FSCLA manages a large and diverse native seedbank, employing a part-time coordinator to collect, process, store and dispatch local native plant seed. Our predominant customers are wholesale nursery growers wanting to produce tube stock for local re-vegetation projects. Funding for the seedbank comes from a range of bodies including South East Local Land Services, Bega Valley Shire Council and occasionally State Government Grants.
FREE NATIVE SEED FOR LANDHOLDERS – Where possible FSCLA tries to support private landholders wanting to propagate local provenance tube stock for the Bega Valley catchment area by providing small amounts of free seed and technical support. For access to seed or advice on what species you should plant, please contact our Seedbank Coordinator; Karen Walker on 64947856 or Home Office 0408 479 269.
See what’s in the Seedbank catalogue – click here
WHY USE LOCAL PROVENANCE SEED? Plants from a particular area have evolved over a long period of time to suit local conditions such as climate (especially rainfall) and the area’s topography and soils. Therefore they have greater survival rates and need less care compared to the same species of plants that have evolved elsewhere. Local provenance plants often have valuable genetic variations, showing clear physical differences such as flower colour and leaf shape, but they also may have genetic material whose benefits have not yet been quantified or even discovered – for example the ability to cope with drier conditions or more shade. There is a strong interdependence between all the plants in an ecological community and between plants and the local native animals, insects, and micro-organisms with which they have evolved. Introducing plants/genes that evolved from outside the natural ecosystem risks upsetting this balance.
Prices – Prices are under review; each species is priced according to a matrix considering species availability, difficulty of collection, difficulty of drying and extraction of seed – e.g. 10g of seed will cost somewhere between $3.50-$18.00
- Further information on the Community Seedbank can be obtained by contacting Karen Walker on 0408479269