Seed and Bulb Excanges, some Comments
Joe Shaw (Thu, 13 Jul 2006 19:56:38 PDT)

NOTE: Much of this message was cross posted with the IBS.

NOTE: Comments welcome here or at my private email address.
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Hi Gang,

I'm a botanist and a plant pathologist by training, and I've always
collected seeds and traded them at no charge (in excess of posage costs) to
people in Texas, in the USA, and even overseas. Nonetheless, I do hope the
best for the PBS and IBS, and will continue to send (now and then) seeds of
various types to the seed exchange for distribution and fund raising
efforts--it is all to a good cause and all good fun.

NOTE:

I do hope that, should I provide materials, that provenance information (who
made the ID, which specific locality or county is the source of the seeds,
etc.), will be passed on to those who get the seed. I have been lucky
enought to get seeds from the IBS (not the PBS because I'm not a dues-paying
member) and find that specific information is lacking. As a collector, it
is not enough to know that seeds have been identified by someone, or that
seeds were collected in one country or another. We all know that taxonomic
identifications change (for instance, maybe Crinum flaccidum will beome half
a dozen species in the future, or note). Anyway, it is very helpful to know
exactly where seeds were collected and who collected them.

NOTE:

As a confirmed cladist (one who does not believe genera and families are
anything more than human fictions), I look to the future when we will have
much more information about plants. But such information will not easily be
derived from seeds labelled "Z. chlorosolen, USA." The seed exchange might
as well say, "Some possible expert has provided seeds that he/she claims are
Z. chlorosolen, and the seeds might have been collected in Arkansas,
Lousiana, Texas, northern Mexico, or some other place, and may be hybrids or
not" Provenance is imporant, and no matter how learned and knowedgeable the
seed donor may be, identifications without specifics are mostly unsuitable
for taxonomic determinations as a later date.

NOTE:

Please understand, these comments refer to no particular person or seeds.
Rather, these comments refer to the practice of sending out seeds without
detailed provenance information: who collected them, where were they
collected, were they garden grown, and what steps were taken to prevent
cross pollinization, etc.

FINAL NOTE:

The IBS and the PBS take a lot of care in their offerings, and surely
provenance issues make up a minor proportion of questions about plant
identities. Nonetheless, provenance information is a standard botantical
bit of information (as opposed to horticultural informatin), and providing
such can only enhance the status of any seed exchange operation (or bulb
exchnge).

Cordially,

Joe

Conroe TX