Can botanists ensure the future of endangered species by collecting their seeds and storing them in a seed bank?
Easier said than done! Seed banking works well with many temperate plants and annual crops, but seeds from tropical trees tend to be short-lived and quickly die under low-temperature, low-moisture conditions. Even in ideal conditions, seeds only have a limited storage life and must be germinated at regular intervals to produce plants that will regenerate a fresh seed sample. This isn’t practical for trees that take decades to reach flowering size. Each time seeds are taken out of store for regeneration some genetic viability is also lost.
