Source Identified

MCIA offers source-identified certification for indigenous or non-indigenous trees, shrubs, vines and herbaceous plants, including grasses, forbs and wildflowers. These services assure the proper identity and purity of native plants that are needed to revegetate, restore, improve or stabilize natural-plant communities.

This type of certification is available for seeds and other propagating materials of germplasm types that have not been released as varieties. The standards are designed to certify the genus, species and ecotype of the source plants; they are not used for genetic certification.

The program provides:

• Site identification
  • a species site inspection identifies the genus, species and exact location of the original collection. Source identified material can come from natural stands, seed production areas or seed fields where no selection or selective breeding of the parent population has been made.
• Seed sampling and testing
  • seed samples are sent to an MSIA-approved laboratory, where they are tested for purity and content of noxious weed seeds.

Three different levels or seed classes are possible based on the amount of inentional selection that has taken place:

• Source identified
  • material is marked with a yellow tag, comprised of the least selected germplasm and considered to have a genetically diverse origin
• Selected
  • material is marked with a green tag and is the progeny of phenotypically selected plants, traits or parentage that has promise, but no proof of inheritance
• Tested
  • material is marked with a blue tag ad is the progeny of plants whose parentage has been tested and proven to possess distinctive traits.