1,267,127 Types of Seeds - And Counting! Statistics & Probability Article for Students

Jim McMahon/Mapman

About 700 miles from the North Pole, a lone structure sticks out of a mountain on the icy island of Svalbard in Norway. The entrance glows with colorful lights. Buried deep inside the mountain, millions of seeds are stored. The seeds are kept at a frigid -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit, which will preserve them for decades, if not longer. This unique building is called the Global Seed Vault. It safeguards the world’s food supply—and its cultural traditions in the form of crops.

Wildfires, floods, wars, and plant diseases can destroy farmland and wipe out food crops. The Global Seed Vault “ensures that should any disaster happen, countries can go back and get ahold of their seeds,” says Feather Smith, a biologist for the Cherokee Nation. Part of Smith’s job is to grow, restore, and preserve crops important to the Cherokee. Because of her team’s efforts, the Cherokee Nation recently became the first tribe in the U.S. to store seeds in the Global Seed Vault.

Welcome to Svalbard, Norway. This icy island is about 700 miles from the North Pole. On it, a lone structure sticks out of a mountain. The entrance glows with colorful lights. This building is called the Global Seed Vault. Millions of seeds are stored deep inside. They’re kept at -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit. The cold will preserve the seeds for decades—if not longer. The Seed Vault protects the world’s food supply. It also preserves crops that are important to cultures around the world.

Wildfires, floods, wars, and plant diseases can destroy farmland. Sometimes they’re bad enough to wipe out entire crops. The Global Seed Vault gives farmers a chance to start over. If a disaster happens, “countries can go back and get ahold of their seeds,” says Feather Smith. Smith is a biologist for the Cherokee Nation. Part of her job is to preserve important Cherokee crops. Her team recently began storing seeds in the Global Seed Vault. That makes the Cherokee Nation the first tribe in the U.S. to do so.

There are hundreds of thousands of plant species, but only 150 or so make up the crops we eat today. Each crop comes in many different varieties—wheat alone has more than 120,000! Each variety has its own special traits that develop when plants experience different growing conditions, like soil quality and amount of rainfall or sunlight. Crop varieties can differ in color, size, height, and even their response to environmental conditions such as heat, cold, drought, or disease. This diversity is critical to having strong, healthy crops and ensuring that the world has a steady supply of food to grow.

Many groups, including the Cherokee Nation, keep their own supplies of seeds, called seed banks. In an emergency, people can withdraw seeds from the bank to grow food again. The Global Seed Vault, which opened in 2008, acts as an international backup in case a disaster destroys a local seed bank. The first withdrawal was made in 2015 after a seed bank in Syria was destroyed because of war.

Today the vault’s thick walls hold more than 1,267,000 seed varieties. While no one keeps a tally of how many individual seeds are in the vault, each deposit averages 500 seeds. That means there are more than 630 million seeds in the collection—and room for millions more!

There are hundreds of thousands of plant species on Earth. But only about 150 make up the crops we eat today. Each crop comes in many different varieties. For example, there are more than 120,000 types of wheat! Each variety has its own qualities. These develop as plants experience different growing conditions over time. Crop varieties can have different colors or sizes. They can do better in warmer or colder climates. They can even have different responses to threats such as drought or disease. That’s why crop diversity is important. It means that no matter what happens, the world will still have food to grow.

Many groups keep their own supplies of seeds. These are called seed banks. In an emergency, people can withdraw seeds from the bank to grow food again. But what if a disaster destroys the local seed bank too? That’s where the Global Seed Vault comes in. It opened in 2008 as an international backup. The first withdrawal was made in 2015 after a seed bank in Syria was destroyed by war.

Today the vault holds more than 1,267,000 seed varieties. The average deposit is 500 seeds. That means there are more than 630 million seeds in the collection. And there’s room for millions more!

Cherokee Nation

Cherokee have grown White Eagle corn for centuries. It has distinctive blueish purple kernels.

