Beijing, China
October 26, 2009
Kew Millennium Seed Bank of UK held a ceremony on October 15th to welcome the wild plantain seeds from China as the No. 24200 wild plant seed preserved by this organization and 'helped' to fulfill its tenth goal of the collection.
Kew Millennium Seed Bank planned to collect 242,000 kinds of wild plant seeds and thus the wild plantain seeds from China became a "milestone" for its storage project.
Wild plantains used to be widely distributed in Yunnan province and several neighbouring countries. It is one of the major foods of wild Asian elephants. Local residents there also eat its young stem and flower. However, it is decreasing due to changes of climate and natural environment in recent years. Preservation of the seed in Kew seed bank will help to protect the wild plantain and its gene resources, said Yang Xiangyun, researcher of Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Built in 2000, Kew Millennium Seed Bank is one of largest seed banks in the world. The bank focuses on endangered wild plants and carries out scientific research on collected seeds.
Kew Millennium Seed Bank planned to increase its kinds of preserved wild plant seeds into more than 60,000 in 2020, fulfilling 25% target of the seed bank's storage plan, according to Paul Smith, principal of Kew Millennium Seed Bank.
Yang is supervisor of the Germ Plasm Bank of Wild Species in Southwest China. The bank is a major scientific project built in China in recent years. It has preserved several thousand of plant seeds. And the number is keep growing.
Chinese and English plant research institutions often exchange seeds and make mutual backup so as to enhance protection and research of plants.
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