Landcare nursery volunteers and members of our YAN Climate Ready team visited the National Seed Bank at the Australian Botanical Gardens in Canberra on 10th May 2023. People who work at the site also collect seed across Australian National Parks and Australian reserves from coastal to alpine landscapes.
The major focus of the national seed bank is on conservation and research. Any germinated seed is given to the gardens nursery team to grow on. The seed bank has approximately 8,000 seed packages which includes 1,200 threatened species. The team managing this seed bank is small however they are supported by volunteers. Like Landcare, they are also subject to funding highs and lows.
One of the interesting processes was the x-raying of seeds to determine their viability - I expect you can identify that photo below. And I expect you can identify a group of Landcarers in a lab in one of the photos below.
