PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES NEWSLETTER NO. 58 1 |
| This Newsletter contains two articles of possible interest to those concerned with forest tree seed and gene conservation matters. |
| The first article, entitled Seed Storage Characteristics by R.H. Ellis, gives an up-dated tabulation of seed weights and seed storage characteristics of over 600 agricultural, horticultural, pasture and forestry crop species, nearly one third of them forest tree species. |
| The second article is a discussion of some economic aspects of genebank conservation, by F. Yudgaard and E. Kjellquist. It suggests that, since samples accepted by genebanks would normally be stored for at least 100 years, thus involving considerable costs, standards for acceptance should be set regarding the quantity and quality of each sample, the justification for its maintenance in the bank and the information supplied for it. |
| A new booklet entitled Practical Constraints Affecting the Collection and Exchange of Samples of Wild Species and Primitive Cultivars has been published by IBPGR. It identifies the difficulties encountered in many aspects of germplasm collection, e.g. lack of phenological information and heterogeneity of seed maturing time, and recommends measures to overcome them, including matters to be attended to when planning collections. |
| 1 Published jointly by the Plant Production and Protection Division of FAO, Rome, and IBPGR; June 1984. 50 p. |
