Factors involved in the selection of plant resources for conservation as seed in gene banks

The preservation of seed in cold stores provides a convenient and effective method of conserving many species of plants. The ease with which collections of some species may be kept in this way poses the danger that it may be applied uncritically to populations or taxa to which it is less suited. The paper briefly reviews the major factors which contribute to the success of collections for a seed bank and derives criteria from them which may be used as a means of evaluating proposals for seed conservation by this means. The method can also be used to identifly possible problems or to estimate relative expenditures of time and other resources which would be involved in making collections or looking after banked seed.