UK Flora Programme
Germander Speedwell - Veronica chamaedrys
People do not usually think of the UK flora as being endangered but some 317 wild plants are actually threatened with national extinction.
Contributors to this threat are intensive agriculture, urbanisation, road-building, pollution and climate change.
On the basis that it was appropriate to tackle the conservation of our own flora before undertaking projects overseas, Phase I of the Millennium Seed Bank Project commenced with the UK Flora Programme, an ambitious project to underpin the conservation of all our native flowering plants that produce orthodox seeds.
Collecting on chalk downland, Dorset
Help was sought from the active and skilled volunteer botanical community in the UK, particularly the local Wildlife Trusts and the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI). The response was astonishing, and in total more than half of the seed collections made came from volunteers. The MSBP is indebted to those individuals who gave up their time to assist.
Valuable assistance with the collection of the UK flora was also given by:
· the Countryside Council for Wales
· the National Trust
· Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh
Within the native UK flora there are a number of species that present special difficulties. For example aquatic species, which disperse their fruit or seeds under the water surface, and plants such as orchids, which produce microscopic seeds. Research within the MSBP has addressed these issues and found that, perhaps surprisingly, the majority of such species are easily stored under standard Seed Bank conditions.
At the time of writing, the MSB Project has already collected seed from around 96% of the UK's native higher plants. This is the first time that any country has underpinned the conservation of its wild flora in this way.
The remaining species either produce no seed at all, or seed which cannot be stored conventionally, or are too rare or shy fruiting for a collection to have been made without compromising their survival. Efforts continue, however, to track down and bank those last few, elusive species.
The UK Programme is managed by Steve Alton.
