The major South African supplier of seed for both commercial and ornamental purposes is the DWAF. All pine and wattle seed sold commercially in South Africa has a purity of over 95 percent. Commercial Eucalyptus seed has a high proportion of infertile and unfertilized ovules collectively known as chaff. Because of this, seed quality in Eucalyptus species is measured as the number of viable seed per unit weight. In South Africa, in situ and ex situ seed conservation does not exist, but natural forests are conserved.
Seed from clonal seed orchards derived from plus trees are available for a number of commercial species. Many of these orchards are already second generation with progeny testing well advanced. South Africa produces enough seed for its own needs and is also exporting Eucalptus grandis, E. cloeziana, Pinus elliotti, P. pinaster and P. taeda. Orchards of other commercial species such as P. kesiya, P. oocarpa and varieties of P. caribaea partly meet the rather limited local demand.
The mean number of seed per kilogram appears to be less for clonal orchard seed than commercial collections (Donald and Jacobs, 1994).
