NOTE: Much of this message was cross posted with the IBS. NOTE: Comments welcome here or at my private email address. ------------------------- 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