“The total count over these years of conservation has now reached eight million seeds,” said Violeta Olivan, the facility’s manager adding that it is the “only seed bank on the archipelago, which brings together species and subspecies from the nine Azorean islands.”
The Azores Seed Bank was set up in 2003, at the Faial Botanical Gardens, in order to collect and keep a collection of viable seeds for the rarest and most threatened species in the Azores (trees, plants and bushes).
The Spanish biologist gave the example of “Myosotis azorica”, which “only grows on the island of Flores and Corvo and is at risk of disappearing, as it has very small populations,” but thanks to the work of the Seed Bank it was possible to preserve it.