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News
Seeds in the bank for future growth
By Rudi Maxwell
At the Lismore Rainforest Botanic Gardens are (l-r) Rainforest Seed Project co-ordinator Dr Kim Hamilton, Leahwyn Seed, Kathy Owen, Jan de Nardi and Denis Matthews.
When seed scientist Leahwyn Seed started researching a method of storing Myrsine richmondensis (Ripple-leaf Muttonwood) she initially feared failure.
“I did a rough screen and I thought I’d killed them,” Ms Seed said.
But luckily, she hadn’t, and her studies lead to seeds of the endangered rainforest tree being stored with the NSW Seedbank.
Some were also sent to the Friends of the Lismore Rainforest Botanic Gardens, an appropriate destination, since long-time environmental activist Nan Nicholson had forwarded the seed sample to Ms Seed in the first place.
Ms Seed returned home to the Northern Rivers on Tuesday to talk about SeedQuest NSW, an international partnership for plant conservation between the NSW Seedbank at the Mount Annan Botanic Gardens and the Millennium Seed Bank Project of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England.
The project is aiming to collect samples of 10 per cent of the world’s dryland flora, around 24,000 species. Rainforest plants present particular problems with many of the fleshy fruits not able to tolerate conventional methods of drying and storage.
“The seeds are moist and can crack,” Ms Seed said.
President of the Friends of the Lismore Rainforest Botanic Gardens Jan de Nardi said the group was researching the plants that used to grow where the Ripple-leaf Muttonwood grew in the wild so they could recreate the natural environment.
“There are only three known wild populations of this plant and it hadn’t been found for years,” Ms de Nardi said. “That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to preserve these threatened species, in case we lose the wild populations.”
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