Flora's frozen future

New Zealand's first seed bank to preserve endangered native flora was opened in Palmerston North yesterday.

The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network planned the seed bank and has been co-ordinating the project for the past four years with AgResearch, which will manage the bank.

A spokesman for the network said: "A national seed bank provides one of the first practical solutions to the effects of climate change as we will know our plants are secure whatever happens."

The seeds will be carefully dried, then stored at minus 20C. More than 200 native plant species in New Zealand are regarded as threatened.