Index Seminum meaning in Latin "seed index", is a catalog of seeds of wild or cultivated plants offered free of charge or in exchange of seeds of equivalent value by botanical gardens or arboretums. It is published annually or biennially by these institutions, traditionally in A5 format. Seeds presented in Index Seminum are readily available and kept in seed banks. More than 1000 institutions from 48 countries publish Index Seminum with the intention of establishing a free and fare exchange. The exchange of seeds and spores constitutes one of the main ways of increasing the living collections of the Botanical Gardens, and is also a way of obtaining material for the development of research work.
Components of an ''Index Seminum''
Generally there are several items that are included in the listings:
The classification of plant species is made by alphabetical order of the families to which they belong, and another by genus. The seeds collected in the botanical garden itself must have a separate classification. It is important that the origin of the seeds is well specified, clarifying whether they were collected outside or inside the botanical garden itself.
History
Tradition of collecting and exchanging seeds dates back to XVIII century. In XXI century this tradition is reexamined in the context of the conservation of biodiversity and the fight against invasive species. In terms of nomenclature, the old Index Seminum are precious because they sometimes contain the description of new species such as Telanthera bettzickiana, described in 1862 by Eduard August von Regel in the Index Seminum of the Saint Petersburg Botanical Garden. In Spain The preparation of the catalog of the seeds available in a botanical garden is a traditional activity, which began in Spain at the beginning of the 19th century, and has remained in the same conditions to this day. In 1800Casimiro Gómez Ortega published the first Index Seminum of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid. The Botanical Garden of Valencia published its first seed catalog in 1862. Every year the :es:Asociación Ibero-Macaronésica de Jardines Botánicos|Ibero-Marcaronesic Network of Botanical Gardens offers the Index Seminum pro mutual commutatione of the twenty one gardens associated with this network. The Index Seminum of the :es:Jardín Botánico Universitario de Sierra Nevada|University Botanical Garden of Granada in Sierra Nevada offers the seeds of the 1980s endemisms of the Sierra.
