Seed collectors, was Ungernia
Jane McGary via pbs (Tue, 29 Jun 2021 11:50:39 PDT)
The last time I was in touch with Josef Halda, he was having some health
trouble and had to slow down. He hasn't been collecting for at least ten
years.
There are seed collectors still, including Kurt Vickery and his
colleagues in Central Asia, Oron Peri (Seeds of Peace), Vlastimil
Pilous, and the proprietor of Alplains. None of them produce the massive
lists mentioned by Lee. Ron Ratko (Northwest Native Seeds) no longer
produces a catalog, but he's still gardening actively in Seattle and
collects a little. Seed collecting is a very arduous pursuit, for the
plants have to be spotted and identified earlier in the season and
revisited when the seed is maturing (a few things have both flowers and
ripe seeds at the same time).
The PBS board has discussed the possibility of funding seed collection,
but decided not to, mainly because of conservation concerns. Individuals
and organizations which may not be familiar with plant populations "on
the ground" tend to regard any amount of seed collection as a danger to
species preservation, and it is undesirable for PBS to incur their ire,
whether or not deserved.
Jane McGary, Portland, oregon, USA
On 6/28/2021 11:33 PM, Lee Poulsen via pbs wrote:
I haven’t seen a catalog of anything from Halda for a number of years. I suspect he’s older now and doesn’t go to Central Asia anymore on seed collecting expeditions. [Actually, is anyone taking the place of all the big seed collectors from the 1980s—2000s such as the Archibalds, or Flores and Watson, or Thad Howard?]
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