Seed Savers Exchange Inc. has made a fourth deposit of 271 heirloom seed varieties to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
Seed Savers, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds, has sent 1,660 open pollinated varieties to the vault since it opened in February 2008.
The heirloom varieties are mostly seeds conserved by amateur home gardeners. This year’s contribution includes:
• lettuce 424, Virkler, an heirloom dating to the mid 19th century, originally from the Alsace Lorraine region of France;
• tomato 2402, Antique Roman, reported to be an old Italian paste tomato, unique because of its polymorphic fruit;
• squash 3039, Yokohama, introduced in the United States in the 1860s.
Seed Savers Exchange maintains its collection of thousands of heirloom and open pollinated varieties at its Heritage Farm near Decorah, Iowa, and has backup storage at Svalbard and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colorado.
