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Northernmost "Cold Hardy" Eucalyptus: 78ºN

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Eucalyptus will survive Doomsday
or the funny story of E. largiflorens becoming the Northernmost Eucalypt in the World

The Norwegian Government inaugurated yesterday the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the remote Spitsbergen Island in the Arctic Circle, receiving shipments of 100 million seeds that originated in over 100 countries.

Eucalyptus largiflorens at the Global Seed Vault, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway / Northernmost Cold Hardy Eucalyptus at 78ºNFig. 1: Entrance to the Global Seed Vault at Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway)

Current deposits range from unique varieties of major African and Asian food staples such as maize, rice, wheat, cowpea, and sorghum to European and South American varieties of eggplant, lettuce, barley, and potato; but also include representatives of important trees used worldwide as sources of firewood, timber or raw fibre as Acacia, Pinus and Eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus largiflorens at the Global Seed Vault, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway / Northernmost Cold Hardy Eucalyptus at 78ºNFig. 2: Genus Eucalyptus represented at the Global Seed Vault (Click to see Seed List; or click to see Full Seed List)

This “fail-safe” facility, dug deep into the frozen rock of an Arctic mountain, will secure for centuries, or longer, the most comprehensive and diverse collection of hundreds of millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today.

Eucalyptus largiflorens at the Global Seed Vault, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway / Northernmost Cold Hardy Eucalyptus at 78ºNAs well as protecting against the daily loss of plant diversity, the vault could also prove indispensable for restarting agricultural production at the regional or global level in the wake of a natural or man-made disaster. Contingencies for climate change have been worked into the plan. Even in the worst-case scenarios of global warming, the vault rooms will remain naturally frozen for up to 200 years.

Eucalyptus largiflorens at the Global Seed Vault, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Svalbard, Norway / Northernmost Cold Hardy Eucalyptus at 78ºNFig. 4: Eucalyptus largiflorens, first Eucalyptus at latitude 78ºN

500 seeds of Eucalyptus largiflorens donated by the International Livestock Research Institute of Ethiopia travelled from Adis Ababa to Norway to become the Northernmost "Cold Hardy" Eucalyptus in the world (until we convince Sir Richard Branson to help us drop a seed packet near the North Pole!)

Even if just 1 of several hundred Eucalyptus taxa is represented by now at the Svalbard Global Seed Ark, these plants naturally prone to resurrection after surviving natural disasters, the ubiquitous Australian Gum Trees, are finally safe from Apocalypse in the permafrost of the Doomsday Vault.


croptrust.org / Global Crop Diversity Trust / Svalbard Global Seed VaultNORGEN - Nordic Genetic Resource Center / NORGEN - Nordiskt Genresurscenter / Svalbard globale frøhvelv / Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Ministry of Agriculture and Food, Norway / Landbruks- og matdepartementet, Norge / Landbruks- og matdepartementet / Svalbard globale frøhvelv /Svalbard Global Seed Vault


Curious links

An intrepid plantsman photographs what is possibly the northernmost flowering Eucalyptus in the world not very far away from Spitsbergen. A blooming E. dalrympleana... in the fjords of Norway!


EUCALYPTOLOGICS: GIT Forestry Consulting Eucalyptus Blog / Information Resources on Eucalyptus Cultivation Worldwide / Forestry Engineering, Eucalyptus Seed, Eucalyptus Plants, Eucalyptus Wood, Eucalyptus Honey, Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Eucalyptus Forests, Eucalyptus Plantations, Eucalyptus Timber, Eucalyptus Lumber, Eucalyptus Furniture, Eucalyptus Veneer, Eucalyptus Plywood, Eucalyptus MDF Board, Eucalyptus Cellulose, Eucalyptus Paper, Eucalyptus Biomass, Eucalyptus Energy, Eucalyptus Floristry, Eucalyptus Foliage, Eucalyptus Garden / Ingenieria Forestal, Semilla de eucalipto, Plantas de eucalipto, Madera de eucalipto, Miel de eucalipto, Aceite Esencial de eucalipto, Bosque de eucalipto, Plantacion de eucalipto, Muebles de eucalipto, Tablero de eucalipto, MDF de eucalipto, Celulosa de eucalipto, Papel de eucalipto, Biomasa de eucalipto, Energia de eucalipto, Ramillo Verde Ornamental de Eucalipto, Jardin de EucaliptoGIT's Eucalyptology Topics

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© 2008 Gustavo Iglesias Trabado. Please contact us if you want to use all or part of this text and photography elsewhere. We like to share, but we do not like rudeness.

5 Comments by our readers :::

Anonymous said...

"Eucalyptus will survive Doomsday"

this will be for sure a bad new for some simple minds.

Anonymous said...

Mind cultivation is one of the goals of this site, even if it requires cynicism sometimes :)

And as long as simple minds do not take Eucalyptus survivng as worse news than the Doomsday itself, there is still hope XD

Thanks for your comment!

Anonymous said...

Posted by Treeman on 2/27/2008, 11:13 am, in reply to "Northernmost "Cold Hardy" Eucalyptus: Norway, 78ºN"

I hope they include seeds from oranges, apples and pears! It would be a shame to lose those in a catastrophe! XD

Anonymous said...

Posted by Heather Milligan on 2/27/2008, 11:43 am, in reply to "Re: Northernmost "Cold Hardy" Eucalyptus: Norway, 78ºN"

Very clever Gus, spluttered my cup of tea everywhere when I saw the title Northernmost "Cold Hardy" Eucalyptus: Norway, 78ºN... grin

Anonymous said...

Posted by Gus on 2/27/2008, 12:23 pm, in reply to "Re: Northernmost "Cold Hardy" Eucalyptus: Norway, 78ºN"

:-D A funny post every now and then is mandatory :-D

That said, I won't be fully happy until someone grows a potted Eucalyptus indoors here! for a couple years and lets me talk about it!


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