Rare Plant Seed Bank
About the Seed Bank
The Plant Conservation Program is building a long-term genetically diverse seed bank for rare and priority plant species native to Minnesota. Seed from each target plant species will be collected from multiple populations across the state and preserved in cold storage for longevity. This will serve to help preserve the genetic diversity of a species across its Minnesota range, provide backup seed in case of population loss in the wild, and provide the opportunity for research for a better scientific understanding of these species.
In the face of climate change, this work will also preserve genetic diversity necessary for each species to be able to adapt to new conditions, and to enhance knowledge of successfully introducing these plants back into natural or restored landscapes. In many cases we have successfully propagated these species and for a few of them we are establishing safeguard beds at the Arboretum. These beds are ways of maintaining a living collection of plants from individual populations as a means of both researching the plants and creating a secondary backup to the seed bank.
Research Types
Types of research we may conduct include:
- Propagation research - Experiments conducted to increase our ability to germinate and grow a species outside of their natural habitat as insurance against extinction. Many species require very specific conditions, such as relationships with certain fungal or soil microbes, to grow. Without this knowledge, our ability to grow the species may be limited, which in turn impacts our ability to advance conservation through propagation or research.
- Outplanting research - Experiments conducted to increase our ability to successfully transfer plants back into wild habitats to restore or bolster existing populations.
Seed Bank Partners
The Arboretum Plant Conservation Program is a member of several active conservation organizations, including the Center for Plant Conservation (CPC), the North American Orchid
Conservation Center (NAOCC) and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). For the CPC and NAOCC, we collaborate with other gardens and research institutions to prioritize seed bank species and projects to minimize overlap in species coverage with other groups and to be able to share knowledge and technical expertise. The centerpiece of our conservation work is our long-term seed bank, currently the only long-term seed bank in the state dedicated to rare
species preservation.
