An important part of our seed work involves identification of weed seeds. Many weeds are prohibited, or declared noxious, and adversely affect the purchase, sale and especially the export potential of seed and commodities. Even seeds of plants not generally thought of as weeds may be considered so when contaminating a crop, either due to their potential to become invasive or to harbour particular plant pests and diseases.

We are continually adding to our collection, arranged alphabetically by family, and then alphabetically within that plant family. Even seeds deemed unlikely to turn up in samples are of value as they may help to narrow an unknown down to family. The photo below shows just one of our many seed collection drawers. Yellow labels show how many species have been added since our last labelling session.