Seed Saver

After high school, I hadn’t really found my passion yet. I went to community college and eventually got a part-time job in a store specializing in botanical medicines. I learned so much there. I decided to go back to school and get a degree in biology. I loved ecology and conservation classes where we studied plants outside. After that, I never looked back.

The situation here is pretty dire. We’ve been called the extinction capital of the world. Hawaii makes up less than 1 percent of the total land of the U.S. But it has almost half of the nation’s endangered plant species. There are more than 230 plant species in Hawaii that have fewer than 50 individuals remaining in the wild. Many are single-island endemics, which means they’re found only on one island and nowhere else in the world.

One reason so many Hawaiian plants are endangered or extinct is the arrival of nonnative species. Animals from other parts of the world, like rats, goats, and pigs, eat plants and disturb habitats. They’re a big threat to Hawaii’s native species. For example, the only place certain plants can survive is clinging to the edge of a cliff where goats can’t reach them.

We conduct vegetation surveys—on foot and using drones—so we know where specific plants can be found and when they’ll produce ripe fruit containing seeds. Records from our collections help with this as well. I do some seed collection myself. Sometimes I fly out to remote places in a helicopter, or I may hike for a whole day to reach a particular plant. Some plants grow in places that are pretty treacherous, where the terrain is steep, with loose rocks or soil. For the most extreme locations, experienced field botanists rappel off cliffs on a rope to collect seeds.

A seed’s viability—it’s ability to germinate, or sprout—starts to decline as soon as we collect it. My job is to understand that decline and slow it down.

First, we desiccate, or dry, fresh seeds. Then we seal them in three-layer foil pouches and cool them for storage. We’re experimenting with freezing seeds quickly with liquid nitrogen (N2), which prevents damaging ice crystals from forming.

The building where we house our seeds also helps protect them. It’s concrete with bulletproof glass windows and is built to resist Category 4 hurricanes. We have wireless sensors in our storage facilities. I get alerts on my phone if anything gets too cold, too warm, too wet, or too dry.

We periodically test stored seeds’ viability as well. If too few germinate, we know it’s time to get fresh seeds for that species. Any seeds that do grow are planted in the wild when possible.

I love doing fieldwork outdoors. For a long time, I didn’t know there were jobs were I could get to go camping and hiking as part of my work. It’s great.