British Millennium flora store banks billionth seed

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Millennium Seed Bank filed away its one billionth seed on Thursday in a race against time to save the world’s plants from global warming wipe-out.

The bank, in a deep basement near the sleepy town of Ardingly some 35 miles south of London, already holds seeds of more than 18,000 wild plant species from 126 countries.


The billionth seed is from an African bamboo, Oxytenanthera abyssinica, and was collected in Mali, West Africa.

“Plant diversity is a vital part of the system upon which we depend. The need for the kind of insurance policy the Millennium Seed Bank provides has never been greater,” said bank chief Paul Smith.

Reuters