Ex-situ conservation is conservation of selected rare plants/ animals in places outside their natural homes. Ex situ conservation includes offsite collections and gene banks. The two are also a source of genetic material for breeders and genetic engineers. Offsite collection are live collections of wild and domesticated species in botanical gardens, zoos, arboreta etc. Gene banks are institutes that maintain stocks of viable seeds (seed banks), live growing plants (orchards), tissue culture and frozen germplasm with the whole range of genetic variability.