Most of the deposited seeds are garden pea seeds (Pisum sativum). However, a handful of other pea species and subspecies were represented in small numbers in the five seed boxes that were taken into the Seed Vault on Thursday the 27th of august.
The United Kingdom has a decentralized gene bank system, and JIC is the third crop genebank located in the UK that has deposited seeds in the Seed Vault. In February 2017, the James Hutton Institute deposited 1,033 seed samples from their potato collection, and in 2019 and 2020, the University of Warwick Vegetable Genebank deposited a total of 1,090 samples of vegetable species.
The John Innes Centre was the only genebank that shipped seeds for the Seed Vault’s August opening. Some genebanks had to postpone planned packing and shipment of seeds due to difficulties related to the corona virus pandemic, but they are expected to send seeds during the next opening occasion in October.