The crucial role of seeds in the landscape goes beyond just what we take for granted, according to a new two-week exhibition on show at Sheila Gallery in Euroa.
SEED is a celebration of the beauty and importance of local native seed for which the Arboretum has put on display an interesting and creative arrangement of various native plant seeds and pods (Preserving the future with seedbank, Orbweavers, The Euroa Gazette, 10 September).
Euroa Arboretum's Charlotte Langman said seed were a tiny package and a 'vital spark of life in the darkness beneath our feet'.
"They feel the pull of the warmer season, stirring quietly, about to burst through the soil crust to greet the sun," Charlotte said.
The exhibition is part of the Arboretum's contribution to an effective nation-wide seed bank, in which seed of native species are preserved indefinitely for revegetation needs anticipated in the future.
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"We have looked at how much revegetation may be needed in the future and so we can know something of what species and how much seed needs preserving."
Charlotte said the use of volunteers who do most of the labour needed support through professional organisations such as the Arboretum.
"The last thing we want when the need arises for major revegetation in the future is suddenly cowboys being out there, stripping bush back for seed.
"We might even have a big enough problem with (feral) deer and kangaroos eating back what little might grow.
"The message to take home really is that we need to support those organisations who know how to harvest and preserve seed properly.
"Let's support seed orchards, because that's the best way, and let's do it with art and music to celebrate what we have got before we lose it."
The exhibition will run until Tuesday 21 October.
Sheila Gallery, 52-57 Binney Stree, Euroa.
