Seeds from Japan's miracle pine to be stored in British seed bank

Researchers and volunteers in Japan will send seeds from a famous pine tree to the Millennium Seed Bank in Britain starting in 2026.

The tree, known as the miracle lone pine, was the only tree on a beach in Rikuzentakata to survive the 2011 tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Although the tree died in 2012 after seawater rotted its roots, a project team began a campaign to preserve its genetic legacy just one month after the disaster.

The rescue project involved about 60 members, including volunteers from the Japan Landscape Contractors Association and researchers from Sumitomo Forestry. They collected branches from the original tree to create successor saplings. The team used a grafting technique to attach these cuttings to established rooted pines. This process proved difficult because pine resin blocked the joints, resulting in only three successful saplings out of approximately 200 attempts.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, will house the seeds at its Wakehurst facility in Sussex, England. The Millennium Seed Bank stores seeds from about 40,000 species in a vault at minus 20 degrees Celsius to protect them from extinction. Sumitomo Forestry will send about 200 seeds per year to the bank over a five-year period. The project aims to preserve the tree's genetic line and share the lessons of the disaster with future generations.