WEBVTT - The Past: The vision that got us here 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:12.810 The sound of the leaves underfoot really transported me back home 0:00:12.810 --> 0:00:16.470 to Australia the very first time I stumbled upon Wakehurst, 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:21.900 and I found myself in the middle of England in a 0:00:21.900 --> 0:00:26.489 glade of eucalypts and Wollemi pines. And the Wollemi for me 0:00:26.489 --> 0:00:30.270 has a particular significance because they're a fossil, really, or 0:00:30.330 --> 0:00:34.650 a dinosaur tree that were thought to be extinct. And 0:00:34.650 --> 0:00:36.780 they were discovered in the Blue Mountains in the mid- 0:00:36.780 --> 0:00:40.200 90s. And I got married in the late 90s in the Blue 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.800 Mountains. And so the sound of the Wollemis and their 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:47.220 fragrance and the fact that they've been preserved here in 0:00:47.220 --> 0:00:50.310 a place like Wakehurst. When I stumbled upon them the 0:00:50.310 --> 0:00:53.070 first time I came here, I stood here and I 0:00:53.070 --> 0:00:56.850 wept. And I wept because they could be lost, but 0:00:56.850 --> 0:00:59.940 they're being protected here at Wakehurst. But also as you 0:00:59.940 --> 0:01:04.740 wander through this incredibly unique and magical and precious glade, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.940 it's connected to so many other species from so many 0:01:08.940 --> 0:01:12.360 other parts of the world. And you realize that every 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:17.309 tree, every plant, every flower, every seed, whilst it's specific 0:01:17.310 --> 0:01:21.090 to a territory, it's all interconnected. And it reminds you 0:01:21.090 --> 0:01:24.720 just how precious those songlines are, and they happen here 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:36.780 at Wakehurst. It's a magical, magical place. Wakehurst is Kew's wild and beautiful 0:01:36.780 --> 0:01:40.140 botanic garden set deep in the heart of the Sussex 0:01:40.140 --> 0:01:45.000 countryside, a sanctuary for nature. You can lose yourself here 0:01:45.150 --> 0:01:48.900 as I did in the astonishing diversity of trees, plants, 0:01:48.900 --> 0:01:53.400 and grasses covering every inch of its sweeping grounds. But 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:57.150 Wakehurst is so much more than a garden and a 0:01:57.150 --> 0:02:02.550 lovely day out. Beyond its beauty lies a living laboratory 0:02:02.790 --> 0:02:07.650 where groundbreaking research is shaping the very future of biodiversity. 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.149 At the heart of Wakehurst is the Millennium Seed Bank. 0:02:12.750 --> 0:02:16.889 Its vaults, hidden underneath the hollows of these grounds, house 0:02:16.889 --> 0:02:24.209 almost 2. 5 billion seeds, 40,000 rare, important, and threatened 0:02:24.210 --> 0:02:27.899 species from almost every country and territory across the globe. 0:02:28.470 --> 0:02:32.790 And they're safely stored, ex situ, protected outside their natural 0:02:32.790 --> 0:02:36.900 habitat. It's a modern Noah's Ark, and it's the largest 0:02:36.900 --> 0:02:41.400 repository of wild seeds on earth and the most biodiverse 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:46.230 place on our planet. I'm Cate Blanchett, and that experience 0:02:46.230 --> 0:02:48.960 that I had in the Wollemi pines was the catalyst 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.350 that led me on a journey to becoming Kew's ambassador 0:02:52.350 --> 0:02:55.560 for Wakehurst and a champion of the Millennium Seed Bank. 0:02:56.310 --> 0:02:58.350 And on this journey, I've learned of the scope of 0:02:58.350 --> 0:03:01.290 the work that Wakehurst is doing to preserve the future 0:03:01.380 --> 0:03:05.910 of our planet because there's no way around it. We 0:03:05.910 --> 0:03:08.730 have to face the fact that our planet is in 0:03:08.730 --> 0:03:15.510 crisis. Climate change, deforestation, the relentless unsustainable use of our 0:03:15.510 --> 0:03:20.100 natural resources, species disappearing at a pace unprecedented in human 0:03:20.100 --> 0:03:27.000 history. Like most people, some days I despair, but the 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:32.730 