THE Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) recently achieved a major conservation milestone: it now houses at least 40 000 different plant species at the Royal Botanic Garden in Sussex in the UK.
Scientists have dubbed the bank Noah’s Ark for plants because it’s the largest wild-seed storage facility in the world.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
The seed bank aims to protect plant diversity and works like an insurance policy for endangered plants. Seeds of wild plants from all over the world are stored here so that the species won’t be lost if the plants become extinct in the wild. The seeds are also used for research purposes, and organisations can apply to obtain some of the seeds from the MSB.
The original goal was to collect 10% of all
