PLANTS Listening comprehension http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/seedsforarainyday.shtml 1. Listen to the recording (timing 0-0:17) and answer the questions: § What is the aim of the project? Why has the project been set up? § What is the name of the project? 2. Listen to the recording (timing 0:25-1:10) and decide whether the statements are true or false: § The team is collecting and conserving 34 thousand wild species. T/F § It is a totally unique project. T/F § In the future, they plan to introduce the species into the botanical gardens in sixteen countries. T/F 3. Listen to the recording (6:50-7:25) and fill in the gaps. Seed collecting is all about getting the ......................right. In this case, Erich didn’t think the seed was ......................enough to take but looking at it through the ......................, Paul thought that it might be ......................a chance. If we can find more ......................, get the best and biggest ones from all the ......................, if we are going to be around again in a month or two, come back and bulk up a collection. If not we’ve already got some at least. 4. Listen to the recording (8:44-9:07) and answer the questions. § Where are the seeds stored? § Who owns the seeds? 5. Listen (9:18-10:20) and answer. § At what temperature are the seeds stored? § Why is the temperature so low? § What are the seeds tested for? § How many seeds are used for each test? § How often do the tests take place? SEEDS FOR A RAINY DAY http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/seedsforarainyday.shtml Rescuing some of our rarest plants in the grasslands of South Africa Tuesday 23 March 2004 11.00-11.30am Sandra Sykes joins plant collectors in the grasslands of South Africa in search of seeds from some of the rarest and most threatened plant species in the world for the Millennium Seed Bank Project. This has been set up by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, with a view over the next decade to collecting twenty four thousand species, representing ten per cent of the world’s flora, which are then stored in vaults at very low temperatures, perhaps for hundreds of years, remaining viable so that they may be grown on some future rainy day. The search begins on the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve where there are over twelve hundred different plants – that’s more than in the whole of Great Britain – many of them rarer than the rhino. On the first day the team, led by Erich van Wyk is fortunate to find several rare endemic species including Erich’s name sake, Canthium van Wykii. It takes a hundred mile journey the next day to find three species of the rare Hypoxis plant on a roadside embankment where they had been previously spotted but had not been in seed. This species is endangered because like many of these veldt plants its habitat has been taken over with the coming of the plantations and because its bulb is highly sought after for use in the traditional medicine trade in the treatment of the symptoms of AIDS. Erich van Wyk, Livu Nkuna and Robert Klein of the S.African Millennium Seed Bank Project, collecting Hypoxis. Erich van Wyk, Livu Nkuna and Robert Klein of the S.African Millennium Seed Bank Project, collecting Hypoxis. Researchers from the University of Kwa Zulu–Natal show Sandra Sykes the extent of the trade in bulbs, roots, bark and leaves as she visits one of the largest traditional medicine markets in Durban. Traders and healers are dealing in the very plants the team are looking for, taking whole plants and endangering their own resources. Yet not all is lost because even though many of these plants are resistant to the normal methods of storage some are being saved through ground breaking research at the University. The task is not only to save threatened plants but also to preserve the economy of those who may be destroying them. Sandra Sykes at the traditional medicine market on the outskirts of Durban. Sandra Sykes at the traditional medicine market on the outskirts of Durban. On the final day the team finds one of the rarest plants in South Africa – the Pondoland Ghost bush with only very few plants known to exist. So often the team spend many days without success perhaps locating the plants they want to collect only to find they are not in seed or that the seed is not ripe This ‘eureka moment’ is a fitting end to a time spent with such professional and dedicated people. transcript (0-0:16) With the threat of extinction hanging over so many plant species, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew have set out (mít v úmyslu) to collect and preserve some of the most endangered. Sandra Sykes joins the team of seed collectors working for the Millennium Seed Bank Project in Seeds for Rainy Day. What is the subject of the project? most endangered (threatened, rarest) plant species What is the name of the project? the Millennium Seed Bank Project Who takes part in the project? Royal Botanic Gardens Kew team of seed collectors Why has the project been set up? What are they going to do? to collect and preserve some of the most endangered species. article Sandra Sykes joins plant collectors in the grasslands of South Africa in search of seeds from some of the rarest and most threatened plant species in the world for the Millennium Seed Bank Project. This has been set up the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, with a view over the next decade to collecting twenty four thousand species, representing ten per cent of the world’s flora, which are then stored in vaults at very low temperatures, perhaps for hundreds of years, remaining viable so that they may be grown on some future rainy day. 0:15:1:10 The really exciting thing about this particular project is that we are collecting and conserving 24 thousand species, wild species, that s 10 percent of the world s bankable (výnosný) seed floor (?plocha, prostor?) from 16 countries at the moment and this has never been done before. We ve done plenty with crops ?and that s an old technology which has been developed over the millenium but what we re doing here is entirely new. We re working out how to store and how to revive wild species and that gives us options. that means that we...we ll be in future in the position to introduce these into the wild, to grow them and to use them.