work being done at Wakehurst gives me hope. The Millennium 0:03:32.730 --> 0:03:36.780 Seed Bank holds within its vaults tools to restore habitats, 0:03:37.050 --> 0:03:40.860 to bring species back from the brink, to discover how little- 0:03:40.860 --> 0:03:45.360 known plants might become our future foods, our medicines, our 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.220 materials. In this series we'll go behind the scenes of 0:03:50.220 --> 0:03:54.750 this extraordinary partnership to understand its humble roots, the work 0:03:54.750 --> 0:03:57.720 it's doing now, and the impact it could have on 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:02.160 our future. And it's a true partnership, an international collaboration 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:07.140 between visionary scientists and devoted collectors, working together on an 0:04:07.140 --> 0:04:13.410 insurance policy for our planet. Life begins with seeds, and 0:04:13.410 --> 0:04:17.640 so does our best chance to save it. Welcome to 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:29.850 Unearthed: The Need for Seeds, episode one, the past. This 0:04:29.850 --> 0:04:33.630 year marks the 25th anniversary of the Millennium Seed Bank, 0:04:33.630 --> 0:04:38.190 or the MSB. It's now a world- leading initiative at 0:04:38.190 --> 0:04:42.120 the cutting edge of science, but it wasn't quite so cutting- 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:47.130 edge in the beginning. Every great story starts somewhere, and 0:04:47.130 --> 0:04:51.600 ours begins over a quarter of a century ago. In 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:55.229 this chapter, we'll meet the visionary people who saw the 0:04:55.230 --> 0:04:56.070 future coming. 0:04:56.700 --> 0:04:59.790 We sneaked onto the site and looked in the hole, 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:03.720 and that is the point at which I said to Simon, " 0:05:03.750 --> 0:05:07.529 What have we started?" And from there on, there is 0:05:07.529 --> 0:05:09.960 only one way, which is out and up. 0:05:11.730 --> 0:05:15.029 And we'll understand how that vision is already bearing fruit. 0:05:15.270 --> 0:05:18.089 100s of plants have been introduced working with the community, 0:05:18.150 --> 0:05:20.370 but this never would've happened if we didn't bank this in 0:05:20.430 --> 0:05:22.469 2006 with MSB. 0:05:22.740 --> 0:05:25.410 And we'll hear from those continuing to build on the 0:05:25.410 --> 0:05:28.650 legacy who are just as passionate about it as the 0:05:28.650 --> 0:05:29.850 Seed Bank's founders. 0:05:30.660 --> 0:05:33.990 Those wild relative seeds are now at these international crop- 0:05:33.990 --> 0:05:37.290 breeding gene banks with the aim of making our domesticated 0:05:37.290 --> 0:05:40.200 crops more able to withstand the pressures of climate change 0:05:40.230 --> 0:05:42.240 and various pests and diseases that they might be faced 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:42.900 with in the future. 0:05:43.500 --> 0:05:46.380 But let's begin in a place that represents both the 0:05:46.380 --> 0:05:54.000 past and the present of this story. While I'm standing 0:05:54.300 --> 0:05:58.350 in an American prairie, it's full of native plants, and 0:05:58.350 --> 0:06:02.250 I can see rattlesnake master, which is a very tall, sort 0:06:02.250 --> 0:06:07.860 of beautiful silvery thistle, and this foxglove, and there's beardtongue, and there's black- 0:06:07.860 --> 0:06:11.070 eyed Susans, which I absolutely love. And I mean some 0:06:11.070 --> 0:06:13.050 of these grasses and plants are as tall as my 0:06:13.050 --> 0:06:18.510 shoulders. It's an American prairie, but I'm not in America. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.140 I am in the heart of Sussex in Wakehurst. And 0:06:22.140 --> 0:06:25.380 this landscape is only possible really because of the amazing 0:06:25.380 --> 0:06:29.310 work that the Millennium Seed Bank is doing, and more 0:06:29.310 --> 0:06:32.580 incongruous perhaps than an American prairie in East Sussex is 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:37.350 the juxtaposition of this prairie with a quintessential English mansion 0:06:37.350 --> 0:06:39.900 just ahead. I'm here with Dr. Eleanor Brehman, who's the 0:06:39.900 --> 0:06:42.690 senior research leader in seed conservation. 