Welcome
Welcome to the Testing Wild Seeds (TWS) website, which has been primarily developed to help seed analysts worldwide for testing wild species seeds. TWS is designed to help seed analysts find protocols for testing a wild species and thereby improve uniformity in testing between seed laboratories. Please be patient with the TWS website, as it will take time to develop and upload data for protocols. This will be an ongoing process.
The recommended protocols are organized by plant species and include protocols for purity, germination and tetrazolium testing. Methodology chapters have been written to provide in-depth content for performing various seed tests and to aid in training. The gallery is designed to help seed analysts identify other species that may be contaminating a seed lot. A seed glossary is designed to help seed analysts understand botanical and seed testing terminology.
Reader/User Oversite
TWS is a work in progress. Recommended germination protocols are based on comparative results. Efforts have been made to present reasonable recommendations for commercial seed testing. When a seed analyst or researcher finds a recommendation in TWS that is not adequate for any reason, please let us know what it is and why.
We welcome any data to help substantiate and support a suggested change to improve our recommendations. Please submit these results, to help us make the most meaningful recommendations.
Should any mistakes throughout the web site be discovered, please point these out to the Chair of the Wild Species Working Group. Users of this web site are our final editors, and we welcome input. Accuracy is our goal and we will gratefully fix anything needing improvement.
Using Search Engine
The search engine has been built to help you find a protocol for a species. If you know the current scientific name or a synonym of a species you would like to find, start typing the name into the search engine. Try it. You can also search by using the common name of a species. If you know the plant family of a species, but are not sure of the name, enter the family name and you may be able to find the species from a list of species in the family list. If you are looking for a species, and it is not on the website, please let us know of your interest, and we will see if we can find data to help us build a protocol.
Using a Protocol
The protocols include nomenclature links and images of the seed. The purity section includes the pure seed definitions and the recommended working weights for the purity test as well as the other species or noxious seed exam. Recommended germination protocols give directions on media type, kind of moisture, if light is needed, days to test and in many cases the recommended dormancy breaking methodologies. When available, pictures of normal and abnormal seedlings will be included. A tetrazolium testing protocol will provide imbibition recommendations, seed preparation for tetrazolium staining and how to evaluate viability. When available, images of seed with normal staining patterns will be included.
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