Crops are incredibly important to the Cherokee Nation. Rituals around planting and harvesting are core parts of Cherokee culture. For centuries, the tribe has cultivated its own varieties of plants like corn, beans, and squash. But over time, these heirloom crops mixed with other wild plants and started to lose their identifying characteristics. The Cherokee Nation’s Natural Resources Office, where Smith works, wanted to restore the heirloom varieties. “That became the mission: Get ahold of the seeds for these plants and preserve their integrity,” says Smith.

One such plant is White Eagle corn. It doesn’t look like the yellow corn you see in supermarkets. Its kernels are white and blueish purple. But accidental crossbreeding with other corn varieties threatened its unique hue. So Smith gathered seeds from Cherokee gardeners and began growing them, carefully breeding the plants to restore their key characteristics. “We had to grow them for a couple seasons to get them to how they should look, and then preserve the seeds,” says Smith.

Crops are incredibly important to the Cherokee Nation. They have rituals around planting and harvesting. They have grown their own crop varieties for centuries. These include special types of corn, beans, and squash. These are known as heirloom plants. But over time, they’ve mixed with other wild plants. They started to lose their unique characteristics. Smith works at the Cherokee Nation’s Natural Resources Office. She and her colleagues wanted to restore the heirloom varieties. “That became the mission: Get ahold of the seeds for these plants and preserve [them],” says Smith.

One special plant variety is White Eagle corn. It doesn’t look like the yellow corn in supermarkets. Its kernels are white and purple. But over time, it had mixed with other corn varieties. It was losing its unique hue. So Smith gathered seeds from Cherokee gardeners. She began breeding the corn very carefully. She chose plants with the right characteristics to keep growing. “We had to grow them for a couple seasons to get them to how they should look,” says Smith. “ Then we preserved the seeds.”

The breeding process resulted in far more seeds than the Natural Resources Office needed. But they were still perfectly good seeds. So Smith and her colleagues created the Cherokee Seed Bank, which distributes their heirloom seeds to any Cherokee who asks for them. “These seeds are owned by every single Cherokee,” says Smith.

In 2019, Global Seed Vault staff heard about the Cherokee Nation’s project and invited the group to store its heirloom seeds at Svalbard. Smith and her colleagues worked with different tribal groups to identify crops that are uniquely Cherokee. They chose four varieties of corn (including White Eagle), four kinds of beans, and one type of squash. The seeds were carefully labeled and packaged in foil, sealed into boxes, shipped to Svalbard, and deposited into the vault.

Smith says these crops represent centuries of Cherokee history. Storing them at the Global Seed Vault “ensures that these seeds survive,” she says—keeping Cherokee culture alive too.

The breeding process created a lot of seeds. It was more than the Natural Resources Office needed! So Smith and her colleagues created the Cherokee Seed Bank. They give heirloom seeds to any Cherokee who asks. “These seeds are owned by every single Cherokee,” says Smith.

In 2019, Global Seed Vault staff heard about the Cherokee Nation’s project. They invited the group to store heirloom seeds at Svalbard. Smith and her colleagues were excited. They worked with different tribal groups to pick the most important crops to save. They chose four varieties of corn, including White Eagle. They also selected four kinds of beans and one type of squash. The seeds were carefully labeled and packaged in foil. Then they were sealed into boxes, shipped to Svalbard, and placed in the vault.

These crops represent centuries of Cherokee history, says Smith. Storing them at the Global Seed Vault doesn’t only protect the plants, she adds. It keeps Cherokee culture alive too.

The box-and-whisker plots below show the distribution of different data sets related to seeds in the Global Seed Vault. Use the plots to answer the questions that follow. Record your work and answers on our answer sheet.

A. The plot above shows the seed varieties deposited each year over the past 11 years by Seed Savers Exchange, a U.S.-based seed bank. What’s the median?

B. What’s the lower extreme of this data set? The upper extreme?

A. The plot above shows the 10 African countries with the most deposits. Ethiopia has stored the most seed varieties. How many did it store?

B. South Africa has stored 230 seed varieties. Between which two quartiles is that?

A. The plot above shows deposits from all seven countries in Central America. What’s the interquartile range, or difference between Q1 and Q3, of this data set?