One nursery is going to help make the coast look a little greener.
The Resource Environment Solutions’ ERS Nursery at Pointe Aux Chenes has completed State plant material certification by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
The nursery can now offer Certified Plant Materials for coastal, estuary, marsh and barrier ecological restoration projects.
Grown from steed stock, the ERS Nursery team provided resources to propagate named varieties of smooth cordgrass – Spartina alterniflora cultivars Jefferson and Terrebonne.
After one year of growth, the plants were tested using DNA fingerprinting to assure that the each of the ten plant samples for each variety matched the DNA fingerprint marker from the original LSU-supplied seed source.
The plants matched 100 percent, which meant there were no off-type genetics.