For Heirloom Seed we have a term and definition in Botanical.

Heirloom Seed (Botanical)

The definition does vary from person to person, company to company. It has become very popular as a marketing term. The Victory Seed Company adheres to the purest form of the definition. That is, an heirloom plant variety is one that has been valued by a family, tenderly and carefully preserved, and handed along from generation to generation.
We also concede that there are some "heirlooms" whose origins were as a commercial release. That is, they were introduced by a seed company or seedsman. These old "commercial heirlooms" have value and are worthy of protection.
At a minimum, an heirloom variety must be, open-pollinated seed, not an unstable hybrid, and certainly not genetically modified!
The oldest reference we have been able to find using the word "heirloom" as an adjective for seeds, plants and bulbs is on page 30 of the book entitled, Pioneer American Gardening, compiled by Elvnia Slosson, copyright 1951, Published by Coward-McCann, Inc., New York.

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