Forgive me if this has been discussed before, and kindly post a link to the relevant thread...
How does one go about field collecting for the purposes of conservation, and what is generally done to impact as little as possible the plants being collected, or their environment?
I imagine a big part of it is an awareness of what already is known to exist in cultivation, and cataloging what plants and variations exist in a wild population, so you only select for collection those genetic variations that are not yet in cultivation.
But beyond avoiding unnecessary removal of plants from the wild, what else? Would an entire plant be removed, or just seeds, or a portion of the rhizome?
(I'm not planning on rushing out to the nearest bog; I'm just curious)
How does one go about field collecting for the purposes of conservation, and what is generally done to impact as little as possible the plants being collected, or their environment?
I imagine a big part of it is an awareness of what already is known to exist in cultivation, and cataloging what plants and variations exist in a wild population, so you only select for collection those genetic variations that are not yet in cultivation.
But beyond avoiding unnecessary removal of plants from the wild, what else? Would an entire plant be removed, or just seeds, or a portion of the rhizome?
(I'm not planning on rushing out to the nearest bog; I'm just curious)