One of the Center for Plant Conservation's most important rare plant
conservation strategies is the long-term storage of seeds. Seed storage
can be the simplest, cheapest, most secure, and most effective way to maintain
the highest possible genetic representation of many rare taxa. Scientists
believe that seeds from many species can remain viable for decades and
even centuries under optimum cold and dry conditions, which may involve
cryogenic storage of seeds in liquid nitrogen. The Center for Plant Conservation
maintains a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the USDA National Seed
Storage Laboratory (NSSL) in Fort Collins, Colorado. Under this MOU, the
NSSL stores seeds from rare U.S. plants in the Center's National Collection
of Endangered Plants at no cost to the Center or its Participating Institutions.
The NSSL maintains the most advanced and secure facilities currently possible
for the safe long-term storage of seeds. This very important component
of CPC's National Collection of Endangered Plants represents perhaps the
most fundamental reserve of germ plasm possible for many of this country's
rarest plants.