Southern Taiwan forestry expert mulls seed museum

2015/07/14

A southern Taiwan forestry expert is looking to establish a seed museum and help educate the public on the mysteries of life embedded in embryonic plants.

Chang Wen-ting, a technical specialist with Pingtung Forest District Office at the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau, is known by the nickname Sister Seed for her extensive field knowledge and 1,000 samples collected since 1997.

Discovering a passion for seeds when a forestry student at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Chang said she credits a chance encounter with the seed of Cassia grandis, or pink shower tree, for the lifelong pastime.

“The seeds of pink shower trees are contained in a long, wood-like fruit capsule, often left to their own devices due to a foul smell,” Chang said. “I was fascinated by the plant’s resilience and survival instinct in the face of a scorching tropical climate.”

An avid collector ever since, Chang spends her leisure time trekking through the great outdoors. But instead of marveling at the delights of Mother Nature, she is more often than not busy scanning the ground for traces of fallen seeds.

To date, her seed collection comprises a vast variety of flowering and woody plants, as well as conifers, cycads and ginkgo, mostly originating from southern Taiwan.

One of the most impressive among her personal trove is that of Ravenala madagascariensis, or traveler’s palm, Chang said. “Enclosed in its thorn-like pods are seeds the color of lapis lazuli. Only the sapphire-colored ones of Margaritaria indica can match its rare beauty and ethereal sheen in the plant world.”

Endemic plants also featuring eye-catching seeds include Ardisia crenata, or coralberry; Ardisia elliptica, seashore ardisia; Ardisia squamulosa, shoebutton ardisia; and Ricinus communis, castor oil plant, according to Chang.

Looking ahead, she expects to dedicate more time to exploring the diversity of the plant kingdom, and build her private seed bank into a public source of knowledge, equally benefiting laymen and those in the know.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=232486&ctNode=413)