site component to our […]

A Study for the Ages

Posted on February 19, 2021 (February 22, 2021) by Caroline Iacuaniello

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Collecting and Working with Orchid Seeds

David Remucal, University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum While many seedbanks avoid working with orchids, more groups are taking them on, or collecting them for groups that are. Collecting rules and protocols are not different for orchids but there are enough complexities in their biology to intimidate collectors new to orchids. Orchid seeds are the smallest in […]

Can alpine species “bank” on conservation?

Alex Seglias, Denver Botanic Gardens Plant biodiversity is being lost at an accelerated rate. To conserve native plants, many institutions are turning towards ex situ conservation methods, such as storage in seed banks. However, not all seeds are able to survive in seed bank conditions or they may be short-lived. Alpine species in Italy and Australia […]

Flexible Seed Harvest: Revisiting the 10% Rule

Screenshot of Flexible Seed Harvest video.

Michelle DePrenger-Levin, Denver Botanic Gardens; Michael Kunz, North Carolina Botanical Garden; Emily Coffey, Atlanta Botanic Garden; Tom Kaye, Institute for Applied Ecology; Anna Lampei Bucharová, Institute of Landscape Ecology (ILÖK), University of Münster Seed collection is a vital conservation method used to ensure global food security by maintaining a source of genetic diversity in food […]

Testing the Relative Humidity of Seed Accessions Prior to Freezing

Screenshot from Relative Humidity video.

Authors: Stacy Anderson, Tobin Weatherson, Joe Davitt – San Diego Zoo Native Plant Seed Bank We are all taught in school that water expands when frozen. That’s why ice floats, sealed bottles explode in the freezer, and frost kills living tissues. All living cells are comprised largely of water and can rupture and die when […]

Unique Funding Opportunity to Bank California’s Flora

Posted on January 7, 2020 (November 17, 2020) by Caroline Iacuaniello

Laguna Mountains goldenbush (Ericameria cuneata var. macrocephala)

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How to Prepare a Saturated Salt Solution to Dry Seeds

Lisa Hill – National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation (USDA-ARS) Drying seeds to appropriate relative humidity is the first step to long term seed storage. NLGRP and CPC recommend drying seeds to 25-35% relative humidity at room temperature. One way to acheive specific relative humidities is to use saturated salt solutions. Here, Lisa shows the […]

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