These Seeds Are Bananas: Kew Bank Reaches 10 Percent

China's yunnan banana, a pinkish-green fruit favored by wild Asian elephants, has been introduced to England. Or more specifically, to Kew Garden's Millennium Seed Bank as the collection's 24,200th wild plant species. The new cache brings Kew to its initial stockpiling goal: holding 10 per cent of the world's known wild plant species.

When I think of seed banks, though, the Svalbard International Seed Vault usually comes to mind -- the famous "doomsday vault" tucked away in Norway's mountains. The Svalbard locale and the vault's ability to withstand a nearby nuclear strike leave me with the impression that seed banks are ominous facilities ready for a post-apocalyptic Earth. And that's the point of Svalbard: We'll still have it should any of the world's (many) other seed banks fail.

But Kew's bank gives off a different impression entirely. For one thing, it's at Wakehurst Place in Sussex; there are lovely manicured grounds studded with pagodas, glasshouses and tourists. It's also set up to focus on wild seeds -- instead of crops like Svalbard -- consolidating the world's bounty to one spot where researchers can study plants' medicinal properties or their ability to withstand climate change.

New Scientist, which also profiled the 10 percent milestone, has an interactive feature on the bank's cold storage bunker. Instead of the stainless steel Nordic facilities I image in Svalbard, Kew's setup looks decidedly homey (if your home were a super-organized stockroom). The large quantities of seeds fill rubber-sealed glass jars, kind of like an oversized spice rack. It reminded me a little of the BFG's shelf of bottled dreams (that's the Big Friendly Giant, for folks who missed out on Roald Dahl).

The Kew seed bank won't be resting on its nongerminated laurels, though. The collection has until 2020 to meet its next target: holding seeds for 25 percent of the world's wild plants.

Image: The seeds are kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius to preserve them for hundreds of years. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images)