As Seen on CPC’s Rare Plant Academy: All in the Family: The Case for Collecting by Maternal Lines

Having a connection to your mother is important to a plant–well, at least to a plant record. In a video prepared specifically for the Rare Plant Academy, Heather Schneider of Santa Barbara Botanic Garden makes the case for collecting seeds along maternal lines–that is, keeping seed from different mother plants separate. Collecting along maternal lines provides depth to a collection. The general rule is that 50 maternal lines captured evenly through a population can capture the vast majority of the genetic diversity within that population. Processing and storing seeds along maternal lines ensures that each line can be represented in restoration and reintroduction efforts, and also provides the opportunity to ask more questions when conducting research on a species.