The Index Seminum: Seeds of change for seed exchange

Abstract

Botanic gardens have been exchanging seeds through seed catalogues for centuries. In many gardens, these catalogues remain an important source of plant material. Living collections have become more relevant for genetic analysis and derived research, since genomics of non‐model organisms heavily rely on living material. The range of species that is made available annually on all seed lists combined, provides an unsurpassed source of instantly accessible plant material for research collections. Still, the Index Seminum has received criticism in the past few decades. The current exchange model dictates that associated data is manually entered into each database. The amount of time involved and the human errors occurring in this process are difficult to justify when the data was initially produced as a report from another database. The authors propose that an online marketplace for seed exchange should be established, with enhanced search possibilities and downloadable accession data in a standardised format. Such online service should preferably be supervised and coordinated by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). This manuscript is the outcome of a workshop on July 9th, 2015, at the European botanic gardens congress “Eurogard VII” in Paris, where the first two authors invited members of the botanic garden community to discuss how the anachronistic Index Seminum can be transformed into an improved and modern tool for seed exchange.

O armário: Fruiting phenology data for 4,462 plant taxa in Portugal (1926–2013)

“…This dataset was made possible by the renewed interest on the natural sciences and the proliferation of botanical gardens in the late 18 th century, when some gardens established seed and plant exchange programs to expand and preserve their botanical collections and to resolve taxonomical ambiguities 34 . To facilitate this exchange, numerous Botanical Gardens published a list of seed species available yearly, known as Index Seminum (Latin for: Seed Catalogue), many continuing to be issued to this day 35 . The Index Seminum of the Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra started in 1868 and was considerably improved in 1926 by expanding and diversifying taxa and collection range, and standardizing identification, storage and distribution of seeds 36 .…”

Botanische Gärten im Spannungsfeld von Politik und Gesetz

“…Während nur wenige Einrichtungen eigene Expeditionen und Sammelreisen finanzieren können, ist der weitaus größte Teil der Botanischen Gärten auf Material angewiesen, das ihnen von Wissenschaftler/innen, Privatpersonen oder anderen Bo tanischen Gärten unentgeltlich zur Verfügung gestellt wird. Der weltweite, kostenfreie Tausch von Saatgut zwischen Bota nischen Gärten hat eine jahrhundertelange Tradition und bis heute einen sehr hohen Stellenwert (Havinga et al, 2016). Insbesondere bei der Materialbeschaffung sind die Mitarbei ter/innen in Botanischen Gärten allerdings mit immer mehr Regularien und Herausforderungen der nationalen und inter nationalen Politik konfrontiert, worauf im zweiten Teil dieses Artikels gesondert eingegangen wird.…”

Integrating Biodiversity Data into Botanic Collections

“…A traditional practice among botanic gardens is the exchange of plant (genetic) resources by annually offering seed catalogues from which other gardens can order to develop their own collection. This practice is believed to have started in the late 16 nth century at the Oxford BG [ Aplin et al 2007 ] and, over the years, has been critically discussed [ Havinga et al 2016 , Aplin and Heywood 2008 , Heywood 1964 , Howard et al 1964 ]. A more recent development came with the dawn of the information age.…”