Photo: Alex Wheatley
Fern Carroll-Smith, the NWC's Seed Bank manager, on saving and storing wild species and our partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank.
Where do the seeds in the seed bank come from? Our wild seed stock has been hand- collected by us on sites across Cornwall, where partners have allowed us to undertake restoration work. The rest comes from seed that we have grown in our own fields in Cornwall and sites in and around Liverpool to bulk up the wild collections.
How are they stored?
Our seed is dried using ambient conditions and then stored at 10°C and
20% relative humidity. This extends the life of the seed significantly without the airtight sealing needed for long term storage at -20°C. For example, at room temperature and humidity foxglove seed would lose half of its viability in 28 days, in our conditions it would take 12 years.
What is the collection used for? It is primarily used in our restoration work, but if we can we always try to help other organisations who get in contact.
What are the criteria for collection and storage? Do you have any rare species? We store all common UK species such as meadow buttercup, lesser knapweed and red campion, as that is what we use in our work. But we have also been collecting some of the rarest species in Cornwall for the Millennium Seed Bank.
Can you tell us about the partnership we have with the MSB? Our partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank this year has been really exciting. I’ve visited the Millennium Seed Bank before, and so when Stephanie Miles got in touch to ask if we would like to do some collections for them, we jumped at the chance. We have been sustainably collecting seed of some of the rarest plants in Cornwall for the MSB to store, including the spotted cat’s ear, sand crocus and Cornish eyebright, and have delivered 12 collections this year with the help of the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland county recorders. The project has taken me to some incredibly beautiful places all over Cornwall to find tiny patches of plants I wouldn’t have known were there otherwise.
See the News section for more on Fern’s collecting adventures.
23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
