Seed-Bank
Seed Bank
Established in the 1930s, the seed department of the Institute of Botany at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia played a pivotal role in seed collection and exchange. Unfortunately, following the dissolutions of the USSR, the seed department ceased its operations.
Seed collection activities at the institute were reinstated in the late 1990s. In 2005, the Institute of Botany at the National Academy of Sciences initiated the establishment of the Seed Bank with a primary objective to build a comprehensive collection of seeds from various representatives of Armenia’s flora while also safeguarding the seeds of rare and endangered species in ex situ (outside of the natural environment) conditions. The scientific expeditions conducted collaboratively with ICARDA in Armenia, Tajikistan, and Georgia from 2005 to 2010 played a pivotal role in the enrichment of the collection.
In 2011, the Institute of Botany initiated collaboration with the Millennium Seed Bank (MSBP, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew) and established the Seed Bank of Armenian Flora (SBAF).
Through collaboration with the Millennium Seed Bank and the Berlin Botanical Garden, the Seed Bank of Armenian Flora has been furnished with essential equipment, enabling the implementation of state-of-the-art methods for long-term seed storage (at 20°C and 15% relative humidity of seeds) and facilitating the assessment of seed viability.
The Seed Bank of Armenian Flora (SBAF) preserves around 2,700 specimens representing 1,620 species across 120 families and 630 genera. Notably, 90 of these species are classified as red book species.
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