Seeds versus vegetative propagules as strategies for surviving the Anthropocene: social profiles and biocultural consequences

This paper seeks to challenge the hegemony of the 'seed' in applied science, in human cultivation systems, and as a trope. It examines the social mechanisms of vegetative dispersal and exchange, focussing on some examples that exemplify the role of markets, kinship and friendship networks in plant management. Particular attention is paid to processes by which propagules move around the world, are stored and diversify. The paper concludes by reviewing the biological and social implications of non-seed plant reproduction, suggesting that these are far more important than we might think in the history of human-plant interaction, and arguably vital to surviving those systemic forces that we have come to describe by the term 'Anthropocene'.