0:06:42.810 --> 0:06:43.920 Hi, welcome to Wakehurst. 0:06:43.950 --> 0:06:46.589 Thank you. I mean, just in the distance, there is 0:06:46.589 --> 0:06:49.800 a grade one Elizabethan mansion and that was built around 1570. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:51.029 1500s. 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:51.600 Yeah. 0:06:51.779 --> 0:06:51.960 Yeah. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:54.660 And it's old stone. It's almost like something out of 0:06:54.660 --> 0:06:57.480 a storybook. So it's very old, but it feels really 0:06:57.480 --> 0:07:01.409 at odds with this experimental landscape that we are standing 0:07:01.410 --> 0:07:04.409 in. This wild landscape here at Wakehurst. Why did you 0:07:04.410 --> 0:07:05.460 want to meet me here? 0:07:05.730 --> 0:07:09.210 Well, because this is where seed banking started at Wakehurst. 0:07:09.540 --> 0:07:13.500 So the Seed Physiology department moved down from Kew in the 0:07:13.500 --> 0:07:17.520 70s. We were based in the mansion originally and actually 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.880 had a big walk- in freezer, like one of those 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.241 butcher's freezers in the chapel. That was the original seed bank. 0:07:24.241 --> 0:07:25.770 The seed bank was in the chapel? 0:07:26.100 --> 0:07:28.830 And the physiology team were working up in Lady Price's 0:07:28.830 --> 0:07:32.010 bedroom, and they were doing some work on one of 0:07:32.010 --> 0:07:34.200 the mahogany desks once, and when she came around, and 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.620 she was really not very happy that science was being 0:07:37.620 --> 0:07:42.000 undertaken on this heirloom of the family. So I think 0:07:42.000 --> 0:07:43.800 they got some lab benches in after that. 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.670 So given that you were able to store seeds in 0:07:47.670 --> 0:07:51.420 a butcher's freezer in the mansion, that's not very high- 0:07:51.420 --> 0:07:54.360 tech. I mean, obviously the modern building that houses the 0:07:54.360 --> 0:07:58.080 seed bank now, for the past 25 years, it's got 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:02.010 a lot more sophisticated freezers than, say, there or I 0:08:02.010 --> 0:08:04.530 would have at home. What are the facilities like there? 0:08:04.710 --> 0:08:05.940 How would you describe them? 0:08:06.390 --> 0:08:07.920 Yeah, I think when we were in the mansion, it 0:08:07.920 --> 0:08:10.200 was more in an experimental phase and we were trying 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:14.580 to understand the seed biology that enables seeds to be 0:08:14.580 --> 0:08:17.790 dried and then stored at sub- zero temperatures to extend 0:08:17.790 --> 0:08:20.670 their lifespan. And we really wanted to know if that 0:08:20.670 --> 0:08:22.620 was going to work for wild plant species. Because it 0:08:22.620 --> 0:08:25.125 had already been done for agriculture, but they've quite uniform 0:08:25.125 --> 0:08:29.520 seeds. So it was that experimental stage, but then we'd 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:33.270 proved the concept and in the 90s collected the UK 0:08:33.270 --> 0:08:35.309 flora, so that we could show that it really worked 0:08:35.309 --> 0:08:39.000 before going international. And the point of our new facilities, 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.870 well now 25 years old, was the scale. We needed 0:08:42.870 --> 0:08:46.140 to scale up. So the technology still remained relatively simple. 0:08:46.140 --> 0:08:48.480 We're drying, and we're putting in an airtight container and 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:50.729 we're putting in a freezer. So yes, the freezers are 0:08:50.730 --> 0:08:53.730 bigger, they've got roller shelving so we can maximize the 0:08:53.730 --> 0:08:56.070 space usage, but at the end of the day, it's 0:08:56.070 --> 0:08:59.939 just a - 20 freezer, but it's conserving all this biodiversity 0:08:59.940 --> 0:09:00.809 from around the world. 0:09:01.170 --> 0:09:04.679 I mean, people obviously, if they're interested in building a 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.939 garden, they buy seeds at their local gardening store. But 0:09:08.940 --> 0:09:12.870 why do you think it's so important at this juncture 0:09:13.020 --> 0:09:16.320 in human history that we gather and preserve seeds? 