英国虎耳草协会 The Saxifrage Society – 国际上唯一专门针对虎耳草属组建的专业园艺团体

学会概况

英国虎耳草协会 (The Saxifrage Society) 是国际上唯一专门针对虎耳草属 (Saxifraga) 及其近缘类群组建的专业园艺团体, 由爱好者、研究者和专业种植者共同组成, 总部在英国, 会员遍布欧洲、北美、亚洲多个国家和地区, 协会同时是虎耳草属的国际品种登记机构 (ICRA), 负责学名登录与新品种发布的审定。虎耳草属在全球已知约 480 个野生种, 加上几千个栽培品种, 涵盖多种多年生草本植物, 不少是典型的高山花卉, 多分布在北半球温带和亚北极地区, 在高山岩缝、高山草甸等严苛环境里长得尤其茂盛, 业余爱好者日常打交道比较多的大类有俗称的”苔藓”组、”银器”组 (Ligulatae) 和 Kabschia/Engleria 矮小垫状种 (合称 Porphyrion 组)。

会员与活动

会员每年交纳会费后能免费收到协会期刊《The Saxifrage Magazine》, 内容覆盖栽培技术、新种介绍、海外园圃走访和种子交换信息; 协会同时运营一个对外公开的网上数据库 SaxBase (收录 4000 多个 taxon、上千张图片) 和一个公开讨论论坛, 普通访客可浏览基础信息, 注册会员则可发帖求鉴定、求种子、交流种植经验。协会每年在英国本土组织两次见面会, 春季一次为室内讲座加实生苗展售, 秋季则按当年会员候选的花园名单排两到三条参观路线, 会员跟着主人走一圈看虎耳草在石墙、缝隙、阴面花境的多种用法; 每隔四年还会办一次国际大会把英国本土之外的爱好者聚起来, 大会地点在欧陆、大洋洲、北美之间轮换。

出版物与数据库

协会出版两本业内常被引用的工具书, 一是《Saxifrages: the Complete List of Species》, 收录虎耳草属全部已承认物种及学名变动历史, 是学名查询的入门参考; 二是《Saxifrages: the Complete Cultivars and Hybrids》, 把已知栽培品种和杂交后代分门别类。SaxBase 数据库对协会会员开放全部浏览权限, 普通访客能查到种一级基础信息和高清照片, 会员还能下载每年发布的种子交换清单, 这份清单在冬季发到会员邮箱, 是扩大收藏的主要渠道。

种子交换与幻灯片库

种子交换是协会一项有数十年传统的核心服务, 会员自愿把自家收的种子 (附采集人、地点、海拔、物种编号等元数据) 寄到种子库协调员手里, 协会每年十一月把汇总清单发给全体会员, 会员勾选想要的条目, 协会按稀有优先、申请者分散等规则分配份额, 种子次年二月寄出, 整套机制不收费, 要求索取者下一年也提供自家种子作为回报形成互惠网络。幻灯片库则是另一项老牌服务, 上世纪八十年代起会员把拍摄的虎耳草花期、生境、园圃应用照片整理成 35mm 幻灯片寄到协会, 协会留底出借给各地分会办讲座, 现在数字图片虽已普及, 协会仍保留历史幻灯片并接收新的数字版本, 会员借用无需额外费用只需承诺用完归还。

组织架构

协会由会员大会 (Annual General Meeting) 选举产生管理委员会, 委员会设主席、秘书、财务各一名, 下设期刊编辑、种子库协调员、幻灯片库管理员、SaxBase 维护员、会员发展官员等岗位, 所有职位都不取酬由志愿者兼任, 委员会有自己的网页栏目公开现任委员的联系方式以便公众咨询。协会财务报表每年在年会前后公布, 收支构成主要是会费收入和出版物销售收入 (扣除印刷和邮寄成本), 协会是非营利注册, 任何结余按章程投入到下一年期刊印刷、种子库运营和会议补贴等用途, 不向会员分红。

About the Society

The Saxifrage Society is the only international organisation devoted to the genus Saxifraga and its relatives. Founded and run by enthusiasts, growers and botanists, the society is registered as the International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for Saxifraga, handling cultivar name registration and publication. Membership is open worldwide, and the genus contains roughly 480 accepted wild species and several thousand cultivar names, distributed across the temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere with outlying populations in Ethiopia, Mexico and the Arctic fringe.

Membership and Activities

Members receive the society’s journal, The Saxifrage Magazine, posted twice a year. Online resources include SaxBase, an evolving database covering more than 4,000 taxa and a thousand photographs, and an open-access discussion forum where guests can browse and members can post identification or cultivation queries. The society holds two in-person meetings in the UK each year, an indoor lecture and seedling sale in spring and an autumn programme of garden visits, and every four years hosts an international conference at a venue outside the UK, rotating between continental Europe, Australasia and North America.

Publications and Database

Two reference books are produced and distributed by the society: Saxifrages: the Complete List of Species documents accepted species and nomenclatural history, and Saxifrages: the Complete Cultivars and Hybrids catalogues the cultivar and hybrid names in current use, both updated periodically and offered to members at production cost. SaxBase is the society’s online database project, listing all accepted botanical taxa with photography and notes on distribution, cultivation and synonymy, open to the public for browsing at species level while members have full access and may download the annual Seed Exchange List compiled each autumn from donations by members worldwide.

Seed Exchange and Slide Library

The Seed Exchange has run continuously for several decades, with members donating seed from their own collections, each entry tagged with collector name, locality, altitude and taxon number, the list sent out in November each year and seeds dispatched in late February, recipients asked to contribute seed the following year to keep the exchange running. The Slide Library is a long-running archive of 35mm slides begun in the 1980s, covering saxifrages in flower, in habitat and in garden settings, now extended to include more recent digital images; members may borrow slides for lectures and meetings with only a promise to return them after use.

Organisation

The society is governed by a Management Committee elected at the Annual General Meeting, with officers including Chair, Secretary and Treasurer and further posts for journal editor, seed exchange coordinator, slide librarian, SaxBase maintainer and membership secretary, all unpaid and voluntary, and a dedicated page on the website lists contact details for current officers. Accounts are published annually, income is drawn mainly from subscriptions and publication sales, expenditure covers journal printing and postage, seed exchange administration, meeting subsidies and modest honoraria for guest speakers, and the society is a non-profit body reinvesting any surplus in its stated objects.

相关文章：

美国 牡丹协会 American Peony Society – 行业自律与服务组织 英国仙客来协会 The Cyclamen Society – 成立于英格兰的仙客来专业组织 苏格兰岩石花园俱乐部 SRGC – 苏格兰最大高山植物园艺团体 美国 昙花协会 Epiphyllum Society of America – 致力于推动昙花及 Hylocereeae 族附生仙人掌学术交流 美国 苏铁协会 Cycad Society – 国际苏铁保护学术团体 国际丁香协会 (International Lilac Society) – 每年五月召开丁香年会 美国 木兰协会 – 专注木兰品种保护与教育的国际非营利组织 国际棕榈协会 INTERNATIONAL PALM SOCIETY – 行业自律与服务组织