species' native range) and subsequently in an ancillary facility for rare plants 40 miles farther north. The sequence of photos below show their progress in safeguarding Torreya taxifolia 16 years after branchlets were harvested in the wild. When the original branchlets that had been cut and rooted in 1991 reached an age in which seed production ensued, safeguarding decisions became more problematic — and potentially controversial. This is because Torreya seeds are recalcitrant; they cannot be stored in the usual ways. They cannot be dried, they cannot be frozen, they cannot be freeze-dried. They can be stored in a refrigerator for a few years, especially because the species requires cold "stratification." But the embryos will die if they are not eventually placed into soil and seasonal warmth that will induce germination. This storage problem led to the development of a system for "cryogenic storage of T. taxifolia cultures and subsequent plant regeneration," based on extraction of embryos from seeds followed by "somatic embryogenesis." As of October 2011, "about 25 embryogenic cultures from five mother trees were placed into liquid nitrogen for long-term storage and confirmed to survive after retrieval from liquid nitrogen." That whole seeds of Torreya taxifolia could not be kept alive in any form of long-term storage meant that the only viable method for safe-guarding Torreya taxifolia rested in keeping a large population of genetically diverse shrubs and trees alive, and in more than one location. As well, because previous experiments in reintroducing the species into its historically native range had failed, and because the two botanical gardens in charge of safeguarding the ex situ plantings were opposed to assisted migration, annual seed production numbering in the thousands could not fully be put to use. From a professional conservation standpoint, leaving seeds on the ground was not hard to justify. The greatest genetic diversity remains in the original wild-stock clonal plantings — not in any subset of offspring that may descend from their seed production. Making use of surplus seeds has no clear role for "preventing extinction" nor for "safeguarding genetic diversity." Staff of Atlanta Botanical Garden produced an article that was published in the Fall 2007 issue of Conifer Quarterly, which reported that many of the original cuttings had begun producing seeds, "over 500 viable seeds per year on average." The 2010 recovery plan update reported seed production at Smithgall Woods in this way, "The trees have