0:09:16.620 --> 0:09:21.150 45% of all wild plants are faced with extinction. So 0:09:21.210 --> 0:09:24.870 the race is on, really, to conserve seeds from those 0:09:24.870 --> 0:09:27.450 species before it's too late and we've lost them forever. 0:09:28.260 --> 0:09:33.000 Because you don't know what you're losing until it's gone. 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.640 Nobody's worked on these; we don't know whether that's the 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:39.839 next medicine, whether it could improve our sustainable agriculture, what 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.929 properties it has that we might find useful and might 0:09:42.929 --> 0:09:46.620 provide ecosystem services that we're depending on and we don't 0:09:46.620 --> 0:09:47.370 even realize. 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.420 And the way those plants and species have an interdependent culture. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:53.970 Yeah. And interact with each other to form that ecosystem. 0:09:54.179 --> 0:09:58.290 So when you say that 45% of plant species are 0:09:58.290 --> 0:10:02.280 facing extinction, that isn't just reflective of the UK, is it? 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:02.281 No. 0:10:02.281 --> 0:10:03.390 I mean, it's a global figure, right? 0:10:03.390 --> 0:10:07.650 Yeah. That's plants across the world. So in all environments, 0:10:07.650 --> 0:10:10.650 from pole to pole, from sea level to the tops 0:10:10.650 --> 0:10:14.250 of mountains, plants are feeling the pressure of human land 0:10:14.250 --> 0:10:20.340 use change, overexploitation, invasive species, pollution, and then climate change 0:10:20.340 --> 0:10:23.880 as well. So it's not a very friendly environment for 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:25.079 a lot of our plants anymore. 0:10:25.470 --> 0:10:27.780 I don't know whether it's that I've specifically noticed that 0:10:27.780 --> 0:10:30.840 there's fewer plants around, but I have noticed, particularly in 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:33.150 summer, when you go for a long drive, there are 0:10:33.150 --> 0:10:34.679 not as many bugs- 0:10:35.010 --> 0:10:35.011 No. 0:10:35.011 --> 0:10:36.030 - On the windshield. 0:10:36.030 --> 0:10:36.209 No. 0:10:36.210 --> 0:10:39.480 There's fewer butterflies, fewer bees when you're out in nature, 0:10:39.480 --> 0:10:41.910 not here in the American prairie, of course, but is 0:10:41.910 --> 0:10:44.610 that a direct effect of that 45% loss? 0:10:45.150 --> 0:10:47.970 Yeah, I mean, we've seen a dramatic decline in natural 0:10:47.970 --> 0:10:51.689 habitats all around the world. I mean, the human population 0:10:51.690 --> 0:10:55.140 is expanding, people need places to live, we need to 0:10:55.140 --> 0:10:57.780 grow food to eat. So those things have to happen, 0:10:57.780 --> 0:10:59.850 but we need to start doing those things in a 0:10:59.850 --> 0:11:03.210 smarter way and realizing that we have to do those 0:11:03.210 --> 0:11:06.390 things in harmony with nature rather than seeing nature as 0:11:06.390 --> 0:11:09.630 a never- ending resource that will just keep being there 0:11:09.630 --> 0:11:12.630 or keep bouncing back. We actually need to be supporting 0:11:12.750 --> 0:11:15.540 nature. And one of the ways we're doing that is 0:11:15.540 --> 0:11:18.360 through seed banking so that we're buying time for these 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.750 species, which are feeling a load of pressures in their 0:11:21.750 --> 0:11:26.130 natural environments. And we have had partners who go out 0:11:26.130 --> 0:11:29.070 on a collecting trip, and something that they rescued earlier 0:11:29.070 --> 0:11:32.189 in the year, they go back, and it's gone. They 0:11:32.190 --> 0:11:35.130 can't make that collection, and that happens more and more 0:11:35.130 --> 0:11:40.230 frequently, unfortunately. We do have wonderful moments as well where 0:11:40.230 --> 0:11:43.470 they discover plants that have never been described by science. 