Seed Bank in the Wind

British designer Thomas Heatherwick has created the British Pavilion of the Shanghai Expo 2010: a 20 metre high building made up of 60,000 transparent acrylic filaments, each of which holds a seed from Kew Gardens' huge Millennium Seed Bank – a worldwide project to preserve a quarter of the world's plant species.

The 7.5 metre long spikes sway gently in the breeze

Microcosm

Kew Gardens Millenium Seed Bank has embarked on a mission to save seed of as many plant species as possible. The mission to save seeds in our time of dangerous climate change is very important - since virtually all life on earth is dependent on plants and each little seed is a microcosm of the plant itself.

Seed of Castilleja flower, popularly known as Indian paintbrush or prairie-fire

Pollen of Helleborus orientalis or Lenten rose

Eastern sun (Scutellaria orientalis) seed

Seed of the Paulownia tree

Electron microphotos of seeds preserved at the Kew Gardens Millennium Seed Bank.