Millennium Seed Bank
As we celebrate 25 years of seed banking, learn how we use our collections to combat biodiversity loss and climate change through scientific research while restoring habitats with our global partners.
This year, we celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst.
In 2000, a field in Sussex became home to a unique project to create a bank of seeds from as many different species as possible to safeguard them for the future.
25 years, and over 2.5 billion seeds later, we've created a haven containing seeds from more than 40,000 different plant species. We've collected seeds from plants across the world in collaboration with over 275 partners in nearly 100 countries and territories, helping them to set up seed banks in their own countries and training staff in this vital work.
This year we're looking back at how the Millennium Seed Bank has evolved over a quarter of a century. But we're also looking to the future.
Today, the MSB is more important than ever as we withdraw seeds to be used in vital regeneration programmes where disasters such as wildfires and diseases have destroyed forests and other habitats. We're also investigating new ways to store seeds using groundbreaking cryopreservation techniques for those seeds that simply won't survive in the freezer.
"Perhaps the most significant conservation initiative ever..." - Sir David Attenborough
Visit the Millennium Seed Bank yourself to see scientists at work processing and studying seeds to help protect and restore global biodiversity.
Find the Millennium Seed Bank at markers 1 to 2 on our Map of Wakehurst.
Seeds Future Fund
Together with our Ambassador, Cate Blanchett, we have launched a Seeds Future Fund that will enable the next 25 years of the Seed Bank's impact including ecological restoration, the conservation of threatened species and critical research. Support us to unlock the full power of the Millennium Seed Bank for people and the planet.
A year of events
Join us at Wakehurst throughout this anniversary year as we celebrate all things seeds.
Included with entry | Exhibitions
Seedscapes
A summer exhibition of art, sculpture, and sound, inspired by the Millennium Seed Bank on its 25th anniversary.
4 July to 14 September 2025
Family friendly | Accessible
Nature Heroes
Join our superhero squad, learn a new skill every half term and become a hero for the natural world.
Half terms and school holidays
Family friendly | Evenings | Food and drink
Glow Wild
Wakehurst's magical Christmas light trail returns for 2025.
Selected evenings, 27 November 2025 to 3 January 2026
Why do we bank seeds?
With an estimated 45% of flowering plant species at risk of extinction, it’s a race against time to protect our incredible plant life.
By storing seeds ex situ (away from their natural habitat) and supporting seed banks in countries around the globe, we are giving a safe home to some of the world’s most threatened plants.
It means that we can research the best ways to germinate these seeds, sharing our knowledge to help others to reintroduce plants back into the wild or use them for scientific research finding future foods or medicines.
Thanks to the tireless work of Kew scientists and partners, we have nearly all the UK’s native plant species preserved in our seed bank.
"The Millennium Seed Bank is a beacon of hope and international cooperation at a time when we’ve never needed it more." - Cate Blanchett, Wakehurst ambassador
Where do we collect seeds from?
The MSB is the largest, most diverse wild plant species genetic resource in the world; a fantastic result of contributions from over 100 countries since 2000.
Our scientists and their partners collect seeds from some of the most extreme and familiar landscapes. Seed collections are stored in the country where they were collected, and a part of the collection is sent to the MSB for safety backup.
We prioritise:
- Plants with seeds that can tolerate being dried and frozen
- Areas vulnerable to climate change: alpine, dryland, coastal and island ecosystems
- Plants that are useful for livelihoods and economies
- Plants that are relatives of to those that we eat
- Plants that are endemic to that location (not found anywhere else)
- Plants that are threatened in the wild.
Many of the plants grown in Wakehurst’s botanic garden started their life in this very place. Both the American Prairie and the future Silk Road Steppe feature plants grown from Millennium Seed Bank material.
Read & watch
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