Chinese botanists have collected the seeds of more than 1,100 plant species found in the southwestern Tibet autonomous region and preserved them in a national biotechnical bank, Xinhua News Agency reported. 

The seeds were gathered over the past five years mostly near the upper reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River and on the Qiangtang grassland, researchers with the institute of Tibetan plateau research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences told Xinhua. 

The samples were derived from plant species either native to Tibet or with considerable economic value, such as varieties of grass and traditional Tibetan herbs, said the researchers. 

They are being kept in China Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, a leading bio-resource storage facility dubbed the "Noah's Ark" of the country's plant species.