News

Endangered plant species will be blooming for generations to come thanks to the conservation efforts of the South Australian Seed Conservation Centre's (SASCC) newly launched Threatened Plant Seed Orchard.

Located in the heart of Adelaide Botanic Garden, the orchard has been specifically designed to protect threatened plant species from extinction and preserve seeds for the future.

Seeds will also be propagated at an on-site nursey before being reintroduced into the wild as part of environmental regeneration projects across the state.

Senior Seed Collection Officer Dan Duval said the seed orchard will ensure many critically endangered native plant species will be preserved for generations.

"Many of the threatened plant species in the seed orchard are only known from very few plants or a single population," Mr Duval said.

"This limits the number of seeds we can collect and bank in long-term storage without impacting these small populations of endangered plants."

Seed banking is an increasingly important aspect of the protection of native plant species, with SA's threatened plant populations shrinking by more than two-thirds in the past twenty years - a rate higher than for birds and mammals.
 

One of the species, Limestone Phebalium (Phebalium calicola), is a critically endangered member of the citrus family, located near Mt Gambier, which was only known from three wild plant prior to reintroductions over the past ten years.

SASCC staff have used the seed orchard to propagate a total of 200 of these plants which were reintroduced to the wild by the Port MacDonnell Landcare Group in August this year.

Mr Duval said in some cases the Adelaide Botanic Garden has a larger collection of specific threatened plants than you would find in the wild anywhere on earth.

"Ensuring that we are able to protect, and nurture, these species is a bit part of the SA Seed Conservation Centre's focus and the seed orchard will allow this to continue for many years into the future," he said.

The SA Seed Conservation Centre works with a number of schools and farmers to promote the preservation of native plant species and to encourage them to create their own seed orchards which assists with the conservation efforts.

Visitors got their first glimpse of the newly launched orchard and learned more about the incredible contributions of SASCC staff and its partner organisations this week at the SA Seed Hunters orchard tour as part of Nature Festival.