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Do you need to identify an unknown seed species?
Until recently your choices were:
1. Sort through a few books
or publications that have limited collections of photos or
drawings of seeds.
2. Go to a seed laboratory or a University herbarium and
compare your seed with their seed samples.
3. Send your sample to the Federal Seed Laboratory or to
certain state seed laboratories with large herbariums and a
knowledgeable staff.
 Now
with the advent of the internet and photomicroscope you can find
a comparison on the
Seedimages.com website. Dr. Arnold Larsen in conjunction
with the National Center
for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP) and Colorado
State University (CSU) has taken photos of thousands of seed
species and placed them on a website with descriptions and a
user friendly software. These are high quality full color
digital images of many crop and weed seeds that can be used by
anyone who has the interest or need to identify or compare
seeds.
Many of the photos currently available were originally included
in one of two publications prepared by the CSU Seed Technology
Education Program: Photographs of Selected Crop and Weed Seeds
and Seeds of Noxious Weeds of the United States. Both of these
publications were originally developed to provide students who
were taking seed analysts distance education courses developed
by the Department of Soil and Crop Science at Colorado State
University with a seed identification tool. These books and
courses are still available to students and members of the seed
trade around the world.
The pictures on the
Seedimages.com website can be used by
everyone associated with the seed industry such as seed
analysts, technologists, conditioners, labelers, producers and
industry field representatives as well as college professors,
extension agents, farmers and agronomists. This is the first
time such a comprehensive collection of high quality seed images
has been offered on the worldwide web.
This website contains unique features that emphasize the
photographs and highlights the special descriptors making this
site invaluable to its users. The seed images are listed by
common and scientific names in separate indexes with 3 levels of
clear, high quality magnification. Each seed has a description
that will help identify it by color, shape, texture, length,
width and indicates whether it is noxious or not, and in which
states it is considered noxious.
Seedimages.com also has the capability of comparing 2 seed
photos side-by-side, and it contains all the seeds required for
identification on the Registered Seed Technologist and the Seed
Analyst's Certification examinations of the Society of Seed
Technologists (SCST) and the Association of Official Seed
Analysts (AOSA). It also includes the list of noxious weed seeds
for each of the 50 U.S. states and the Federal Seed Act and, it
is directly linked to each state's noxious weed seed list. The
links to the State Seed Laws will provide complete labeling
requirements for the noxious weed seeds in that state. The USDA,
Agricultural Marketing Service provides the labeling
information.
Future enhancements and additions to
www.seedimages.com will
also be very helpful to the seed industry. Work in progress
includes an advanced seed identification wizard where the
descriptors of size, color, shape, etc. will produce the seed
photos containing the expressed features. Another advancement of
this site is to expand the databank of seed images to include
tree, vegetable and flower seeds of the same high standards of
quality currently available. The website has invaluable web
links to other resource sites such as SCST, AOSA, GRIN and
others. As always, the website is monitored daily and will be
updated regularly to continue to meet the needs of the industry.
Sample pages are available for viewing at
www.seedimages.com so
patrons may experience the quality and current benefits that
this site has to offer. Subscriptions forms are available from
the homepage and yearly access to this site is available for a
modest fee. For more information concerning this seed
identification website or on the above mentioned books and
courses, email seedimages@colostate.edu or phone 970-491-6295.
The subscription form should be sent to Colorado State
University, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, 1170 Campus
Mail, Fort. Collins, CO 80523-1170 or faxed to 970-491-0564,
attention Seed Programs.
Dr. Arnold Larsen is responsible for the preparation of the
digital images. Dr. Larsen is the past director of the Colorado
State Seed Laboratory and is the present technical advisor of
the lab. He is well known in the seed industry for all his
research and leadership.
Seedimages.com has been prepared with
the vision, insight, knowledge and skills of Jim Bruce and Dr.
Loren Wiesner (retired) of the NCGRP as well as Dr. Jack
Fenwick, Carissa Schow and Dr. Larsen of CSU and professional
assistance from Ken Hoornbeek of Computer Outfitters, Inc.
The website has proven particularly valuable to seed analysts,
educators, seed companies, conditioners, extensions agents, seed
growers, agronomists, as well as university and government
personnel in a wide range of fields.
Dr. Wiesner can be reached at
Loren.Wiesner@colostate.edu
Gene Milstein can be reached at
gmilstein@applewoodseed.com |
