All large, tropical, plant germplasm banks that I am aware of focus largely on crop species, using a mix of conventional low-temperature storage for desiccation-tolerant (orthodox) species and cryopreservation of seeds or other tissues for desiccation-intolerant (recalcitrant and intermediate) species. There are thousands of endangered wild species in the tropics, but these have received much less attention. Does anyone know of institutions in or outside the tropics that have substantial ex situ collections of seeds or other tissues of tropical wild species?
Seeds considered as a convenient means of long term storage of genetic diversity. Hence, in tropical regions, seed banking conserves genetic diversity and helps sustainable survival. However, seed-banking in tropical wild species depends on seed resistance to adverse environmental conditions.
The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew is seed-banking tropical wild species. It is one of the largest (if not the largest) seed collection of wild plants in the world.
Thank you, I should have mentioned this. I have looked through the Millennium Seed Bank accessions lists and their tropical species are almost entirely from arid regions, where most seeds are orthodox. As far as I can see, they do not store other tropical species. Other seeds banks that I know have tropical species are in Australia and also in Hawaii, which seems to have mostly orthodox seeds, perhaps because only lineages with such seeds survive long-distance dispersal to the islands. Brazillian seed banks also have some.
the plants growing in tropical botanical gardens were the first start at this, for the obvious reason that a huge number of tropical wet and cloud forest species do not go dormant, or if they do, for short and peculiar circumstances distinctive for each species. And we all know what happens to those gardens. The second reason is obvious.
Yes, recalcitrant seeds are very difficult to bank. Experiments about cryopreservation of such seeds are ongoing. The aim of the MSB is to store up to 25% of the world's plant by 2020, including plants from wet tropical areas.
Yes. We at Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (JNTBGRI) have a well maintained Seed Bank, where the seeds of Western Ghats species are conserved.
Dear Narayanan. I would love to hear more details of this. Do you only bank orthodox seeds or do you also have facilities for recalcitrant seeds?
Hi Richard, my understanding was that KEW were trying to set up a seed bank facility in Borneo. As you may remember we published a short note on the gap in conservation on this in science a few years ago http://science.sciencemag.org/content/333/6038/36.1
More recently a Malaysian NGO http://www.trcrc.org/ have been trying to establish a seed orchard for some of the rare dipterocarps in Sabah. Best Chris
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/333/6038/36.1
Thanks Chris. I must check on this. Even in Borneo a lot of plants are likely to have orthodox seeds: herbs, epiphytes, and at least some woody plants.
Have you all forgotten that every tropical national park is a seed bank? What if you all put your energies into synergizing mutualistically with those governments and surrounding citizens to create permanence and even expansion of those national conserved wildlands into being accepted and permanent at the negotiating table by their respective societies?
Several institutions in Hawaii have seed banks focusing on native plant species for conservation. The University of Hawaii's Lyon Arboretum was the first, and is still a key part of the multi-institution consortium, which is spread across several islands. Lyon has banked material from nearly half the Hawaiian flora.
https://manoa.hawaii.edu/lyonarboretum/research/conservation/hrpp/seed-conservation-laboratory-hawaiian-rare-plant-program/
Thanks Donald. Hawaii does seem to be an exception in that so much of the flora has orthodox seeds: possibly because only species with prolonged seed dormancy ever got there. Are any non-orthodox seeds - or other plant materials - held ex situ?
Yes, Dan Janzen, I agree entirely that large tropical parks are the best seed banks, but ex situ back-up would still be useful.
Hi Richard,
There was someone attempting to compare Hawaii (and other islands) to continental (ancestral source) floras to see whether lineages with orthodox seeds might have been more successful than expected in colonizing islands. Of course there are some potential confounding factors. He never followed through and finished, though. Anyway, not all of our endemics are orthodox, but I can't say anything about what fraction of the flora it is, and what is in storage. If you'd like to get in touch with the people at the seed banks, the best person to start with is Marian Chau at Lyon ([email protected]). I don't know if you're attending the IUCN meeting here next month, but Marian and many other Hawaii seed bank people will be there.