Michael Wall and Naomi Fraga surveying for Mimulus shevockii

• Many plant species in California are rare;
• Various human impacts on the environment continue to reduce the abundance and distribution of many of these species, even to the point of extinction;
• Relocation of imperiled plant populations has a high failure rate;
• A high percentage of California plant species produce “orthodox” seeds that are desiccation and cold tolerant and are therefore amenable to long term storage

Ex Situ (off site) collections of native plants in the form of seed and/or living plants are a valuable resource.

Ex Situ collections:

• Preserve population representative germplasm for propagation use and as a back up collection for reintroduction projects
• Preserve genetic material from endangered or extirpated plant populations
• Protect extremely rare plant populations from catastrophic stochastic events
• Preserve population level samples that can be utilized for research use
• Allows for taking advantage of high yield years
• Reduce collecting pressure on natural populations by having material available for distribution.

It must also be recognized that maintaining conservation collections off site should only be done as a complimentary component of in-situ (on-site) conservation. Using seed banking as a form of mitigation in itself is actually counter productive to conservation as conserving plants off site removes them from the biotic community and the evolutionary process.

“One goal of conservation biology is to preserve genetic diversity. Another goal should be to preserve the evolutionary process.”  
                                          J. Avise

For more information on the Seed Banking program visit the Seed Program webpage or contact:

Michael Wall (Seed Program Manager)