DEEP inside a frozen Norwegian mountain, behind an entrance blown out of the rock and patrolled by polar bears, scientists have been stockpiling the world's insurance policy against a natural disaster.

With climate change pushing global temperatures beyond previous limits, it is impossible to predict how crops will fare across the globe, so a contingency plan is required.

For months, countries have been sending samples of their seeds to Norway, to be housed at -18C in a giant refrigerator referred to by the nation's media as the "Doomsday Vault".

Should a day come when the fields burn in the face of a nuclear explosion or drought, the vault will be plundered to rejuvenate the world's food supplies.

"This is an insurance policy for the world's most valuable natural resource,"

Euphorbia canariensis- there are few more elegant columnar Euphorbias than this moderately tall (6'-10') 5-sided columnar, blue-green to bright green plant. This native from the Canaray Islands has many low branches, but the branches themselves rarely branch again, giving the effect of a plant with numerous solitary columns. However, the branches come off but a few suckering trunks in a graceful curve upward, often with the lowest point of the curve touching the ground.