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What comes to your mind at the mention of seeds? Maybe some listeners will think of grains and bread; some will think of nuts and vegetables, or perhaps nothing will come to their mind. People in modern society rarely care about or observe the seemingly irrelevant world of plant seeds. However, did you know that seeds are closely linked with the future destiny of humankind, and seeds have long ago risen to a national strategic level? On the Svalbard archipelago in Norway, there is a large building called the safest Noah's Ark on Earth, which is located more than 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole. It is the Global Seed Vault. As of the beginning of 2018, the number of seed samples stored at the facility has surpassed 1 million. Humans can only open the Noah's Ark once they have encountered nuclear war, asteroid impacts, climate change, sea-level rise, or other doomsday crises that have caused the destruction of seeds in the outside world. Seeds will turn out to play a vital role during the life and death of humankind.
Small seeds can be spotted everywhere. Apples, bread, coffee, soy milk, silk fabric, etc. are gifts given by the seeds. Around us, seed plants make up more than 90% of our flora, and have become one of the most vigorous groups of organisms on earth. This also means that the plants we usually see are pretty much all seed plants. In the vast plant kingdom, what special abilities do seeds have, and how do they make their mark on the plant kingdom?
It may be hard to imagine that other kinds of plants have dominated the earth for more than 100 million years. For example, in ancient times, spore plants were like noble lords, who led the landscape with large-scale forests filled with dendritic stone pine plants, equisetum plants, and ferns. Compared with the spore plants, seed plants are regarded as having humbler origins, with only a few plants playing a leading role in the ecosystem such as cypress, cycads, and ginkgos. What about now? Those forests of spore plants have long decayed and become coal. When algae plants took a backseat, seed plants dramatically seized the victory. So, how did seed plants successfully conquer the plant kingdom? What are the characteristics that allowed them to turn the tables and change their status, thus having a considerable impact on the progress and development of our human civilization? This book will answer all your questions.
