Collecting seeds
In most cases, you will want fairly large envelopes or even small paper bags in which you can place entire capsules. People who collect a lot in the wild sometimes use small cloth drawstring bags, either home-made or purchased from scientific or geological suppliers. The cloth bags will not fall apart if exposed to moisture, and they allow the plant material to "breathe" and dry naturally. Do not place seeds in plastic bags; they are likely to mold and rot.
Label your envelopes carefully as you collect them. The commercial bags may have a label attached; otherwise, insert a slip of paper with the data written in pencil—ink may run as it absorbs moisture. Include the name of the plant, place and date of collection, and any other information you think pertinent. Serious collectors often carry altimeters and record the elevation. I f you cannot identify the plant in the field, take a sample of the foliage and any other part that might be diagnostic so you can go over it once you return to your reference books.
The botanical description may even clear up the problem of whether you have seed in the first place. Don't laugh; various other parts of the dried inflorescence show up in "seed" donations. I had to read up on Eriogonum the first time I collected its seed in order to puzzle out how to extricate it from the capsules. Material sent to the exchange as composite seed is often devoid of true seeds. The seeds are the plump, sometimes rather hard bits attached to the disk; the bits above them are chaff. I f you're not sure, look at the material with a good magnifying lens: the actual seeds are regularly shaped.
Never take more than a small portion of the seed you find at a given wild site. Some collectors also plant seeds near the parents to help protect the population from nonhuman seed predators. In most wild populations, very few of the seeds produced are able to germinate and produce mature plants.
Even when you collect seed from the garden, don't rely on your memory to hold the identity. When I don't have time to clean and package seeds right away, I place the capsules in a small dish to dry and immediately label an envelope, placing it in the same container. Once the seeds are off the plant, they must have a written name attached somehow!
I learned from David Hale, author of the "Botanical Traveler" columns in this journal, that it is possible to collect seeds that don't appear to be mature, and they will still ripen further and germinate well. This is particularly true of composite (Asteraceae) seeds, which can be rather green and still viable as long as they are plump. Some seeds never really look "ripe"; for example, the short-lived seeds of fall-blooming Kirengeshoma should be planted while soft, white, and wet.
Whether you collect the seeds in far Bolivia or in your back yard, clean them as soon as possible. Many insects spend all or part of their lives inside seed capsules, busily devouring the seeds, and they will keep doing this until you destroy their happy homes.
Cleaning seeds
Because nature has given rise to so many different kinds of seeds and seed capsules (or "pods"), there are many different approaches to proceeding from the mass of vegetable matter you have collected to the seeds pristinely tidy enough to store, plant, or exchange. Some are simple: when you split the capsule with a little pressure, they simply fall out with no extra bits attached. Empty this type into a clean dish—a white porcelain bowl with sides about 2 inches (5 cm) tall is useful—and take it outdoors on a day that is not too windy. Blow very gently onto the seeds to remove the light chaff (waste material). This is a good way to separate viable from nonviable lily seed, since the bits without embryos are lighter and fly away.
Some capsules are more retentive. The nutlike capsules of many penstemons are designed to hold onto the seeds until the following spring and then release them when conditions are right for germination. I break these open with needlenose pliers, since many of them have sharp processes which are hard on fingertips. Pliers or long forceps are a necessity for collecting and cleaning the seeds of Morina species, which are guarded by ferocious spines. A well-aimed boot can remove the fruit of a cactus, and then all you have to do is extricate the hard seeds from the pulp, which in some species is really disgusting.
Some growers clean seed in sieves, but I don't think it is a good idea to rub the material on the grating of a metal sieve because it may damage the seed coats. However, a fine-mesh sieve can be helpful in separating very fine seed, such as that of campanulas, from the larger chaff. Note that some seeds are fairly fragile; Corydalis specialists, for example, may pack their exchange seeds in little padded boxes so they won't be broken in transit.
The showy seedheads of pulsatillas and clematis tempt many seed donors, as any seed exchange worker knows who has dealt with the great sacks of this stuff that arrive. Part of cleaning these seeds is cutting o f f the "tails." I f it seems like too much work, you've collected too much seed!
In rare instances, it may be best to leave the seed in its capsules. Several years ago I did this after collecting the minute capsules of the remarkable Saxifraga escbscbolzii on Alaska's Seward Peninsula. I felt that any grower who got them would be more than willing to extract the seeds on arrival.
Seeds that are enclosed in fleshy fruits present a special problem. The fleshy material should be removed before the seeds are stored or sent off; sometimes it contains a germination inhibitor and must be removed even before they are planted at home. I f the pulp is watery (e.g., Vaccinium), I crush the fruits lightly and leave them out to dry on paper towels for a day or two. Fleshy seeds like those of arisaemas can be soaked in water at room temperature for a few days, then rolled in a cloth, rubbed gently, and washed in a sieve.
It is advisable to wear rubber gloves when handling the broken pulp of arisaemas and other aroids, many of which contain strong irritants. Hellebore seeds also cause skin inflammation in many people.