0:11:43.470 --> 0:11:45.750 So it can work both ways, and I think that's 0:11:45.750 --> 0:11:50.130 the beauty of seed banking and this collaborative work around 0:11:50.130 --> 0:11:53.490 the world is, its discovery. There's always something new to 0:11:53.490 --> 0:11:57.630 learn, and these experts are just giving all of their 0:11:57.630 --> 0:12:02.280 time and their knowledge and their passion to making sure that 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.250 we have the best possible outcomes for plants going forward 0:12:05.250 --> 0:12:05.790 as we can. 0:12:06.120 --> 0:12:10.319 The Millennium Seed Bank is the largest ex situ wild 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:14.040 plant conservation program in the world. When you say " wild 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.410 seeds," what do you actually mean? 0:12:16.500 --> 0:12:19.320 Yeah, so it means that they're seeds that have been 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.100 collected from their natural habitat, so where they would normally 0:12:23.100 --> 0:12:25.199 grow. So this is why we work with partners all 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.020 around the world to help them conserve their native floras. 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:33.330 And that's very different to going to an agricultural setting 0:12:33.330 --> 0:12:36.300 and taking cultivated material, which are the seeds that you'd 0:12:36.300 --> 0:12:39.120 buy in the packets in the garden shop. And it also 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.820 means that you are conserving a huge amount of diversity 0:12:41.820 --> 0:12:45.809 because these plants in their natural habitats are adapting to 0:12:45.809 --> 0:12:49.829 thrive and survive in these changing conditions. And so by 0:12:49.920 --> 0:12:55.079 capturing seeds from populations across that species' natural range, you 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:57.990 can capture all of this diversity. And the amazing thing 0:12:57.990 --> 0:13:00.240 about seed banking is that you can store all of that in a 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.689 really small space, and for a relatively low cost. I 0:13:03.690 --> 0:13:06.420 mean, it's a relatively low- tech, simple solution to a 0:13:06.420 --> 0:13:07.380 really big problem. 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.340 How much has the mission changed in that 25 years? 0:13:11.550 --> 0:13:13.860 It was so state-of- the- art and cutting- edge, but 0:13:13.860 --> 0:13:17.370 also the future probably seemed much further away than it 0:13:17.370 --> 0:13:19.110 does here and now. 0:13:19.710 --> 0:13:21.690 I mean, when it first opened, there was more of 0:13:21.690 --> 0:13:25.110 an acquisition phase. We were just trying to get plants 0:13:25.470 --> 0:13:28.050 to be prevented from extinction, get the seeds into the 0:13:28.050 --> 0:13:31.050 bank, and know they were safe. But then as we 0:13:31.050 --> 0:13:33.240 got more and more species in, that allowed us to 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:37.290 understand more and more plants and their ecology, and actually this 0:13:37.290 --> 0:13:39.689 information that we get through germinating the seed and the 0:13:39.690 --> 0:13:42.870 data that we're amassing from the field when we collect 0:13:42.870 --> 0:13:46.350 the seeds and all of the processing is really, really important 0:13:46.350 --> 0:13:51.090 for restoration. And we are then using these seeds. You know it is a bank; 0:13:51.090 --> 0:13:53.550 you make deposits and withdrawals, right? So the seeds are 0:13:53.550 --> 0:13:55.440 coming back out of the bank. It's not their end 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.850 resting place. And the real focus is on supporting active 0:13:59.880 --> 0:14:05.309 ecological restoration programs in spaces where the environment is stable 0:14:05.309 --> 0:14:07.679 enough to be putting these rare and threatened plants back 0:14:07.679 --> 0:14:11.070 into the landscape and that they will still be there 0:14:11.070 --> 0:14:12.420 in 10, 20 years' time. 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:14.340 The times where I've been in the seed bank, there's 0:14:14.340 --> 0:14:18.089 invariably been students and researchers from all around the world. 