seed banking Archives - Center for Plant Conservation

A Study for the Ages

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

Image of seeds in tubes.

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Collecting and Working with Orchid Seeds

Screenshot of Collecting and Working with Orchid Seeds video.

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?

Screenshot of Can alpine species "bank" on conservation? video.

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 […]

Seed Freezers at Rancho Santa Ana Seed Bank

Rancho-Santa-Anas-California-Seed-Bank

Rancho Santa Ana’s California Seed Bank is home to many of the collections, made by both RSA’s team and collaborating partners. […]

Revealing the Details of Hawaiian Seeds Through Microscope Photography

Tim Kroessig, Harold L. Lyon Arboretum The Hawaiian flora represents ~45% of all plants listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as threatened or endangered. The Lyon Arboretum’s Seed Conservation Laboratory (Lyon S.C.L.) conserves many of these imperiled plants through conventional seed banking. However, the seeds of many rare Hawaiian plants have never been […]

It’s Complicated: The Launch of a New Seed Banking Project

Jim Locklear, Lauritzen Gardens Blowout penstemon (Penstemon haydenii) is a critically imperiled (G1) plant listed as an endangered species by the USFWS. It is presently known from ten occurrences in the Nebraska Sandhills and three in the Ferris Dunes of Wyoming. This species is associated with areas of active wind erosion within a grassland matrix. […]

Germination Testing

Cheryl Birker, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden The California Seed Bank at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden has a germination testing program to monitor the viability of its many conservation seed collections. Germination tests are conducted on all incoming seed collections before they are placed in freezer storage, and for all rare seed collections, follow-up […]

Assessing Seed Storage Behavior of the Texas Flora to Inform Seed Bank Design

Kim Taylor, Botanical Research Institute of Texas / Fort Worth Botanic Garden The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is in the process of constructing a seed conservation laboratory and seed bank. While BRIT has been active in conservation for decades and has partnered with regional seed banks to conserve rare species, BRIT has never […]

Special considerations in the seed collections of two NC rare plant species

Michael Kunz, North Carolina Botanical Garden Recently updated Best Plant Conservation Practices to Support Species Survival in the Wild detail guidelines for seed collection of rare plants. These include multiple aspects to consider in making seed collections regarding target species characteristics, collection timing, seed collection amount, population genetics and maintaining site quality. Here we outline […]

Conserving the Alpine: From Tiny Seeds to Big Collaboration

Jennifer Ramp Neale, Denver Botanic Gardens Alpine plants are at risk of population decline and/or extinction due to climate change. Understanding these plants and the environments in which they survive and thrive involves a multi-tiered approach including in-situ and ex-situ efforts. At Denver Botanic Gardens we are working to collect and study seed of alpine […]

All in the family – the case for collecting by maternal lines

Heather Schneider, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Conservation seed collections support species’ survival by acting as an insurance policy in the face of extinction. They can also provide resources for research, restoration and reintroduction. A high-quality conservation seed collection has both depth and breadth – capturing genetic diversity within and geographic diversity among populations. Collecting and […]

E Mau ana Ka ‘Ohl’a – Perpetuating ‘Ohi’a

New fungal pathogens are threatening the most ecologically and culturally important native tree in Hawai‘i, ‘ōhi‘a (Metrosideros spp.).

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Range-wide Ex Situ Seed Conservation and Population Genetic Architecture Analysis in Venus Flytrap

Johnny Randall and Michael Kunz (North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), and Jamie Winshell, Corbin D. Jones and Gregory P. Copenhaver (Department of Biology and Integrative Program for Biological & Genome Sciences,University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) Venus’ flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is the most widely recognized carnivorous plant, and […]

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