Development of Native Seed for Sha Projects Report No. 1: Selecting Appropriate Species and Wild Collecting Their Seed.

摘要

The highly disturbed soils that SHA must revegetate are diverse, tough environments for plant life. The chances that some of the seed purchased will be well adapted to a particular stabilization site are optimized if that seed originated from a genetically diverse local collection. The use of locally native seed also preserves Maryland's natural heritage and supports local agriculture. Our goal is to make such seed more affordable and more available to SHA. In this report we develop a quantitative, non-arbitrary process for reviewing species being considered for use in roadside soil stabilization projects: the Attributes review process. The Attributes are 14 plant characteristics that must be understood to decide whether or not a plant is suitable for roadside use. Using this process, a panel of experts selected 3 species: gray goldenrod, beaked panicgrass, and Virginia wildrye, for further development. Gray goldenrod is a short, showy, drought-tolerant flower. Beaked panicgrass is a three-foot tall, warm season grass. Virginia wildrye is a three-foot tall, showy, cool season grass. Seed of each species was wild collected using methods that maximize the capture of genetic diversity. NPMC staff helped the authors to establish breeder blocks. Seed from the blocks will be certified as source-identified by the MDA and Maryland farmers have commenced seed production. A tremendous amount of relevant data was generated for each of the three species (Attributes, wild populations, breeder block establishment, field production work, 2008 harvest weights) and these are presented in supplemental reports. If the project is continued, the supplemental reports will be updated.