0:14:18.090 --> 0:14:19.680 Is it important for them to come here? 0:14:19.860 --> 0:14:22.260 We have really close relationships with our partners, and actually 0:14:22.260 --> 0:14:24.420 Australia's a really good case in point because we've been 0:14:24.420 --> 0:14:27.870 working with them since 2000. During that time we've helped 0:14:27.870 --> 0:14:30.750 develop a wild plant seed bank in every state and 0:14:30.750 --> 0:14:34.020 territory in Australia, and they've now formed their own Australian 0:14:34.020 --> 0:14:37.020 seed bank partnership. So that's kind of the journey that 0:14:37.020 --> 0:14:38.790 we want to go on with all of our partners. 0:14:39.150 --> 0:14:42.570 We provide training, we provide resources. Initially we might provide 0:14:42.630 --> 0:14:44.400 some funding to get them out to the field and 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:48.120 make those initial collections and help them start, but the 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:50.970 idea is for them all to stand on their own and be 0:14:51.630 --> 0:14:54.540 organizations who can manage their own floras. 0:14:55.140 --> 0:14:57.930 We'll come back to Australia later, but we're having this 0:14:57.930 --> 0:15:01.140 conversation, as I mentioned earlier, in the middle of an 0:15:01.140 --> 0:15:06.180 American prairie landscape in the middle of Sussex. It's a 0:15:06.180 --> 0:15:08.489 landscape that's made up of seeds that are collected from 0:15:08.490 --> 0:15:11.370 the USA and brought back here to Wakehurst. 0:15:11.730 --> 0:15:13.739 The horticultural team went out to the states and made 0:15:13.740 --> 0:15:17.040 collections from existing prairies over there so that we had 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.920 that authentic seed mix to put into the prairie land 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:23.580 here. But we've also got those rare, threatened, endangered species 0:15:23.910 --> 0:15:26.670 which we collected. We've got in the seed bank, grew 0:15:26.670 --> 0:15:30.060 on, and then have mixed in to this kind of 0:15:30.060 --> 0:15:34.710 mosaic of planting here. So that visitors could engage with 0:15:34.710 --> 0:15:38.460 that story and understand that plants in all corners of 0:15:38.460 --> 0:15:41.490 the world are under threat, but they're beautiful and create 0:15:41.490 --> 0:15:44.760 these amazing landscapes that we want to be in and 0:15:45.300 --> 0:15:47.880 just make us feel happier. And then it has the 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:49.590 links to the seed bank as well, and I love 0:15:49.590 --> 0:15:53.400 that about Wakehurst is that there's so much collaboration between 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.790 the seed bank and what's going on in the landscape. 0:15:56.850 --> 0:15:59.910 It's more than 50% of the plants in the Wakehurst landscape 0:16:00.030 --> 0:16:03.450 have been grown from seed that have been collected from 0:16:03.450 --> 0:16:04.380 all around the world. 0:16:06.030 --> 0:16:09.390 Now a seed holds so much potential. But there are 0:16:09.390 --> 0:16:12.330 also many different types of seeds, and as we've heard, 0:16:12.450 --> 0:16:15.060 what sets the Millennium Seed Bank apart is the fact 0:16:15.060 --> 0:16:18.810 that every single seed banked here is wild. 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:20.850 I guess the unique selling point of the Millennium Seed 0:16:20.850 --> 0:16:23.940 Bank is that we're a wild species seed bank. So 0:16:24.150 --> 0:16:27.420 in general, we don't bank domesticated crop seeds. Our role 0:16:27.420 --> 0:16:29.880 is to collect the wild and then make them available. 0:16:29.910 --> 0:16:32.070 So that was what the project was all about, was 0:16:32.070 --> 0:16:33.870 making those seeds available for breeders. 0:16:34.170 --> 0:16:38.100 This is Dr. Chris Cockel. He's now the UK's conservation 0:16:38.100 --> 0:16:42.420 projects coordinator at MSB. But before that, he headed up 0:16:42.420 --> 0:16:45.840 a project that focused on collecting the wild relatives of 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:48.570 crops that you and I would think of as food. 0:16:49.500 --> 0:16:53.040 Now for many of those species, there's very little family 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:54.450 resemblance that remains. 0:16:55.620 --> 0:16:59.400 So what we have here are some wild banana seeds. 