A note on the purpose, functioning and scale of operations of this Seed Bank was included in FGRI No. 5 in 1976. The information given here updates the earlier note.
The Banco Latinoamericano de Semillas Forestales (BLSF) continues to function as a self-financing unit within the Department of Renewable Resources of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Training Centre (CATIE) at Turrialba, Costa Rica. It therefore makes a charge to cover the costs of the seed it distributes, except for small quantities sent to individual farmers or used for educational purposes. It introduces seed of exotic tropical and sub-tropical species of known or potential suitability for the region and arranges collections of native species for pilot scale plantation establishment, provenance trials and breeding purposes.
In July 1984 the Bank had in stock 780 kg of seed representing 600 accessions and 210 species, compared with 120 seedlots of about 50 species in 1976. These stocks included 300 kg of Gmelina arborea seed.
During 1984, under arrangements made with the Central American Fuelwood Project (CATIE/ROCAP Project 596-0089) it undertook provenance collections within the region of Calliandra calothyrsus and Gliricidia sepium. A note on the collections of the former species appears elsewhere in this issue of FGRI and one about the latter will be included in FGRI No. 14.
Among the more important species handled are:
Alnus acuminata (Costa Rica)
Bombacopsis quinata (Nicaragua, Costa Rica)
Caesalpinia velutina (Guatemala)
Calliandra calothyrus (Guatemala, Costa Rica)
Cassia siamea (Nicaragua)
Cassia spectabilis (Costa Rica)
Casuarina cunninghamiana (Costa Rica)
Casuarina equisetifolia (Nicaragua)
Cordia alliodora (Costa Rica)
Cupressus lusitanica (Costa Rica)
Dalbergia retusa (Costa Rica)
Enterolobium cyclocarpum (Nicaragua/Costa Rica)
Erythrina fusca (Costa Rica)
Erythrina poeppigiana (Costa Rica)
Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Nicaragua)
Eucalyptus deglupta (Costa Rica)
Gliricidia sepium (Guatemala,
Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica)
Gmelina arborea (Costa Rica)
Guazuma ulmifolia (Cen America)
Leucaena leucocephala (Nicaragua)
Leucaena diversifolia (Guatemala)
Melia azedarach (Nicaragua,
Guatemala)
Parkinsonia aculeata (Nicaragua,
Costa Rica)
Pinus caribaea var. hondurensis
(Honduras)
P. oocarpa (Honduras)
Pinus maximinoi (Guatemala)
Samanea saman (Costa Rica)
Swietenia macrophylla (Costa Rica)
Swietenia humilis (Costa Rica)
Tabebuia rosea (Nicaragua)
Tecoma stans (Nicaragua)
Terminalia ivorensis (Costa Rica)
Requests for seed or for further information should be addressed to: Dr. B. Chang, Banco Latinoamericano de Semillas Forestales, CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica.
1 Note based on information supplied by Dr. Ben Chang, BLSF, CATIE, Turrialba, Costa Rica.
Manuscript received July 1984.
