SEEDS from some of County Durham’s trees have been collected as part of a national programme to create a database of UK species.

A team from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, London, were in County Durham earlier this month to collect the seeds, which will be banked in its underground vaults.

It’s part of UK National Tree Seed Project, which started in 2013 and is aimed at creating a collection of tree seeds which can be used in conservation work to protect UK woodlands from pests and diseases.

They visited sites on the east Durham coast, which is rich in limestone to find wild-privet, spindle and guelder-rose.

Mark Dinning, from Durham Wildlife Trust, which helped the Kew team with the collections, said: “We were only too happy to support this project which has been running for a number of years.

“This work is really quite an important conservation effort to not just conserve species in County Durham, but UK wide.”

Among the sites visited were Blackhall Rocks, Hesleden Dene and Hawthorn Dene, all in east Durham.

Ian Willey, a fieldwork officer for the UK National Tree Seed Project, said: “It was a great trip, especially considering we made our northern most collections of guelder-rose and spindle.

“Visiting the many beautiful wooded denes and scrubland gills was a joy and I learnt much in the process chatting to local enthusiasts and dog walkers.

“ It is great to see and hear how well areas have recovered after years of serving as dumping grounds for colliery waste. Finding fruiting populations of privet, spindle, guelder-rose and holly adds to the ecological value of the area as their fruits are an important food source for wild birds and mammals through late autumn and winter in holly’s case.”

Project co-ordinator Clare Trivedi said: “Building up our seed collections of the nation’s favourite and most important tree species is a vital step in combating the multiplying pests and diseases which threaten to alter our landscape dramatically.”

The seeds will be stored in underground vaults and will be used by researchers working on solutions to tackle some of the threats to UK woodlands, including pests and diseases.