Millennium Seed Bank

In 2000, a field in Sussex became home to a unique project: the Millennium Seed Bank.

25 years, and over 2.5 billion seeds, later we've created a haven containing seeds from more than 40,000 different plant species.

Enter our glass atrium to see our scientists at work in front of your very eyes. You can track the journey of a seed in our laboratories, discover our Carbon Garden from our stand at COP26; and explore the future of seeds with our interactive Surviving or Thriving exhibition.

"Perhaps the most significant conservation initiative ever" - Sir David Attenborough

Visit the Millennium Seed Bank yourself to see scientists at work processing and studying seeds to help protect and restore global biodiversity.

Find the Millennium Seed Bank at markers 1 to 2 on our Map of Wakehurst.

A banner showing the unearthed need for seeds banner, with an image of cate blanchett

Unearthed: The need for seeds

A special series of Kew’s award-winning podcast with Ambassador for Wakehurst, Cate Blanchett celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Millennium Seed Bank.

Listen now

Seeds stored at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, Wolfgang Stuppy © RBG Kew

Millennium Seed Bank Guided Tours

Hear from our expert guides on why the MSB is one of the most important conservation efforts in the world.

Learn more

Surviving or Thriving

A specially-curated exhibition about the state of the world’s plants and what this means for us.

Learn more

AI Explainer

A new AI powered exhibit will answer your questions about the work of the Millennium Seed Bank.

Why do we bank seeds?

With an estimated 45% of flowering plant species at risk of extinction, it’s a race against time to protect our incredible plant life.

By storing seeds ex situ (away from their natural habitat) and supporting seed banks in countries around the globe, we are giving a safe home to some of the world’s most threatened plants.

It means that we can research the best ways to germinate these seeds, sharing our knowledge to help others to reintroduce plants back into the wild or use them for scientific research finding future foods or medicines.

Thanks to the tireless work of Kew scientists and partners, we have nearly all the UK’s native plant species preserved in our seed bank.

"The Millennium Seed Bank is a beacon of hope and international cooperation at a time when we’ve never needed it more." - Cate Blanchett, Wakehurst ambassador

Two doors open to the collections of the Millennium Seed Bank

Take a virtual tour of the most biodiverse place on the planet

Explore the Millennium Seed Bank from home. With Google Street View, you can take a walkthrough the vaults and our labs.

Peer into our labs

Explore the seed vaults

Discover the MSB on Google Arts and Culture

Two researchers in the x-ray room within the MSB

Seed science & partners

Discover our global Partnership and our seed biology labs

The Millennium Seed Bank Partnership

Seed Biology Laboratories

Where do we collect seeds from?

Our scientists and their partners collect seeds from some of the most extreme and familiar landscapes. Seed collections are stored in the country where they were collected, and a part of the collection is sent to the MSB for safety backup.

We prioritise:

Plants with seeds that can tolerate being dried and frozen
Areas vulnerable to climate change: alpine, dryland, coastal and island ecosystems
Plants that are useful for livelihoods and economies
Plants that are relatives of those that we eat
Plants that are endemic to that location (not found anywhere else)
Plants that are threatened in the wild.

Many of the plants grown in Wakehurst’s botanic garden started their life in this very place. Both the American Prairie and the future Silk Road Steppe feature plants grown from Millennium Seed Bank material.