[NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom

Mike Levine mlevine at umich.edu
Tue Sep 10 11:14:38 EDT 2002


Lon, I agree that the term heirloom is most often used to describe plants
that breed true from seed (and I'll add, have been around long enough for
our grandparents to have grown them).
Plants that breed true from seed are usually referred to as "open
pollinated".  I believe all heirloom varieties are open pollinated, but not
all open pollinated varieties are necessarily heirloom.  Anyone else?

Mike Levine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom at hevanet.com>
To: "NAFEX" <nafex at lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 10:43 AM
Subject: [NAFEX] Antique vs. Heirloom


>    I see two terms used in NAFEX fairly often that I'd like to get
> clarification, or at least some sort of consensus on, "antique" and
> "heirloom" varieties.  To me "antique" refers to a variety that is 100 or
> more years old and is propagated by asexual means - grafting, budding,
> taking cuttings, etc. so it is identical to the original variety.
>     However, with "heirloom" I have always thought of that as a variety
> propagated from seed.  It usually refers to vegetables, but can refer to
> perennials where the seedlings have a very strong resemblance to the
parent,
> such as the Door County apricot, which is commonly grown from seed.  On
the
> other hand, it would be unlikely to find an heirloom apple, since very few
> come true from seed.
>    What do others say about this?
> -Lon Rombough
>
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