The Garden’s seed collection is housed in a seed bank at Shaw Nature Reserve. Seed banking is a valuable conservation tool that enables the long-term storage of genetic diversity of a large number of plant species. The collection includes nearly 4,000 dormant seed accessions. Although seeds from all over the world are stored here, special attention is paid to Missouri’s native plants. More than 25 percent of the state’s flora is represented in the seed bank, including 64 species of conservation concern.