The Ornamental Plant Germplasm Center may be a small building on Vernon Tharp Street, but it provides an important service in saving, testing and promoting ornamental herbaceous plants.
These herbaceous plants are mostly wild species and heirloom varieties of common garden plants such as petunias and pelargonium geraniums, said Susan Stieve, seed crop curator at the center. She said herbaceous plants are defined as plants that die to the ground at the end of the growing season and do not have a secondary wood growth like trees.
Stieve said the center collects different species of herbaceous plants and not only preserves them, but also makes them available to researchers and plant breeders who try to find genes in the plants that will make them stronger.
David Tay, director of the center, said examples of this research include making plants resistant to pests and insects, as well as droughts. He said the center also provides plants to Ohio State departments like the College of Pharmacy so they can develop new herbs and medicines from them.
Tay said the center is part of the National Plant Germplasm System, which is made up of many centers across the United States. Each center, he said, focuses on a specific crop.
“The center in Iowa, for example, focuses on corn and the center in Illinois focuses on soybeans,” Tay said.
The national system is funded and housed under the United States Department of Agriculture, Stieve said.
“Our center is unique in that most of the other centers are directly funded by the federal government, whereas we exist through a cooperative agreement between the USDA and OSU,” Stieve said.
She said the USDA provides the funding while OSU provides the facilities, such as the center’s main building and greenhouse, as well as the use of Waterman Farm, located on the northwest corner of campus. Tay said the center also has ties to OSU in that it employs eight OSU graduate students who receive federal funding for their work.
The agreement between OSU and the USDA was reached in 1999, but the inauguration did not take place until two years later, Tay said.
The process of collecting herbaceous plants begins by collecting seeds and cuttings of the plants from around the world, Stieve said.
“There is an advisory board made up of industry experts who advise us on the types of species of herbaceous plants we should look for,” Stieve said. “Their decisions are usually based on the commercial viability of a particular plant.”
Stieve said the center collects plants from wildlife preserves in Ohio and from other countries through USDA funded collection trips. She said despite all these trips, the center is only able to collect a small percentage of herbaceous plant species.
Each plant is given an accession number that distinguishes it from other plants, Stieve said. She also said the seeds and plants are classified and placed online through the Germplasm Resources Information Network where researchers and scientists can access the information.
Stieve said the goal of the center is to have about 10,000 quality seeds of each species of plant. She said 5,000 of the seeds are stored at the center, while the other 5,000 are sent to the National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins, Colo. Tay said seeds can be stored for long periods of time and in some cases up to 100 years.
The seeds are cleaned and undergo a germination test in a controlled environment chamber to check their quality before going into storage, Stieve said. The center also uses an X-ray machine to check the quality of the seeds by looking inside them, she said.
If there are less than 10,000 seeds for a specific plant, the staff grows more seeds by planting existing seeds in either the center’s greenhouse or at Waterman farm, Stieve said.
“The process may be complicated, but I like to think of it as a simple flow chart,” she said.
Tay said everyone at the center gets satisfaction from their work, especially him.
“I enjoy the university environment, because it allows me to interact with people who are curious and want to learn things,” Tay said. “I want to invite people to come to the center because I do not think many students or professors know exactly what we do here.”
Jennifer Ehrenberger, the clone crop curator at the center, is also satisfied with her work.
“Working at the center is a lot more rewarding than simply working at a greenhouse,” Ehrenberger said.
However, Stieve said, there are some problems associated with working at the center.
“We try to collect plants from all over the world, but there are some countries like Brazil and South Africa that do not permit us to take samples of their plants,” Stieve said. “I think these countries are suspicious of the USDA, but our intent really is to preserve these plants.”
Despite these suspicions, Tay said the center may eventually help people across the world.
“We are making a social contribution to people all over the world,” Tay said. “One day genetic material from the plants we provide might be used in scientific research that will benefit people all over the world.”
