Global: Which plant species would you save?
13.09.10
The Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place, Kew has an ambitious target - to protect the most threatened 25 per cent of plant species on Earth.
With an estimated 300 - 400,000 species of plants this is a task of mammoth importance, but broken down into manageable chunks the numbers begin to appear somewhat more digestible. For example, a donation of just £25 - towards one of six endangered plants - will go a long way to safeguarding the species into the future.
Perhaps most surprisingly, the cost of saving an entire species is just £1 - 2,000 and this "represents the cost to the project of collecting and banking the seed of that species," according to Kew.
This video is being used by Kew to help raise funds to support the Millennium Seed Bank and raise awareness of the plight of the global flora. But with so many plant species facing extinction - four every day according to Kew - which one would you save?
Related links:
UK: Kew gives world's smallest waterlily a reprieve
19.05.10
The tiny 'Thermal' lily, Nymphaea thermarum, with pads as little as 1cm in diameter, has been successfully grown at Kew by expert propagator Carlos Magdalena.
Madagascar: Kew team give live updates from the field
17.11.09
Once upon a time botanical expeditions would have ventured into the unknown, only to return (hopefully) a few months later to a rapturous home-coming as they reveal their results. But conservation is changing and it's largely a result of the rapidly shifting digital landscape.
Chile: A Chilean conservation adventure
13.11.09
Smoking volcanoes, devastated towns, leech infested forests, endless breathtaking landscapes, and the beautiful but often highly endangered plant species of South America greeted the team from Wakehurst Place, Kew’s country estate in West Sussex, the Forestry Commission's Bedgebury Pinetum and Westonbirt Arboretum.