Planting for the future
Seed specialists ensure the survival of a key component of life and provide a secure environment for possible revival, Yi Ling and Yue Ranran report in Kunming.
For some, life is put on pause at the very beginning. In the basement of a four-story building in Kunming's northern suburbs, hundreds of thousands of precious plant seeds are carefully stored at — 20 C. This Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, located in Yunnan's provincial capital in Southwest China, is the largest facility of its kind in Asia.
It houses more than 94,000 plant seed accessions from around 11,000 wild species, representing over one-third of China's wild seed plants.
The seeds are carefully stored in specially designed glass bottles, which are lined up on rows of shelves in a concrete warehouse 30 meters underground.
According to Cai Jie, head of the seed bank's germplasm collection center, Chinese researchers discovered ancient lotus fruit in the peat layer of a dried-up pond in Pulandian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, in 1952.
Lab tests determined that the fruit had been buried for 1,288 years. Surprisingly, the seeds inside the fruit successfully germinated and grew into beautiful flowers after their tough outer shells were ground away.
"This magical discovery had a profound impact on my career," Cai says.
"Seeds are natural time capsules, carrying the genetic code of plants. They can revive at the right moment. We preserve seeds with great care because we need to have reverence for nature and believe in the power of life."
