Kew Gardens completes 'Noah's ark' seed bank with a pink banana.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

Adam Vaughan

An endangered pink banana enjoyed by Asian elephants becomes a landmark species today, marking the first milestone in an international project to create a Noah's ark of the world's seeds.

The banana, Musa itinerans, is the last of 24,200 species to have its seeds collected, dried and stored in Kew's millennium seed bank , which has, after 17 years of work, collected and preserved seeds from 10% of the world's plant species.

Conceived after the Rio Earth summit in 1992, the seed bank was opened in 2000 to try to ensure the survival of the estimated 200,000 seed-bearing plant species threatened by human …