Visit Kew Garden's Millenium Seed Bank in Sussex

 Kew Gardens first thought seriously about seed storage way back in the 1890s when Britain’s plant hunters had the run of the British Empire, with all its plant diversity.

 A formal seed bank has now been a feature of Kew for over forty years, whilst research into seed physiology and how best to store samples began in the mid-1960s. Now it is accepted that there is an urgent need to ensure seeds are preserved for the future because:

• Plants are the basis for life on earth. They support ecosystems which animals and humans depend on to survive.
• Plants provide clean water, can be a source of medicines, and provide the air we breathe.
• They are also beautiful and a source of sensual pleasure.
• According to Millenium Seed Bank research, 60,000 to 1000,000 plant species are threatened by climate change, habitat loss, invasive alien species as well as over-exploitation. Therefore storing seeds provides an insurance policy for the future.
• Plants that become extinct in the wild can be retrieved from the seed banks. The Millenium Seed Bank already holds seeds from extinct plant species.
• Conservation methods and research can be carried out from a controlled source of plant material.
• Seed banks educate the public and raise awareness about plant conservation.

The Wellcome Trust Millennium Building, named after its main funder, was designed by architects Stanton Williams and covers 5,500 square metres.

In this new Millenium building, as well as research laboratories with a staff of sixty scientific workers, there are vast underground storage vaults where samples are kept in temperatures of below 20°C.

In the Orange Room you will be able to look at  the exhibits and see computer-aided, interactive displays to learn all about Kew’s seed conservation work. There are permanent displays of the Millenium Seed Bank's work and it is also possible, during the week,  to watch scientists working in the adjacent research laboratories.

The aim of the Millennium Seed Bank is to preserve those plants on a global scale that are at risk, as well as those most useful for future generations. To this end, by 2020 the Millennium Seed Bank hopes to have secured the future of twenty-five percent of the world’s plants. At the present time it has stored seeds from 25,000 species of the world’s plants.

In 2009 the Millennium Seed Bank hosted a ceremony in which the then British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, deposited the billionth seed into the Bank.

In fifty countries worldwide there are organisations collecting seeds. The common aim is to collect and preserve seeds whilst always trying to improve the means for such collection.

The seeds come mainly from alpine, dryland, coastal and island ecosystems. This is because these areas are the most vulnerable to changes in the climate and therefore most at risk.

The seeds are kept in banks in their country of origin, with duplicate samples being sent to Kew’s Millenium Seed Bank where facilities are state-of-the-art.

The Millenium Seed Bank looks for plants that can only be found in specific habitats, that are important economically, or endangered. Such global work helps nations meet international objectives such as those laid down by Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Collecting and storing plants on a global scale like this has many advantages, including resources for future research into cures for diseases like cancer. In times of crop destruction by inclement weather, stored seeds can provide a new hope for the future.

The technologically superb Millenium Seed Bank has given new life, confidence and pride to the scientists who are working to save the planet’s vital plant species on our behalf.

It is well worth a visit.