Nursery Labeling Standards
Native plant labeling might be straightforward for some, but ArcheWild aims to assure its customers, mostly government agencies, botanical gardens, and ecological professionals, of exactly what they are buying by providing relevant information about the plants’ genetics, place of origin, and suitable planting conditions. Our labels include several codes that enable our nursery staff and customers to track exact information about our plants.
Accession Codes
ArcheWild uses a structured accession coding system to label all the plants we propagate in our nurseries. An accession code is a tracking number for a particular source of seed and is used to provide full traceability for the plants propagated from that seed. Some government agencies and most botanical gardens use these accession codes to satisfy compliance and curation requirements, respectively. Land managers are also demanding accession codes as a way of documenting what has been planted on their land (e.g., a state park) so that future managers can track their performance and prove the genetic provenance of a plant for research purposes.
ArcheWild accession codes consist of two parts, the USDA plant symbol and a unique identifier from our database. This combination allows us to distinguish one seed source from another for the same species. We use accession codes to document where, when, by whom, and other information related to how the original genetics were obtained. This method allows us, for example, to grow and keep track of 20 different genotypes of Schizachyrium scoparium var. scoparium.
Plant Symbol
The plant symbol is an acronym representing the full botanical name of a plant. We use the plant symbols determined by USDA Plants Database, which catalogs all plants in the United States.
Unique Identifier
This identifier is a serial number for a seed source that is specific to ArcheWild.
Customers can contact us with the accession code on their tags for complete information about their plants’ genetic origin.
Ecoregion Code
The Ecoregion code is the key to understanding where a plant originated, which genetic strain is represented, and how/where to use the plant. The Ecoregion is a national classification of the physiographic provinces that represent unique combinations of soil, hydrology, and slope and we use this code to document where our parent, seed-bearing plants originated. Unlike accession codes, which pertain only to plants from a specific nursery, Ecoregions are standardized and available as a common communication tool for all native plant nurseries.
Ecoregions are very specific regional geographic areas which can differ greatly in terms of soil composition, annual rainfall, seasonal freezing and drought patterns, and so forth. Knowing the ecoregion provenance of plants is useful to many professionals and informs the buyer where in the country the seed originated. This gives us an understanding of the specific site conditions of that region and guides the use and planting plans for each plant. This level of detail allows a landscape architect or land manager to specify the genetic origin of their plants and better understand the conditions that a particular species and genetic strain prefers.
Summary
Specifying “local” seed or a “local” nursery has no useful or real meaning in the context of Ecoregions, genetics, and accession codes. Specifying an Ecoregion source requirement helps assure genetic fitness and suitability of a plant crop to a particular use or project location, and helps to protect indigenous populations. Specifying an Ecoregion provides some assurance that a nursery isn’t simply buying their seed on the internet or importing seed from the West Coast or the Midwest.
Online seed brokers will often claim provenance at a state level and only use partial botanical names. This, too, is almost meaningless to the professional plant buyer.
Few large East Coast native nurseries are capable of supplying Ecoregion and accession information. To date, only ArcheWild, Pinelands, and Greenbelt native nurseries are known to have this capability. Only ArcheWild puts this information on its tags.
