The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms - seminal adj.

1) original, basic, creative, primary, prime, formative, innovative, imaginative, new, unprecedented, precedent-setting, landmark, benchmark, important, influential, telling: Michaelson's paper is considered the seminal work on the subject. It sets forth many seminal ideas. 2) embryonic, germinal, potential, undeveloped, incipient: Each seed contains a seminal plant.