Ex situ conservation of plant species is a strategy for protecting plants outside their natural environment.
The SiMaSeed project has achieved this through the collection, treatment and conservation of seeds of spontaneous species in the Germplasm Banks of the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences – University of Catania (BGS-CT) and the Department of Biology of the University of Malta, as well as through nursery cultivation and the strengthening of the permanent collection field of the BGS-CT, staged at the Piante Faro company.
The project has made it possible to preserve over 200 plant species in the bank, which were selected from the structural Habitat species in the Directive 92/43 / EEC, threatened and rare and / or endemic of Sicilian and Maltese spontaneous flora.
The germplasm banks of the partners are organised according to modern structural and instrumental criteria. They include laboratories equipped for the treatment and cleaning of seeds, the realisation of germination tests, the dehydration of seeds and their medium and long-term conservation.
