Passiflora seed collection

Today we collected some seeds for the Palmerston North Indiginous Flora Seed Bank. The seeds were from Passiflora tetrandra, a native NZ passionfruit. We needed to collect approx 500 fruit, each contain 10-15 seeds so that we could provide approx 5000 seeds.

After collecting the Passiflora fruits we extracted the seeds

Close up of the seeds inside their red pulp coating

All the seeds were put into the sieve and then hosed to remove the red pulp

We then put all the washed seeds in a tray on newspaper to dry

Close up of the seeds without their coating

As part of the collection procedure for the seed bank we needed to supply a herbarian sample,
so we took some cuttings of the plant and pressed them to supply with the seeds.

After 4 weeks of being pressed the herbarian sample of the  passiflora was fully dried and ready to be
 sent to the seed bank.

We collected all the dried seeds in a paper bag.  At a rough estimate of 10 seeds per fruit
and approx 900 fruits collected, there should be around 900-950 seeds.

When sending off the seeds and herbarian sample we need to complete this form with the
 details of the seeds we had collected.