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Big red sage is only one of nearly 700 species that are being preserved by the Wildflower Center’s seed bank. Some of the seeds are kept just for reference on what seeds of different species look like.
However, about 500 species are live, and preserved in a freezer that is kept at -21 degrees.
The Wildflower Center started its collection around 2001, and they've been building it ever since then. Its purpose is to collect, conserve, and develop native plant materials for stabilizing, rehabilitating and restoring lands in Texas and in the U.S.
Dr. Alex McClellan is the new Seed Bank Coordinator at the Wildflower Center. One of his primary responsibilities is collecting seeds in the field and overseeing volunteers who do the seed cleaning.
But soon, he and a seed technician will also be conducting germination trials on specimens from the seed bank.
“For a lot of these plants that we're working with, we don't know what kind of conditions they may require to germinate,” McClellan said. “A lot of seeds can have what’s called dormancy, where they need some kind of treatment to get them to wake up.”
He said there are a lot of different mechanisms that underlie the dormancy of the seeds of different species. Some just require different temperatures or a cycle of temperatures, some just need to be scarified - a process of chipping or scratching the seed coat to allow moisture to get in.
“It's tricky because for a lot of these plants, no one really knows whether they have dormancy, what kind of dormancy it is, or what kind of things they require,” McClellan said.
In the end, the goal of the germination trials is to figure out if the seeds in storage are still viable. While some seeds, under ideal conditions, could last for centuries, other seeds might only last a few years. With seeds like that, it might be better to regrow the plants every year and collect fresh seeds.
“Ideally for us, we want something that is quick to do, so we can assess if the seeds are still good,” McClellan said. “But we also have to make sure that we keep good records and have a well organized and stable place to keep these seeds for the future.”
More information on the seed bank, and on big red sage, can be found on the Wildflower Center’s website at www.wildflower. org.
