Australian PlantBank opens with mission to protect and preserve
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Version 0 of 1. Forget the humble windowsill – the nation's plants now have a multimillion-dollar place to call home. The Australian PlantBank, opened on Friday at the Australian Botanic Garden, will conserve and research the nation's unique flora. The $20m Sydney facility includes the largest native plant seed bank in Australia, filing away 10,000 different seed collections. Precious seeds are dried out and then refrigerated for safe keeping. Plant matter is also frozen in liquid nitrogen to lengthen its storage life. "It's sort of like the ultimate insurance policy," said the Royal Botanic Garden Trust’s acting executive director, Dr Brett Summerell. Two dedicated seed hunters have also been tasked with retrieving some harder-to-find treasures for the vault. The Mount Annan collection fulfils a national duty to our rare plant life, Summerell said. "A lot of [species] are so incredibly unique and different from what we have overseas," he said. "We certainly do have a responsibility to protect them and be a custodian to the species." The facility also offers a reminder of the dangers of neglecting conservation, with little grave markers to represent the state's extinct plant species. While ranked fifth globally for plant life diversity, Australia is also home to 14% of the world's threatened species. The New South Wales environment minister, Robyn Parker, said she hoped the facility would make botany "trendy" for locals and tourists alike. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |