A TOP Welsh horticulturist has gone Down Under in search of seeds in the name of science. Laura Davies (pictured), head of horticulture at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, is spending three weeks in Tasmania as part of team collecting specimens for the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place. A former pupil at Tenby's Greenhill School, Laura, who lives in Llandeilo, but whose parents live in Sardis, Saundersfoot, said: "Following a discussion last year with Iain Parkinson, woodlands and conservation manager at Wakehurst Place, I was invited to join this seed-collecting trip. "I am joining Jo O' Byrne and Nick Cooper, staff from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, based at Wakehurst Place, and Dan Luscombe from the National Arboretum at Bedgebury." As well as the seed from native Tasmanian plants for the seed bank, the collecting is also aimed at expanding the plant collections of the participating institutions. Said Laura: "We will be collecting from national nature reserves from all over the island. "The Tasmanian rainforest is one of the regions the National Botanic Garden of Wales has chosen to replicate within our 'Woods of the World' project. "Seed we collect on this trip will be sown this autumn and then planted out within the next five years." Laura added that the team's target plant list includes Eucalyptus, Nothofagus, Eucryphia, Acacia, Banksia and many plants that are not so familiar to British gardeners.