0:17:00.300 --> 0:17:04.050 They're quite large, half a centimeter across perhaps, and the 0:17:04.050 --> 0:17:06.060 banana those came from were very small. So there's a 0:17:06.060 --> 0:17:10.530 misconception, I guess, that bananas come from the Caribbean. They 0:17:10.530 --> 0:17:14.609 were collected in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand. So what we have 0:17:14.609 --> 0:17:19.890 here is a wild banana plant from Vietnam, and this 0:17:19.890 --> 0:17:23.580 was grown from seed, from 2016, and the seeds came 0:17:23.580 --> 0:17:27.300 from one of our partners for the Adapting Agriculture to 0:17:27.300 --> 0:17:31.409 Climate Change project. The main difference you'll see between a 0:17:31.410 --> 0:17:34.590 wild banana plant and a cultivated banana plant is the 0:17:34.590 --> 0:17:39.389 fruit actually. Part of the domestication process, including with bananas, 0:17:39.450 --> 0:17:43.950 is that humans have over millennia created fruit and vegetables 0:17:43.950 --> 0:17:46.830 that are palatable, that are edible, that are high- yielding. 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:49.740 So in the case of the wild banana plant, the 0:17:49.740 --> 0:17:53.129 fruit is much smaller and it's full of seeds, whereas 0:17:53.190 --> 0:17:57.540 the domesticated Cavendish banana, the ones from the supermarket, it 0:17:57.540 --> 0:18:00.480 doesn't have seeds in it because they're all generated from clones. 0:18:00.750 --> 0:18:02.459 And what you see in the center of the Cavendish 0:18:02.460 --> 0:18:04.980 banana is just the remnant of seeds, and also there's 0:18:04.980 --> 0:18:06.629 a lot of flesh that you can eat, whereas in 0:18:06.630 --> 0:18:09.119 the wild banana, there's virtually nothing that you would think 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:11.070 you would want to eat in there. These plants are 0:18:11.070 --> 0:18:15.750 not genetically modified. They are the product of, as I 0:18:15.750 --> 0:18:19.710 say, millennia of traditional breeding methods where farmers have taken 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.190 different varieties and crossed them with one another to bring 0:18:23.190 --> 0:18:26.250 out the traits that we want in terms of yield 0:18:26.310 --> 0:18:31.590 and size, taste. There's something called the genetic bottleneck, where 0:18:31.590 --> 0:18:34.590 you've come from a very broad genetic base to a 0:18:34.590 --> 0:18:37.859 very narrow genetic base, and this makes the domesticated crops 0:18:38.190 --> 0:18:41.129 vulnerable to pests and diseases and to changes in climate. 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:46.320 It's taken human ingenuity to evolve edible fruits and vegetables 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.859 as we know and consume them today, but the same 0:18:49.859 --> 0:18:54.450 processes that increase their attractiveness to us as food also 0:18:54.450 --> 0:18:59.670 makes them vulnerable to an increasingly threatening future. However, there 0:18:59.670 --> 0:19:03.570 are potential solutions to that problem within the wider family tree. 0:19:04.950 --> 0:19:07.170 There are also still the wild relatives that are out 0:19:07.290 --> 0:19:09.660 in the wild, and they contain a lot of adaptive 0:19:09.660 --> 0:19:12.930 traits that have been lost in the domesticated crops. So that's 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.359 what we're trying to capture when we're collecting the seeds 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:18.869 of these wild species. There's a scale between wild and 0:19:18.869 --> 0:19:22.230 domesticated, so we're now at the fully domesticated. There are 0:19:22.230 --> 0:19:25.230 intermediate stages as well, semi- domesticated, and these are called 0:19:25.230 --> 0:19:28.830 heritage varieties. And then there's the truly wild, and the 0:19:28.830 --> 0:19:31.890 further away from the domesticated you get, the more difficult 0:19:31.890 --> 0:19:34.590 it is to breed those wild ones with the domesticated 0:19:34.590 --> 0:19:36.990 because they're almost different species. In some cases they are 0:19:36.990 --> 0:19:37.560 different species. 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.939 These are called crop wild relatives, and they're really important. 