Seeds from an 'enduring' Irish heritage onion gifted to the University of Warwick UK Vegetable Genebank (UKVGB) in the 1980s have been welcomed into the Heritage Seed Library's National Collection of Heritage Vegetables. The Heritage Seed Library (HSL) maintains the national collection of heritage and heirloom vegetables.
Seeds from the onion 'Buan' were gifted to the UKVGB after being brought back from near extinction by the Irish Seed Savers in the 1980s. To mark the occasion of the HSL's 50th anniversary, the Head of UKVGB, Dr Charlotte Allender, visited the Library to add the onion seeds to their National Collection of Heritage Vegetables.
"The old Irish name 'Buan' translates to 'long-life' or 'lasting/enduring' which seems very appropriate as we're celebrating the lasting legacy of our Heritage Seed Library," said HSL head, Catrina Fenton. "We're absolutely delighted to be partnering with the UKVGB to welcome this unique and rare onion from the island of Ireland - and hope to share it with members in the coming years.
The UKVGB has had a long-standing partnership with the HSL over the last 50 years, by taking duplicates of its seeds as an 'insurance policy' and freezing them in its cold vaults.
Dr Charlotte Allender said: "The UK Vegetable Genebank is delighted to have played a role in the long-term conservation of a heritage onion like Buan, and to work with the Heritage Seed Library and other groups to ensure that the diversity Buan and others represent remain available into the future."
Warwick UKVGB is supporting the HSL's two-year project 'Sowing your Seeds: Heritage Crops for a Resilient Future', funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project aims to conserve and pass on precious community vegetable varieties and seed stories in the Midlands, and the UKVGB has provided information and seed samples from its frozen store for HSL to grow.
