Cryopreservation is not sci-fi. It may save plants from extinction

Cryopreservation is an alternative to storing seeds in a facility known as a seed bank.

Not all plants, magnolias included, are suitable for such preservation, either because they lack seeds or their seeds can’t withstand conventional storage.

To date, only about 1 percent of plants ill-suited for seed banks have been cryopreserved.

Advances in refrigeration enabled banks to keep seeds just below freezing, thus extending their shelf life.

Today , seed banks are a pillar of plant conservation, and food plants remain the focus.

Some suggest roughly 8 percent of plants worldwide have “recalcitrant” seeds that retain water.

Cryopreserved tissue is, from a biological standpoint at least, suspended in time.

Each species’s unique set of genes can react differently to the nutrients and hormones used for prepping the plant.

Researchers estimate that the investment it takes to cryopreserve a single species should pay off within 10 to 15 years .