Appendix A. An extract from NordGen’s QA assurance system

Minimum standards for acquisition of orthodox seeds collected from wild plant populations 

1. The material should be acquired legally and with the appropriate permissions when this is needed. Observe that collections of species on the red list and any species in nature conservation areas will need special permissions for sampling.
2. Sampling should be conducted in such a way that the health and survival of the natural population is not endangered. As a guideline, do not sample more than 20% of the seeds in the natural population. If possible, leave some seeds on all sampled individuals. This is done both to assure enough seeds to produce the next generation and to maintain genetic diversity and adaptive potential in the natural population. Avoid digging up plants unless special circumstances dictate otherwise. The only exception to this standard is when the population is going to be destroyed.
3. To assure good quality of seeds entering the gene bank, sampling should be conducted as close to seed maturity as possible and the seeds should be kept in appropriate postharvest conditions. When the seeds have been collected, they should be placed in a container that allows the seeds to dry. Keep in temperatures below 30 °C and relative humidity below 85% whenever possible. The seeds should be placed in a drying environment as soon as possible after collection, generally within 5 days (see E). Accessions with low germination percentage may not be accepted.
4. The seed sample should be from a minimum number of plants to assure that a representative sample is collected and to avoid inbreeding depression in the gene bank population. Preferably the same amount of seeds should be sampled from all plants. The following guidelines should be followed:
   • Cross-pollinating species: preferably sample from 100 individuals or more, but at least from 30 genetic individuals per population, (multiple samples from clones or related individuals should be avoided and sample distance should therefore exceed the most common dispersal distance of the species).
   • Self-pollinating species: at least 10 individuals should be sampled per subpopulation and, if applicable, separate samples from other subpopulations within the metapopulation in the region (preferably several subpopulations). See appendix 3 for further details and examples.
5.  The preferred seed amount is 25,000 per accession and the minimum amount is 750 for cross-pollinated species and 250 for self-pollinated species.
6. To make sure that the appropriate documentation is available for all accessions, each sample should be clearly labelled, and a collection form should be filled in for each accession. As much information as possible should be recorded about each accession and the minimum amount of information is specified in NordGen´s collection form. The data can be provided in a predefined electronic format. Photographs should be taken at the sampling location.