Seed 'ark' preserves plant diversity

FRAMINGHAM, Massachusetts - An ordinary-looking freezer in a sturdy cinder block shed at a suburban Boston botanical garden holds what might be New England's most important seed catalog.

Inside the freezer in Framingham are tightly sealed packages containing an estimated 6 million seeds from hundreds of plant species, bearing obscure or hard-to-pronounce names like potentilla robbinsiana. They are rare varieties of plant life native to the region - in some cases found nowhere else in the world - and are in grave danger of vanishing from the landscape.

The "seed ark", as it's playfully dubbed by the New England Wild Flower Society, is not unlike Noah's biblical vessel in its quest to preserve from calamity a rich diversity of life. In this case it's not animals marching two by two but vegetation threatened by any number of things, including natural disasters, climate change, unchecked development or simply being trampled by unsuspecting hikers.