Kew Gardens (that is, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew) is trying to collect and bank the seeds and pollen from 10% of the world's plants -- a nice 21st-century continuation of the stunning collecting effort that started in the 1700s and helped supply evidence, via Joseph Dalton Hooker, that proved crucial to Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection. The Guardian has put up a nice photo gallery of some of the seeds they've collected so far. A few:
Seed of wild spider flower (or spider wisp) Photo: Rob Kesseler & Madeline Harley
Himalayan iris pollen. Photo: Rob Kesseler & Madeline Harley
Sand milkwort seed. Photo: Rob Kesseler & Madeline Harley
More at "Escape pods: The Kew Millenium Seed Bank"
Hat tip: Daily Dish
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Crazy how much that second one looks like a virus or a buckyball. These are fantastic!
Nice pictures, but Iris pollen isn't a seed, it's pollen, the endosporic male gametophyte, and so that image is magnified many more times than the others.
I thought you should know that you have credited my images incorrectly. Image 1 should read Rob Kesseler & Wolfgang Stuppy (not Madeline Harley). Image 3 should also read Rob Kesseler and Wolfgang Stuppy not MH. Could you tell me where you got the images from as they are obviously incorrect and I would like to sort out the error.
Thanks,
Rob Kesseler
Hi, I thought you should know you have credited my images incorrectly. Image 1 Spider flower and image 3 Sand milkwort should both be credited to : Rob Kesseler and Wolfgang Stuppy and not Madeline Harley. Could you let me know where you got the images from as I would like to sort out the error.
Many thanks,
Rob Kesseler