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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fort Collins, Colorado » Center for Agricultural Resources Research » Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #371234
Research Project: Efficient and Effective Preservation and Management of Plant and Microbial Genetic Resource Collections

Location: Agricultural Genetic Resources Preservation Research

Title: Curating small samples: Increasing the number of seeds for storage and restoration

Author
item MASCHINSKI, JOYCE - Center For Plant Conservation (CPC)
item Walters, Christina
item HASKINS, KRISTIN - Morton Arboretum
item BIRKER, CHERYL - Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
item RANDALL, JOHNNY - University Of North Carolina
item RANDALL, LESLEY - San Diego Botanic Garden
item WATKINS, KIRSTIE - Botanic Garden
item CLARKE, MARGARET - National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG)
item DAVITT, JOE - San Diego Zoo
item HAVENS, KAYRI - Chicago Botanical Garden
item VITT, PATI - Chicago Botanical Garden
item HORN, CHRISTA - San Diego Zoo

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/10/2020
Publication Date: 8/16/2019
Citation: Maschinski, J., Walters, C.T., Haskins, K.E., Birker, C., Randall, J., Randall, L., Watkins, K., Clarke, M., Davitt, J., Havens, K., Vitt, P., Horn, C. 2019. Curating small samples: Increasing the number of seeds for storage and restoration. In: Falk, D., Holsinger, K., Wieland, G., Olwell, P., et al., editors. CPC Best Plant Conservation Practices to Support Species Survival in the Wild. Washington, D.C.: Island Press. p. 43-47.

Interpretive Summary: CPC encourages practitioners to collect from the rarest plant populations as these have high extinction risk. Some of the rarest species may not have populations large enough to support a collection of 3000 seeds, the number of seeds for an accessions suggested by NLGRP. Note that 3000 seeds is a target, not a dictum. If you are lucky enough to make a collection of more than 3000 seeds, it will mean more seeds will be available for future uses. For collections of 100 to 3000+ seeds, follow the practices outlined in the "Cleaning, processing, drying and packaging seeds" chapter. This section pertains to those collections that have fewer than 100 seeds.

Technical Abstract: CPC seed collections are valuable for the conservation of rare plants. CPC recommends dividing collections to ensure that the representative samples of seeds will be safely duplicated to mitigate for loss caused by natural or human-caused catastrophes. Divisions into curation packages enable us to protect the long-term storage packages while we gain information about seed characteristics, their cultivation and storage capacity.