The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew said it launched the Seed Portal for Online Data, or SeedPOD, on October 13, 2026. In its announcement, Kew said ecological restoration projects face difficulties in securing suitable native seeds and germination knowledge, and that SeedPOD was designed to bring that information together in one place.
Kew said a central challenge in ecological restoration is getting the right seeds to the right places. It noted that even within the same plant species, wild populations can differ in traits and responses to environmental conditions, making information such as collection origin, genetic diversity and establishment conditions important when selecting material for restoration.
SeedPOD is structured so participating seed custodians can make information discoverable and comparable, including where wild seeds were collected, whether they are available and viable, successful germination conditions, dormancy and storage behaviour, and plant species traits. Kew said the aim is to reduce the burden of searching across multiple institutions, publications and disconnected databases.
According to Kew, the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst holds more than 2.5 billion seeds from over 40,000 wild plant species. The SeedPOD launch opens access to that data and expertise while also focusing on helping smaller seed banks without their own digital infrastructure make their collections visible online.
Kew said the platform is available in multiple languages and has been designed to work in low-bandwidth environments. It said SeedPOD is intended to connect with complementary biodiversity resources rather than become another isolated data source, and that as participation grows it can strengthen links among seed custodians, growers, researchers and conservation practitioners.