I would be willing to trade tree seeds. Interested in seed from pinus albicaulus and Larix lyallii as well as quercus macrocarpa, acer rubrum and acer negundo. I have pinus sibirica, pinus sylvestris, Picea abies from very northern collections as well as betula pubescens.
Check all relevant import and export regulations first! No point arranging a trade only for Customs to impound them.
It is not forbidden to import seeds to Sweden. Plants however is mor diffucult to import and should be inspected on arrival and have a phyto cert. Lars
Someone who is looking for manitoba maple? Yowsers. I am in zone 3, in Canada. I can provide: A. negundo (Manitoba/Box Elder) A. tataricum (Hotwings) A. ginnala (Amur) Picea meyeri -- These are off my own trees, so they have survived 12 years of Alberta winters. I may be able to get you Pinus banksiana (Jack Pine) Pinus contorta var. latifolia (Lodgepole pine) Birch seed generally doesn't stay viable very long. *** I am mostly interested in P. sibirica, and ideally would like about 500 seeds.
I've been trying to find seed for P. albicaulis for a long time without success, and I live here. I don't get to the mountains west of Calgary much anymore, but if there's anyone on the list who is a hiker/scrambler from the area, I can tell them where to look. (But not when. I've never had much luck finding seed in the cone.) Sandeman Seeds in the UK lists L. lyalli and they are a lot closer to you. Oops. Sorry. I misread their list. They don't have stock in either at the moment, but they often do. I'd keep checking, or even enquire. Cheers
Found these sources for Pinus albicaulis: Pinus albicaulis (White Barked Pine) Seed Description Pinus albicaulis - Tree Seeds - Whitebark Pine :: Seeds for Sale, Tree seeds, Shrub seeds, Flower seeds, Vine seeds, Herb seeds,Grass seeds, Vegetable seeds (Unfortunately they don't export to Sweden.) It looks like many of the remaining seeds in the OP's list are also available at the first source.
In harvesting whitebark pine: Watch the jays. I think the primary dispersal mechanism is Clarke's Nutcracker. Go to a grove when you think they should be ripe, and wait. One paper I read said one of the best ways to pre-treat the seed was to run the cone through a grizzly bear. This is highly inconvenient, but you may be able to get some seed opportunistically by going through bear scat. Failing that, look at an acid soak. Smoky Lake Tree Nursery in Alberta has been growing some Whitebark pine for researchers. Don't know if they would sell either seedlings or seed to the public.
Yep, for Whitebark Pine watch for when the Clark's Nutcrackers are harvesting the seed; typically late August to mid September. Crop size varies quite a bit from year to year. Not true about Grizzly Bear scat - that's only for hard seeds in berries, where the bear digests the berry and passes the pip / stone through; that doesn't happen with pine nuts, where the bear chews up the seeds to digest the seed itself. So if you want e.g. Chokecherry seeds, then bear turds yes, but not for pine nuts. And ditto, no acid bath for pine nuts!
