Millenium Seed Bank Collection
On Friday 30th September 2011, 15 of our Environmental Science students and their teachers collected seeds of Perforated St. Johnswort Hypericum Perforatum and Wild Basil Clinopodium Vulgare at a site just north west of Lewes. Guided by Michael Way and Stephanie Miles from the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership at Wakehurst, the group soon collected over 15,000 seeds. These will be stored and recorded as being collected by the students at the seed bank for anything up to two hundred years. The work of the seed bank is a crucial part of the students GCSE syllabus and this trip made a great diversion from a typical theory based lesson.
"I really understand what the aims of the work are now that I've done it for myself" said Jack Hare aged 15.
"It was an excellent opportunity for the students to see how real scientists work in the field and they were so professional, the students saw first hand the incredible attention to detail that the scientists took when gathering the seeds, specimens of the parent plants and the accompanying data" said Dr Dan Danahar.
Father and Son duo John and Mark Gapper also joined the group. John has been collecting and growing local wildflower seed from Brighton & Hove for the last 35 years and Mark is following in his father's footsteps. "It was extremely interesting to see how our colleagues from the seed bank went about their work and fascinating to talk to them about their experiences" said John. "There are many ways in which our work is similar" added Mark.
Having made this connection there are high hopes that these groups may team up to work on some habitat restoration projects within the city Brighton & Hove in the future.
Dr Dan Danahar | Biodiversity Coordinator
Photos courtesy of the Board of trustees of RBG Kew