The contributions of crop wild relatives (CWR) to food security depend on their conservation and accessibility for use. The United States contains a diverse native flora of CWR, including those of important cereal, fruit, nut, oil, pulse, root and tuber, and vegetable crops, which may be threatened in their natural habitats and underrepresented in plant conservation repositories. To determine conservation priorities for these plants, we developed a national inventory, compiled occurrence information, modeled potential distributions, and conducted threat assessments and conservation gap analyses for 600 native taxa. We found that 7.1% of the taxa may be critically endangered in their natural habitats, 50% may be endangered, and 28% may be vulnerable. We categorized 58.8% of the taxa as of urgent priority for further action, 37% as high priority, and 4.2% as medium priority. Major ex situ conservation gaps were identified for 93.3% of the wild relatives (categorized as urgent or high priority), with 83 taxa absent from conservation repositories, while 93.1% of the plants were equivalently prioritized for further habitat protection. Various taxonomic richness hotspots across the US represent focal regions for further conservation action. Related needs include facilitating greater access to and characterization of these cultural-genetic-natural resources and raising public awareness of their existence, value, and plight.
The cover image is based on the Original Article Modeled distributions and conservation status of the wild relatives of chile peppers (Capsicum L.) by Colin K. Khoury et al., https://doi.
Crop wild relatives-wild species closely related to cultivated plants-are valuable genetic resources for crop improvement, but gaps in knowledge constrain their conservation and limit their further use. We develop new information on the distributions, potential breeding value, and conservation status of the 16 known wild relatives of cultivated pumpkins, squashes, zucchini, and gourds (Cucurbita L.). The taxa occur from the central USA to Central America, plus two South American species, with the greatest richness in central Mexico and the western borderlands between Mexico and the USA. We determine the majority of species are of medium priority for conservation, both with regard to collecting for ex situ maintenance, and for enhanced habitat protection. Summary• Crop wild relatives are valuable genetic resources for crop improvement.Knowledge gaps, including with regard to taxonomy, distributions, and characterization for traits of interest constrain their use in plant breeding. These deficiencies also affect conservation planning, both with regard to in situ habitat protection, and further collection of novel diversity for ex situ maintenance.• Here we model the potential ranges of all 16 known wild cucurbit taxa (Cucurbita L.), use ecogeographic information to infer their potential adaptations to abiotic stresses, and assess their ex situ and in situ conservation status.• The taxa occur from the central USA to Central America, plus two South American species. Predicted taxon richness was highest in central Mexico and in the western borderlands between Mexico and the USA. We find substantial ecogeographic variation both across taxa and among populations within taxa, with regard to low temperatures, high and low precipitation, and other adaptations of potential interest for crop breeding.• We categorize 13 of the taxa medium priority for further conservation as a combination of the ex situ and in situ assessments, two low priority, and one sufficiently
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