Terrific Trees

The Millennium Seed Bank is an underground treasure trove of 2.4 billion seeds from across the world, safeguarded for the future.

This amazing tree Wollemia nobilis, known as a ‘living fossil’, is the only remaining representative of an ancient genus dating back over 65 million years, to the time of the dinosaurs. A living population of these trees was found in the Wollemi National Park, Australia. 

In the wild, the remaining individual numbers of Wollemi pine are very low. It is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List, due to its very restricted distribution. A collection of seeds of this species have been held at the Millennium Seed Bank since 2007.

The maidenhair tree is listed as Endangered (E) in the IUCN Red List. There are two seed collections banked in the MSB, taken from the trees planted at Kew. One living tree at Kew survives from the original botanic garden established by Princess Augusta in 1759.

Trochetiopsis ebenus is endemic to St. Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean. In the wild it is restricted to a very small area and was thought to be extinct until 1980. It is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List.  

Sequoia sempervirens are some of the tallest trees in the world, measuring over 100m high. The species is long lived, with some individuals estimated to be 1200 – 2200 years old.  Endemic to the USA (California and Oregon), it is listed as Endangered (E) on the IUCN Red List.

Sequoiadendron giganteum is the largest tree species by volume and includes some of the oldest trees on Earth (over 3000 years old). It has distinctive spongy red bark up to 60cm thick and the species can reach up to 95m in height and 12m in diameter.