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:44.490 The important thing about the crop wild relatives is that 0:19:44.910 --> 0:19:48.510 we can take those adaptive traits, and through traditional breeding 0:19:48.510 --> 0:19:51.420 methods, we can breed back into the domesticated crops some 0:19:51.420 --> 0:19:55.320 of those important traits that have been lost. And by reintroducing 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:57.990 some of those lost wild traits, you can make our 0:19:57.990 --> 0:20:01.290 domesticated crops more capable to withstand the different pressures they're 0:20:01.290 --> 0:20:02.490 going to face in the future. 0:20:03.450 --> 0:20:05.909 So much of the work of the partnership projects of 0:20:05.910 --> 0:20:09.330 the Millennium Seed Bank are future facing and will focus 0:20:09.330 --> 0:20:12.570 specifically on the work going on in order to future- 0:20:12.570 --> 0:20:17.250 proof in episode three. But for now, let's step back 0:20:17.250 --> 0:20:20.159 in time, not as far back as the dawn of 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:24.990 agriculture before crops were ever domesticated, but to the early 0:20:24.990 --> 0:20:31.710 1970s, when it was agricultural industry itself that inspired an idea. 0:20:33.030 --> 0:20:37.410 Looking back, what we were actually doing was seeing how 0:20:37.410 --> 0:20:41.670 much of the technology that they used in crops to 0:20:41.670 --> 0:20:49.650 conserve seeds could be successfully applied to undomesticated, wild plants. 0:20:50.220 --> 0:20:54.930 And it was a case of then beg, stealing, borrowing 0:20:54.930 --> 0:21:00.388 ideas to solve the problems that we had of seed storage. 0:21:00.929 --> 0:21:04.230 This is Roger Smith; he's one of the founding fathers 0:21:04.230 --> 0:21:08.070 of the Millennium Seed Bank. And now decades later, he's 0:21:08.070 --> 0:21:11.160 striding over to meet us in a brightly colored stripy 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.649 jumper, with a mysterious smile. 0:21:13.980 --> 0:21:20.460 I came in 1974 as the seed collector, and then 0:21:20.460 --> 0:21:25.050 I became the head of the seed bank project in 2000. 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.010 We talked to him back outside the old stone mansion 0:21:29.220 --> 0:21:30.300 where it all began. 0:21:30.750 --> 0:21:36.419 At Kew, they had a refrigerated collection of seeds, which 0:21:36.420 --> 0:21:41.100 they used to share with other botanic gardens, and it was 0:21:41.220 --> 0:21:44.340 big enough when it did come down here to go 0:21:44.340 --> 0:21:49.410 into the boot of a Ford Cortina; that's how it 0:21:49.410 --> 0:21:54.630 was transported down. And it went into the chapel. So 0:21:54.630 --> 0:21:57.480 if you like, the chapel changed from saving souls to 0:21:57.480 --> 0:21:58.770 saving seeds. 0:21:59.550 --> 0:22:02.879 But the job of saving seeds was new and it 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:04.260 was not straightforward. 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:09.210 So we were covering everything from " Can you actually collect 0:22:09.210 --> 0:22:14.369 these seeds," and then insufficient number. Then we had to learn how 0:22:14.369 --> 0:22:18.449 to clean seeds so that you ended up with just 0:22:18.450 --> 0:22:23.490 seeds and not seeds and bits of rubbish because you're 0:22:23.490 --> 0:22:27.060 trying to get the smallest volume that you can of 0:22:27.060 --> 0:22:30.240 viable seeds. The other thing you can't do is damage 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.690 the seeds. And we had a few experiments in there 0:22:33.690 --> 0:22:37.920 where we did end up with flour, rather than seeds. 0:22:38.010 --> 0:22:40.710 It was learning just like that as you went along; 0:22:40.710 --> 0:22:44.250 not one question off, move on to the next. At 0:22:44.250 --> 0:22:48.210 the same time we learned keeping them in the building, 0:22:48.570 --> 0:22:52.080 in the open, they would die or begin to die 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.020 in a couple of years. So you had to find out 0:22:55.140 --> 0:22:59.250 how to keep them dry and viable. And then when 0:22:59.250 --> 0:23:01.950 you've got the seeds, you've then got to learn how 0:23:01.950 --> 0:23:06.960 to germinate them to turn them back into plants because 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:10.650 if you can't turn them back into plants, then what 0:23:10.650 --> 0:23:14.100 was the point? And so it goes on, and never- 0:23:14.100 --> 0:23:18.149