Seed Bank Exchange

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall, visited Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanic Garden this past Saturday, presenting a small but valuable packet to the garden’s director Harry Jongerden. In it were six varieties of seed of native British Columbia plant species from the vaults of The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank. In return, Mr. Jongerden presented The Duchess with wild-collected B.C. native plant seed for Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, which are not currently in its collection.

The seeds received by VanDusen Botanical Garden are:

* Gaillardia aristata
* Helianthus maximiliani
* Penstemon procerus
* Nothochelone nemorosa
* Hydrophyllum tenuipes
* Brodiaea coronaria

The seeds sent by VanDusen to RBG Kew are:

* Arbutus menziesii
* Aquilegia formosa
* Bidens amplissima
* Lilium columbianum
* Dicentra formosa
* Erythronium oregonum

Kew's Millenium Seed Bank recently celebrated its success in banking 10 percent of the world's wild plant species.

For more information on VanDusen Botanical Garden: www.vandusengarden.org