36 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM F or years, there has been a shrink- ing level of expertise in the area of seed morphology. According to Germany’s Wolfgang Stuppy, scientific curator for the Botanic Garden at Ruhr- University Bochum, since the mid-20th century, seed morphology has not been a discipline practised by many botanists who traditionally rely on floral characters for plant identification. In his opinion, the best work on the subject was produced by a few scientists in the final few decades of the 1990s. These researchers then reached retire- ment age and their seed morphological work ceased. Thankfully, a group of global seed industry stakeholders are coming to the rescue by forming the International Seed Morphology Association (ISMA) — with Stuppy at the helm as chairman. “In my work, sometimes the only material available for plant identifica- tion is seeds or fruits, and ISMA will now provide for the first time a central hub for seed morphology. Besides the seed industry, ISMA will also be an invalua- ble resource for scientists in the fields of ecology, ethnobotany, archaeology and agriculture,” Stuppy says. “[Having been a seed morpholo- gist] at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank in 2003, I very quickly became aware of the fact that I appear to be the only scien- tist entirely dedicated to subject of seed morphology.” Of course, there are other scientists who publish on the subject occasionally or who use seed morphology as tool for plant identification such as archaeologists and ecologists, but true specialists on seed morphology hardly seem to exist, he adds. “The decline is certainly accelerated and exacerbated by the fact that nowa- days, only high-tech research, especially molecular, is considered [worthy of] fund- ing and worthwhile to be published in high-impact journals.” Germany’s Axel Diederichsen serves as vice-chair of ISMA. He says the area of seed morphology has needed a shot A NEW INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION AIMS TO STRENGTHEN A CRUCIAL AREA OF EXPERTISE. BY: MARC ZIENKIEWICZ Revitalizing Seed Morphology Seed morphology is used in identifying over 200,000 flowering plants and their seeds around the world. Ruojing Wang, research scientist at CFIA and secretary for the International Seed Morphology Association. Axel Diederichsen serves as ISMA vice-chair. Germany’s Wolfgang Stuppy is scientific curator for the Botanic Garden at Ruhr-University Bochum and chairman of ISMA. Ernest Allan is director of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Seed Regulatory and Testing Division and a member of the ISMA board.