Native Seed Program

Our mission is to collect native seed from the Santa Monica Mountains to fuel our restoration projects and create a seed bank in the face of climate change

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Seed collection

The local seeds collected from the mountains fuel our restoration projects and fill our Seed Bank. We collect seeds annually from 200 different populations, focusing specifically on species used for restoration projects throughout the Santa Monica Mountains.

Our seed collecting protocols are sourced from the Bureau of Land Management’s Seeds of Success Program.

We also work with threatened and endangered species to conserve the rare plants’ genetics. One species is Lyon’s pentachaeta, Pentchaeta lyonii; we are aiming to amplify viable seeds of this endangered species for habitat rehabilitation.

Seed processing

After we collect the seed, we separate it from any inert organic material, which increases the longevity of the seed in storage.

Once the seeds are clean, they can be stored, or grown by the Rancho Sierra Vista Native Plant Nursery.

We are extremely grateful to our volunteers who dedicate their time and effort to cleaning the seeds and propagating plants for our projects!

Find out more about volunteering with us in the Outdoors Calendar.

Once the seed is cleaned, we dry the seed and put the seed into the freezer for long-term storage.

Seed collections are divided by ecoregion, creating localized seed collections within the park.

Before and after freezing, we conduct viability tests to determine how much of the collection is alive.

Our seed viability protocols are sourced from the Missouri Botanical Garden, with advice from the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and California Botanic Garden.

Seed viability and storage

Native Seed Farm

We are creating multiple seed material farms throughout the Santa Monica Mountains to amplify large amounts of seed. One farm is at Paramount Ranch (1 acre) and another is at Rancho Sierra Vista/ Satwiwa (5 acres).

Seed Material Farms are similar to agricultural farms, but the plants are left to go to seed. This allows us to efficiently collect large amounts of genetically diverse, locally sourced, seeds.

The seeds from the seed material farm are used for seeding restoration projects or deposited into our seed bank.

The first six months of the Paramount Ranch Native Seed Farm has already yielded over 3 pounds of native seed, including narrowleaf milkweed!