Seed banks as a partnership for global plant conservation

Abstract

A seed bank is a collection of plant seeds stored under appropriate conditions in which seeds are periodically checked for their germination ability – viability of seeds. Botanic gardens have been issuing lists of seeds (Index seminum) for several centuries. This old tradition has also encouraged the formation of botanic gardens seed banks. University Botanic Gardens Ljubljana actively works on plant diversity conservation. In 2013, the Garden participated in the collection of seeds for the Millennium Seed Bank in order to contribute to a faster achievement of the goal of seed banking of 25 % of the total world flora. For this reason, in 2013, seeds of 59 target plant species of Slovenian flora (already selected before for routine collection) and seeds of 24 other randomly selected plant species for the Millennium Seed Bank were collected.