Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 12 sepTember 2017

Seeding the future? ‘Ark’ preserves rare, threatened plants

Fahrenheit), keeping Santa Ana Botanic Gar-
By BOB SALSBERG them viable for decades den in Claremont, Cali-
Associated Press or even centuries, de- fornia.
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. pending on the individu- Conservation efforts
(AP) — An ordinary-look- al species. have assumed new ur-
ing freezer in a sturdy “If we have the seed gency as scientists worry
cinderblock shed at a bank we have the ge- about the uncertain im-
suburban Boston botani- netic material to re- pacts of global climate
cal garden holds what store (the plants) and change, Edelstein said.
might be New England’s put them back on the The United Nations Con-
most important seed landscape,” as a hedge vention on Biological
catalog. against extinction, said Diversity , she said, has
Inside the freezer in Debbi Edelstein, the so- established an ambitious
Framingham are tightly ciety’s executive direc- goal of banking 75 per-
sealed packages con- tor.The “ark” is housed in cent of the world’s rare
taining an estimated a structure built to with- seeds by 2020.
6 million seeds from stand many ravages of In the U.S., private con-
hundreds of plant spe- time. But already some servation groups are
cies, bearing obscure In this Aug. 31, 2017 photo, Bill Brumback, director of conserva- seeds have been pulled shouldering the burden
or hard-to-pronounce tion at the New England Wild Flower Society, opens the “seed from cold storage to in part because the U.S.
names like potentilla ark,” a freezer filled with seeds collected for safekeeping from help repopulate dying is the only major nation
robbinsiana. They are rare and endangered plants in the region, in Framingham, Mass. species.An oft-cited ex- that never ratified the
Associated Press
rare varieties of plant life ample is potentilla rob- little-known 1992 treaty,
native to the region — in binsiana, also known as though American of-
some cases found no- known plant species de- the region’s most remote Robbins’ cinquefoil, a ficials over the years
where else in the world termined that 22 percent areas in search of plants small yellow-flowered have voiced support for
— and are in grave dan- were rare, in decline, en- like Jesup’s milk-vetch, a plant found only near its objectives.Preserving
ger of vanishing from the dangered or perhaps al- species so rare it grows the top of New Hamp- plant life is a worthy un-
landscape. ready extinct. in just three tiny clusters shire’s Mount Wash- dertaking on many lev-
The “seed ark,” as it’s “Plants have always along the Connecticut ington, New England’s els, Brumback said. Even
playfully dubbed by the been second-class citi- River. highest peak. When hik- the rarest of plants can
New England Wild Flow- zens when it comes to Once gathered, seeds ing trails threatened to be vital to ecosystems.
er Society, is not unlike conservation,” said Bill are first brought to a destroy the plant, the so- Some could yet yield
Noah’s biblical vessel in Brumback, the organi- facility in western Mas- ciety worked with Appa- medicines or other prod-
its quest to preserve from zation’s conservation sachusetts and dried lachian Mountain Club ucts useful to mankind.
calamity a rich diversity director who for three to 20 to 30 percent of and other groups on a “These are species on
of life. In this case it’s not decades has supervised relative humidity, said plan that restored Rob- Earth that deserve to
animals marching two the collection and stor- Brumback, explaining bins’ cinquefoil to the live as much as we do,”
by two but vegetation age of rare seeds in New that the drying process point it no longer was Brumback said.
threatened by any num- England. “Animals are assures that liquid inside considered an endan- He added: “If you lost
ber of things, including much more, shall we cells won’t expand and gered species. one plant species is the
natural disasters, climate say, charismatic. Plants crack when exposed to Rare seed programs world going to stop? No
change, unchecked don’t get the same pro- low temperatures. aren’t unique to New it’s not. But if you lose
development or simply tections under the feder- The seeds are then England. Similar seed enough plant species
being trampled afoot by al endangered species brought to Framingham, banks exist in several oth- and enough biological
unsuspecting hikers. act.” sealed in foil envelopes er U.S. locations, includ- diversity, we don’t know
The society’s 2015 sur- Teams of staffers and and frozen at -20 de- ing the Chicago Botanic what the effects are go-
vey of more than 3,500 volunteers scour some of grees Celsius (-4 degrees Garden and the Rancho ing to be.”q