I’m curious what kinds of Plants the Innatualist Community grows & saves seeds from?
I save all kinds of wild seeds like Mayapple, Black Raspberry, Wineberry, Spicebush, Sweet Cicely, ect. I also save seeds from Grocery Store like Squash, Melons, Spices, Sesame, Peppers, ect.
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I do both.
When I can legally (and ethically) collect seeds from native plants, I’m likely to bring some home to put in to the work-in-continuous-progress wildlife garden. (Imagine something like a classic English cottge garden done in Colorado Front Range and Eastern Plains natives, and you’ve got an idea of what I’m going for.) I’ve started some native primroses from seed that I collected last year, and I’m hoping that the birds and squirrels leave some of the fruit on the self-planted Golden Currant; my goal is to start more bushes and replace at least a few of the !*@&^@#?! buckthorn shrubs that are trying to overrun the yard.
I also plant a lot of heirlooms fruit and veggies, and occasionally do some accidental “let’s see if it grows” plantings. The last one of those was the pumpkin patch that scared our dog. I’ve tried to be a little more cautious since then. 
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Yes, for seeds:
https://www.leboncoin.fr/profile/784d485a-e6d8-45b8-b35e-3dbe561d3751
For iNatters, all are free of charge, but I don’t know if we are allowed to export/import.
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Haha, yes. I do a lot of seed-saving from my own yard and had students help me clean and package them for seed swaps. We’ve also collected (with permission) from local public gardens. We have a big seed swap once a year with the local chapter of the Native Plant Society, and a seed library at the local native plant garden to distribute the leftovers to the general public. It’s very popular based on how quickly seeds are picked up!
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I do garden and save seeds. I collect seeds from fun wild natives like milkweed and scatter them, and if I found any nut trees (like hickory… 
) I would take some nuts home to plant.
As for gardening, I love planting Three Sisters gardens. These are made up of beans, corn, and squash.
The beans provide nitrogen, the corn makes a good trellis for the beans, and the squash’s big leaves keep moisture in and weeds out.
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What kinds of seeds have you saved? Does your Golden Currant make any seeds to save?
@jeanphilippeb Nice, what kinds of seeds do you save?
@annkatrinrose Nice, what kinds of seeds did you save? Maybe we could trade?
@oksanaetal ooh nice, I’ve just started learning about Milkweeds, what kinds are you growing? I’m interested in gathering more diversity to kick-start my milkweed domestication project to improve milkweed for edibility & adapting to wide range of soils.
What kinds of Squash do you grow?
Which may have botanical or aesthetic interest.
Not sure, which kinds of edible plants do you have?
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I do a lot of native plant gardening (I grow some veggies as well), but man, I’ve lost just about everything this year to voles! My camas are total goners. Same with the nodding onions, baby lupine, and fritillaries. Fortunately, the voles don’t touch my shooting stars or my large perennials.
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Dang… 
that’s sad! I’ve also lost just about everything I’ve planted no thanks to Groundhogs & Deer.
Is there any animal in your ecosystem that eats voles? Maybe you can somehow enoruage the landscape to favor the vole’s predators? Location can make or break your gardening efforts.
What seeds did you manage to save despite the voles?
I don’t have as much of a garden as I’d like (just a small plot in a community garden) but I collect and save seeds at any opportunity I get! And I dream of one day having enough land to grow whatever I want, instead of having to carefully choose each year.
I am very concerned about the state of the world food systems and our extreme over-reliance on a small set of crop plants (most of which have very little genetic diversity).
I’m particularly interested in feral crop plants - anything that’s robust enough to grow on its own without human assistance is definitely something I want! This year I’m growing some tomato plants that another iNatter found growing wild in a creek a couple years back and was kind enough to mail me seeds for. I also have some amazing tree collards I found years ago growing in a ditch by the side of a highway, and propagated cuttings from. And some elephant garlic that was growing in the margins of a nearby salt marsh.
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I’m not growing any, the common milkweed is great for my tastes. All I’m doing is scattering it across my yard and hoping for the best.
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Carissa macrocarpa
Citrus australasica
Citrus hystrix (very young)
Debregeasia orientalis (growing fast, many flowers, but not a single fruit)
Eriobotrya japonica (very young)
Ficus carica (not productive, because of flies)
Laurus nobilis
Psidium cattleyanum (not productive, inappropriate climate)
Ribes nigrum (not productive, very low growth, half dying)
Rubus idaeus (low growth, low production)
Strawberries
Talinum paniculatum
Zanthoxylum piperitum (very young)
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My dad and I put out a vegetable garden every year, and every year it’s pretty much the same stuff. Corn, green beans, onions, tomatoes, peppers. The last two years, we did butternut squash, but didn’t really know what to do with it. Neither of us are great cooks. Once he’s gone, I doubt I’ll keep it up. I usually have no luck with seeds.
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Butternut is great with chili!
(As I write this, the smell of butternut-squashed chili on the stove fills my nostrils.)
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Mostly pollinator/butterfly host plants native to the Blue Ridge mountains and preferably local ecotypes. Location would be nice to know. Based on the wild plants you’re listing, I assume you’re somewhere in the eastern US? Does your state have a Native Plant Society that does seed swaps? Another resource to check for, especially for heirloom varieties of fruits and veggies, may be whether you have access to a Cooperative Extension service. Ours has a Master Gardener program, plant sales, workshops etc. Botanical gardens might be another source. The NC Botanical Garden has a seed distribution program for its members. They only ship to the southeastern states though.
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Ribes aureum? I grow that one too. I put the fruit in the blender, strain the seeds out, dry them, and store them in an envelope until winter. Then around December I put them in a plastic bag with a wet paper towel and that goes in the fridge for 3 months, for planting in the spring. The refrigeration step might not actually be necessary because the seeds also come up by themselves where the birds deposit them.
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Me too! but I’m also interested in rewilding the domesticated crops to make them grow like Feral Crops!
Genetically Diverse Landrace Melons that taste good can grow like weeds vs a highly inbred Melon Cultivar that adapted to high inputs won’t grow without them.
Which feral crops do you want to grow? Many of the wild edibles I want to domesticate!
Wow! That’s amazing was it a wild or feral tomato? Regardless if you found it growing in the wild it has good survivability genetics! How are they growing for you? What color were the fruits?
WOW! You’ve got to take some pictures, I’m suprised you found Collards growing in a ditch around the Highway!? Did the Collards make any seeds as well?
ooh! Did your elephant Garlic make bulbils or True Seeds? Did it taste good? This is exactly the kind of plants I look for & save seeds from!
Oh wow! Could you tell me more about it? What it taste like? Can it be grown as an annual?
Do you have any seeds of it? It’s a species I want to cross with Pears & Amelanchier via Mentor Pollination & Mentor Grafting to induce Horizontal Gene Flow.
Nice! what color are the fruits? If you have any seeds I’d love to trade.
ooh! Can you tell me more about it? What does it taste like?
Yes I’m in Maryland. What species are you growing? I’m especially interested in Wild edibles, what species are you interested in?
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I collect native seeds from public lands at the edge of town, never rare species, just common ones, and permits aren’t needed for personal use. Last year, I collected Thelypodium laciniatum and milleflorum. The milleflorum germinated really well, but not the milleflorum, and both got the same cold stratification. I also grew older seeds of Crepis occidentalis and Balsamorhiza saggitata. Paeonia brownii and Peraphyllum ramosissimum didn’t germinate at all. I mostly grow them to bring some native species back to this weedy yard we bought a couple of years ago.
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Here’s what I’ve posted seed or seedling observations for (not all of them survived though).
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