Does anyone want to split the cost (and seeds) of some rare African species?

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I discovered this Etsy seller today. He has a bunch of seeds of rare edible plants that are native to Ghana, where he lives. He even has a YouTube channel with videos about how to germinate and grow the plants.

The cost of the seeds is high – which makes sense, because he buys a phytosanitary certificate and he’s sending internationally. But the cost becomes way cheaper per seed if you buy a whole lot.

I live in zone 7, so I’m really “pushing the zone” to try to grow zone 10 plants, even in a greenhouse. Someone in zone 10 (or willing to grow tropical trees as houseplants) is likely to have a much easier time growing these species . . . which would be beneficial to me, because if I fail and they succeed, I could buy seeds from them later. :wink:

Would anyone else in the USA like to buy some seeds from that seller together, and split the cost and the seeds? As far as I’m concerned, the more people who want to do this the better, because the more people who try, the more likely someone is to succeed and then be able to share seeds with others in this community later. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

These are the rare species I personally want:

Diocoreophyllum cumminsii
Thaumatococcus daniellii

I’m also mildly interested in this one:
Uvaria chamae

And he has loads of other things, like Ghanan landraces of beans.

Anyone interested?

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Hey, @anna, it occurs to me that I should tag you. Is this highly diverse grex of bambara beans something Going to Seed might be interested in ordering for a community growout that could eventually lead into having a future bambara beans grex for the seed packets?

And are there any other beans he has that we might be interested in for that purpose? 'Cause I bet he has a lot of very interesting genetic diversity that isn’t normally available in the United States.

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I’m happy to help coordinate if others are interested. Some very cool stuff, but little of it is from species we already have in the seed share, so we’d need to feel out what species folks might be interested, and maybe do a special crop for a year. I won’t be able to infinitely add new species to the program. :slight_smile:

If you do want to order, we should use the small lots import permit. Even with the phytosanitary certificate, it’s not legal to ship those seeds directly. I won’t tell you what to do personally, but if on behalf of GTS let’s go the legal route.

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