Seed bank is collecting seed of the world’s wild species

England’s Kew Gardens has announced that the Kew Millennium Seed Bank partnership has reached the 10% goal of collecting and conserving the seed of the Earth’s wild flowering plant species. The seed of a pink banana, Musa itinerans, from China was the 24,200 species added to the seed bank. The banana is an important staple for wild Asian elephants and the flowers and stems are used in some Chinese dishes. The seed is also a valuable genetic resource for breeding new varieties with disease resistance traits to ensure continued banana cultivation.

The next phase of the seed bank partnership will run from 2010 to 2020. The focus will be on issues that threaten human well being, including food security, sustainable energy, loss of biodiversity and climate change. The seed bank partnership will continue to focus on those regions of the worlds that are home to some of the world’s poorest people and where plant diversity is tightly bound to people’s livelihood. The goal of Kew’s collection program is to conserve a further 25% of the world’s plant species by 2020. The seed bank partnership involves more than 120 organizations in 54 countries.