Entire continent’s plants saved against extinction

All the plants of an entire continent have been saved thanks to the efforts of Dr Tim Rich. Nifty work by the botanist has ensured that Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank now holds seed collections from the entire vascular plant flora of Antarctica - safe and sound in its underground vaults at Wakehurst Place in West Sussex. The task was made easier because, although the trip was long and arduous, there are two species in question!

These are Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis - and were successfully collected from Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Islands, which lie just off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

“Dr Rich, of the National Museums and Galleries of Wales, has collected extensively as part of the seed bank’s earlier UK Flora Programme”, says Donations Officer Steve Alton. He picked up the flora of Antarctica on a tourist trip to the southern continent and we now have them banked for safe keeping should anything happen to the plants in their natural habitat.”