LONDON — Britain is to help protect Australia's biodiversity in the emergency collection of plant seeds following the country's devastating wildfires.
Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London will help with emergency seed-collecting in areas devastated by the bushfires and store specimens at its Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) in Britain.
Kew’s MSB works as an insurance policy against plant extinction so they can be protected for the future.
Seeds are stored in air-tight glass containers stacked in huge -20°C freezers and can be used to grow a new generation of plants in years to come.
For the collecting, Kew scientists will work alongside colleagues in the Australian Seed Bank Partnership.
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Date:
Friday, February 7, 2020
