Warwick’s UK Vegetable Genebank supports National Collection of Heritage Vegetables
Seeds from an ‘enduring’ Irish heritage onion gifted to the University of Warwick UK Vegetable Genebank (UKVGB) in the 1980s have been welcomed into the Heritage Seed Library’s National Collection of Heritage Vegetables. The Heritage Seed Library (HSL) maintains the national collection of heritage and heirloom vegetables.
Seeds from the onion ‘Buan’ were gifted to the UKVGB after being brought back from near extinction by the Irish Seed Savers in the 1980s. To mark the occasion of the HSL’s 50th anniversary, the Head of UKVGB, Dr Charlotte Allender, visited the Library to add the onion seeds to their National Collection of Heritage Vegetables.
“The old Irish name ‘Buan’ translates to ‘long-life’ or ‘lasting/enduring’ which seems very appropriate as we’re celebrating the lasting legacy of our Heritage Seed Library,” said HSL head, Catrina Fenton. “We’re absolutely delighted to be partnering with the UKVGB to welcome this unique and rare onion from the island of Ireland – and hope to share it with members in the coming years.
The UKVGB has had a long-standing partnership with the HSL over the last 50 years, by taking duplicates of its seeds as an ‘insurance policy’ and freezing them in its cold vaults.
Dr Charlotte Allender said: "The UK Vegetable Genebank is delighted to have played a role in the long-term conservation of a heritage onion like Buan, and to work with the Heritage Seed Library and other groups to ensure that the diversity Buan and others represent remain available into the future.”
Warwick UKVGB is supporting the HSL’s two-year project ‘Sowing your Seeds: Heritage Crops for a Resilient Future’, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project aims to conserve and pass on precious community vegetable varieties and seed stories in the Midlands, and the UKVGB has provided information and seed samples from its frozen store for HSL to grow.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For more information please contact:
Ann Baylis, Media and Communications Officer
ann.baylis@warwick.ac.uk | +44 (0) 7425 722087
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About the UK Vegetable Genebank
The UKVGB at the University of Warwick is supported by the UK Government and works to conserve genetic diversity in vegetable crops. Vegetable crops are vital to diets that are both healthy and environmentally sustainable. Plant breeders need access to new sources of genetic variation to develop varieties that are able to meet present and future challenges. The UKVGB collections contain approximately 14,000 samples of vegetable crop seed. This enables plant breeders and researchers to access the widest range of diversity possible.
About the Heritage Seed Library
The Heritage Seed Library was established in 1975 in Bocking, Essex, by organic gardening pioneer and Garden Organic founder Lawrence D. Hills. He had the foresight to realise that changes in seed legislation would mean hundreds, if not thousands, of vegetable varieties could be lost. This living library, now housed at Ryton Organic Gardens, near Coventry, is managed by sustainable charity Garden Organic and looked after by its members and volunteers. It holds more than 800 seed varieties.
In the knowledge that climate change could wipe out some vegetable varieties for ever. The HSL needs to build resilience by preserving these seeds which are collected from different areas of the UK and adapted to local conditions. The wider the variety of vegetable seeds conserved and grown the more resilient our food system becomes. The HSL not only conserves but also shares its collection with members - and also Seed Guardians, who grow the seed and return their saved seeds to the library each year.
For more information visit www.gardenorganic.org.uk/HSL, or follow @heritageseedlibrary on Facebook and Instagram.