Plant vault passes billion mark (BBC)

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By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

Britain's "Noah's Ark" for plants has just collected its billionth seed.

The Millennium Seed Bank will present the seed, from an African bamboo, to Chancellor Gordon Brown, as it seeks funds to continue operating after 2010.

Part of the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG) at Kew, the bank already stores material from 18,000 species, some of which have become extinct in the wild.

Seed banks are seen as an essential part of plans to curb the rapid loss of biodiversity, in Britain and worldwide.

By 2010, Kew plans to have amassed seeds from 30,000 species, representing 10% of the world's plants.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6593333.stm