ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Photography:

Dr. Arnold Larsen

Seeds:

Applewood Seed Company,  Arvada, CO
Colorado Seed Laboratory,  Fort Collins, CO
New York State Seed Laboratory,  Geneva, NY
1987 California Flower Seed Workshop, Sacramento, CA
STA Labs,  Longmont, CO
USDA/ARS NSSL,  Fort Collins, CO

Microscope and camera equipment:

Olympus PM20 Automatic Photomicrographic System
Olympus SZH � 10 Microscope

On loan jointly from:
 Scientific Instrument Company
 13900 E. Florida Ave., Suite G, Aurora, CO 80012
  Olympus America, Inc., Precision Instruments Div.,
  2 Corporate Center Drive, Melville, NY  11747-3157

Facilities:

 USDA/ARS National Seed Storage Laboratory

Film, processing, reproduction, indexing and plate editing:

 Front Range Seed Analysts Association,  1996; editor: Annette Miller, cover art: Jane Hall, assistant editors: Jane Hall, Barbara Atkins.

Nomenclature:

 Uniform Classification of Weed and Crop Seeds, AOSA Contribution Number 25 to the Handbook of Seed Testing.

Scale:  millimeters shown across the bottom of each image
 

Forward

      This flower seed image project by the FRSA has blossomed as a result of fortunate coincidences and a seize-the-day effort.  In the spring of 1996 Dr. Arnold Larson borrowed camera and microscope equipment to take seed photos for Colorado State University's new Seed Analysis correspondence course.  He took over 500 slides of seeds from the identification lists for the AOSA and SCST accreditation exams.   Those images are owned and will be distributed by CSU.  With the camera equipment not 20 feet from my desk at the NSSL and three large cardboard boxes of flower seeds (intended for workshop handouts)  sitting nearby, the idea for the flower seed image project took root.
      FRSA agreed to funding for film and processing and Dr. Larsen generously donated many weeks of his time as the equipment was available.   Enough photos were taken to fill two compact disks.  Plates were prepared using Adobe 6.0 Pagemaker software for Macintosh.   Though titled "Seeds of Cultivated Flowers", there are a few herbs and shrubs in the collection.
      The acknowledgements page lists the seed sources.  Two indexes are provided: 1. alphabetical by family and genus and 2. alphabetical by common name.  The indexes are for use with both the Plates and the CD's.  Users should understand that the samples represent one lot of a species.  They are not representative of the full range of variation in the species.  Production and conditioning also affect seed appearance.  This collection is meant to be used in conjunction with other references and seed samples.  Seed identifications should always be checked by using more than one reference.

                                    Annette Miller, editor       August 27, 1996.
 

Images may be copied and distributed by permission only and must have attribution to the FRSA.