One of the great challenges of ‘Fleurs Locales’ has a double aspect: firstly, to define what is meant by indigenous seeds, and secondly to obtain those indigenous seeds (or mixtures) to sow in the pilot farms and to use for research.

Therefore, after months of work, an initial document has been published in four languages ​​(Spanish, French, English and Portuguese) with the results of the literature review on indigenous species suitable for Mediterranean agroecosystems. In this way, the seeds available in the market have been identified and the most promising species have been selected according to the specifications of the restoration in each place.

To contextualize the project, an important consensus was the following definition of ‘indigenous’ seeds as opposed to ‘local’ or ‘native’ ones:

Indigenous seeds are those used in a restoration project as “the reproductive material from indigenous flora that is collected as close as possible to the intervention area and that maintains the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of the wild populations of the zone”. In this sense, the document states that “indigenous is not synonymous with native, as some species may be native to an area, but also show characteristics selected by people or features of other biogeographic areas.” Finally, he explains that “native is not synonymous with local, as our landscapes are home to a significant number of introduced species from other biogeographic areas.”