'Seed Guardians' save Charles Darwin’s favourite pea variety from extinction

The 'Champion of England' pea was very close to dying out but has now been listed by a national supplier

An endangered species of pea grown by Charles Darwin in the mid 1800s has been saved from extinction by a network of green-fingered ‘Seed Guardians’.

The pea, mentioned in Darwin's book “The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication”, is known as the so-called ‘Champion of England’.

The vegetable has now been registered on the National List by a seed supplier, meaning it can be sold commercially and enjoyed all over the world after its future was threatened decades ago.

The news has been met with celebration from horticultural charity Garden Organic and its team of volunteer seed savers, who are members of its Heritage Seed Library (HSL).

Despite being judged as ‘best pea’ by The Journal of Horticulture in 1876 and being grown by Darwin himself in his garden, the variety fell out of favour in the 1970s when mechanised harvesting took over.

The seed companies chose not to register Champion of England for commercial sale, putting it at risk of dying out completely.

But Garden Organic’s HSL and its team of volunteers have continued to grow endangered vegetables, including Champion of England pea, giving it the chance to be listed once more.

Rachel Crow, HSL Information Officer at Garden Organic said: “For us, the ultimate accolade is for a seed company to say, ‘Yes, this is a really good pea and let’s get it back into circulation so even more people have the chance to grow it!’"

“It’s a real thrill to see how our Heritage Seed Library is continuing to play a vital role in the preservation of our country’s genetic resource.

“We couldn’t do the work we do without our fantastic volunteer seed guardians who grow varieties with a low risk of cross-pollination and return the seed to us. This helps us to achieve Garden Organic’s wider ambition of protecting and sharing a wide plant gene pool and bringing organic gardening to more people across the country,” Ms Crow said.

Seed guardian Adam Alexander, who has helped to save the Champion of England pea and sixty other HSL varieties added: “It is incredibly important because it helps to secure the genetic diversity of our food and also preserves that crucial link culturally and socially with what has been grown in the past.”