8. Sampling Strategy

It is important to maximize the number of alleles present within a collected sample by capturing the greatest proportion of alleles represented in the field population.  According to Brown and Marshall (1995), at least one copy of 95% of the alleles occurring in the population at frequencies of greater than 0.05 can be achieved by sampling from:

1. 30 randomly chosen individuals in a fully outbreeding sexual species, or
2. 59 randomly chosen individuals in a self fertilizing species.

The reproductive biology of most target species has not been studied, and the capture of rarer alleles would require a markedly increased sample size.  Therefore, collectors are advised to sample from a single population with individuals of the target species in excess of 50 individuals, and to look for populations with larger numbers of plants.