A seed bank can safeguard a plant’s future. Helping that plant grow again requires another kind of care: knowing where its seeds came from, how to germinate them, and who can provide them.
On October 13, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew launched SeedPOD, a free online platform designed to bring that information together.
For people restoring damaged habitats, finding suitable native seeds can mean searching across institutions and disconnected records. SeedPOD allows participating collections to share information about seed origins, availability, viability, and growing methods.
The platform also gives smaller seed banks a way to make their collections visible without building their own websites. It supports multiple languages and is designed for places with limited internet bandwidth.
More collections and records are still being added. The promise is practical: helping carefully preserved seeds—and the knowledge gathered around them—reach people working to bring landscapes back to life.
