Help:Seed lots
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This page explains what a seed lot is on Landrace.Wiki, what each seed lot status means, and how a holder's figures are recorded.
A seed lot is the seed of one accession held by one holder at one storage site. An accession page that records living seed shows the holder's main lot in its infobox, under Conservation, and any other lot of the same seed (a backup, or a portion passed on to another holder) beside it. Each lot carries a status: how urgently its seed needs attention to stay alive and true to its population. The status is worked out from what is recorded about the lot, by the same rules for every holder (Module:Grow-out priority), and the Grow-out priorities page uses it to order populations for growing out and collecting.
What each status means
| Status | On maps | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Urgent | red | At least one recorded fact puts the seed at risk of being lost or changed. Examples: too few seeds left for three sowings, a germination test clearly below the line, seed kept at room temperature without being dried, a holder's statement that there is no backup, fewer than 30 mother plants, or a grow-out with no isolation recorded. |
| At risk | orange | No fact reaches that line, but one comes close to it. Examples: fewer than 3,000 seeds left, a germination test that is overdue or falls between the lines, a backup in the same town, or seed that is sold, swapped or given out. |
| Secure | green | Every fact is recorded and passes: a counted germination test that passes, dried seed in storage whose next test is not yet due, at least 3,000 seeds, a backup of at least 500 seeds expected to germinate in another town, at least 30 mother plants at every step, seed not handed out, and a population whose field grade and reachability are known. |
| No data yet | grey | Nothing has been reported about the lot: no seed count, storage, germination test, backup or distribution. The wiki lists no actions for such a lot. |
| Data deficient | grey | Some facts are reported, but too few to rate the lot. The lot's details in the infobox list the facts that are not known. |
| Held in a genebank, not distributed | blue | The lot is held by a genebank that does not give seed to growers or to the community, at present INRA Maroc, National Plant Germplasm System, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and University of Mississippi. It is not rated, and it does not count when the wiki works out whether a population's seed is safe, since the community cannot obtain it. |
On the maps a grey marker stands for any of three things: a lot with no data yet, a lot with too little data to rate, or an accession with no seed lot recorded. Herbarium sheets, tissue samples and other preserved material never carry a seed lot.
Why most lots are grey
Few holders publish figures for stock, storage, germination tests, backups or mother plants, so most lots on the wiki have no data yet. A lot changes colour when facts about it are recorded. The first facts usually turn a lot red or orange rather than green, because a lot is rated Secure only when every fact is known and passes. A lot that is sold or given out is rated At risk at best.
Reproductions
A lot grown from an earlier accession is a reproduction. Its grow-out history can be followed only when the accession it was grown from is named on its page (the parent accession), back to the original collection. A reproduction whose parent accession is not recorded has its grow-out history not known, and it does not count as a verified copy of its population.
How a holder's figures are recorded
A holder, or an editor working from what a holder publishes, records a lot's facts in one of two places:
- The main lot is recorded on the accession page itself. The seed count goes in
seed_quantity, and the lot's other facts in thelot_fields of Template:Accession: storage site and country, distance to the nearest other copy, the date the seed was received, whether it is handed out, whether a backup exists, whether the lot is still held, and where the figures come from (lot_source). - Any other lot, such as a backup at another site or seed passed on to another holder, gets a page of its own, created with Form:Seed lot. Template:Seed lot lists its fields.
Seed counts are given as Template:Lot inventory reports and germination tests as Template:Lot germination test reports, one per count or test, each with its date and source. A germination test is best given as the number of seeds sown and the number of seedlings, not a percentage alone. A storage site is given as a code, never as a town or an address (see the Privacy policy). An empty field always means not known: nothing is filled in for a missing value.
See also
- Grow-out priorities for the populations listed by how urgently their seed needs collecting or growing out.
- Help:Accessions for what an accession page contains.
- Module:Grow-out priority for the rules in full, with their test cases.