Silene stenophylla
Narrow-leaved campion
- Accession
- HT.1931.0004
- Collected
- Kolyma, Siberia, 1971
- Status
- Viable
SEED BANK / HERBARIUM / FIELD COLLECTION
Kept in case the world needs it back
Forty-one thousand accessions held at minus twenty, collected from wild populations across nineteen countries, with a duplicate of every one of them stored somewhere else. We are not a nursery and we do not sell seed. We lend it to people who will grow it out and send some back.
From the archive
A handful of accessions, drawn from the vouchers held alongside the seed. Every deposit carries a pressed specimen, because a seed without a plant to prove what it is is just a seed.
Lathyrus japonicus
Sea pea
- Accession
- HT.1988.2210
- Collected
- Suffolk shingle, 1988
- Status
- Viable
Fritillaria meleagris
Snake's head fritillary
- Accession
- HT.2004.0917
- Collected
- Wiltshire water meadow, 2004
- Status
- Regenerating
Astragalus exscapus
Stemless milkvetch
- Accession
- HT.2011.6633
- Collected
- Pannonian steppe, 2011
- Status
- Critical
Cypripedium calceolus
Lady's slipper orchid
- Accession
- HT.2019.4102
- Collected
- Yorkshire, single clone, 2019
- Status
- Restricted
Bromus interruptus
Interrupted brome
- Accession
- HT.2023.1188
- Collected
- Ex situ only, extinct in wild
- Status
- Ex situ only
What we do with it
- Collection
- Field collecting from wild populations under licence, with a voucher pressed and a full locality record taken at the point of gathering.
- Storage and testing
- Dried to five per cent moisture, sealed, and held at minus twenty. Germination is tested on a ten-year cycle and the results are published.
- Regeneration
- Accessions falling below seventy-five per cent viability are grown out, hand pollinated where needed, and re-banked from the resulting seed.
- Distribution
- Material is lent, never sold, to restoration projects and research institutions who agree to return a portion of what they grow.
01
02
03
04
The collection
41,200
Accessions held under long-term storage
19
Countries of wild origin represented
94%
Accessions above viability threshold at last test
1,931
First accession, still viable
Deposits are welcome. Bring the locality data.
- Telephone
- +44 1444 894 066
- Address
- Wakehurst Place, Ardingly, West Sussex
- Collection
- Seed bank and herbarium, founded 1931