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The neglected and underutilized plants (NUPs) have never been mainstreamed by researchers, politicians and stakeholders for sustainable exploitation in the ornamental-horticultural sector. This study focused on 399 local endemic plants of three Mediterranean regions (Crete, Mediterranean coast-Rif of Morocco, Tunisia), with the aim to develop a new scheme for their multifaceted ornamental-horticultural evaluation facilitating their sustainable exploitation. The methodological scheme was developed within three multidisciplinary co-creative workshops by experts and was adjusted by end-users. The developed scheme uses point and weighted scoring of several attributes relevant to biological and ornamental-horticultural characteristics and concerns three ranking levels: (i) ornamental-horticultural potential (general or subsector-specific; 20 attributes), (ii) sustainable exploitation feasibility (12 attributes) and (iii) readiness timescale (after gap and SWOT analyses) in creating value chains in short-, medium- or long-term. The analysis of the data illustrated two example-cases of already achieved sustainable exploitation with established value chains; outlined the prospects for sustainable exploitation of 18 and 23 local endemic NUPs in short-term and medium-term, respectively; and identified 86 taxa with reachable possibilities in the long-term. The proposed multifaceted evaluation scheme can be applied for the valorisation of NUPs in other areas and may help to define priorities and to identify opportunities and gaps for their sustainable exploitation.

Plant range expansion is occurring at a rapid pace, largely in response to human-induced climate warming. While the movement of plants along latitudinal and altitudinal gradients is well documented, effects on the belowground microbial communities remains largely unknown. Further, in range expansion not all plant species are equal: in a new range the relatedness between range-expanding plant species and native flora can influence plant-microbe interactions. Here we used a latitudinal gradient across Europe to examine bacterial and fungal communities in the rhizosphere and surrounding soils of range-expanding plant species. We selected range expanders with and without congeneric natives in the new range, and as a control, the congeneric natives, totaling 382 plant individuals collected across Europe. In general, a plant’s status as range expander was a weak predictor of bacterial and fungal community composition. However, microbial communities of range-expanding plant species became more similar to each other farther from their original range. Range expanders unrelated to the native community also experienced a decrease in the ratio of plant pathogens to symbionts, giving weak support to the enemy release hypothesis. Even at a continental scale the effects of plant range expansion on the belowground microbiome are detectable, though changes to specific taxa remain difficult to decipher.

The Balkan Botanic Garden of Kroussia (BBGK) is dedicated to the ex situ conservation of native plants of Greece and the Balkans. The BBGK has formulated a conservation strategy for the collection of wild plant material for propagation, prioritizing mainly the endemic, rare, endangered, threatened and vulnerable plants of Europe found in different regions of Greece. Its aim is to contribute to the implementation of Target 8 of the Global and European Strategies for Plant Conservation at local, regional and international scales. In order to (i) define the ecological profile of the in situ requirements preferred and/or tolerated by each selected species, (ii) develop rapid and effective species-specific propagation protocols, and (iii) improve the cultivation of species of conservation concern in BBGK's nurseries and ex situ conservation sections, geographical coordinates and in situ collection data obtained for each taxon were imported into a Geographic Information System environment (GIS). This information was then linked with several digital GIS thematic layers, including topographic, geological, edaphic, climatic, precipitation and temperature data derived from digital databases. Based on this approach, sexual and asexual propagation of plants from the Ionian Islands were conducted and rapid and effective baseline protocols were developed for 29 taxa (species and subspecies); four are presented here in detail and Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (species-specific ex situ propagation and cultivation guidelines are given. Most of the taxa originating from the Ionian Islands were propagated by cuttings (55.2%) or seeds (34.5%), while the rest were propagated by root division at a rate from 1.7 to 2. The first round of propagation achieved a success rate ranging from 15 to 50% for 3 taxa, from 60 to 80% for 8 taxa and from more than 80 to 100% for 16 taxa, while the ex situ cultivation of the wild and propagated plant material has, so far, been successful. The application of GIS exemplified here presents a sensible and invaluable tool with a broad-scale potential in enhancing the prospects of the ex situ conservation of priority species collected from diverse environmental conditions in man-made habitats such as botanic gardens.

Current climate change has led to latitudinal and altitudinal range expansions of numerous species. During such range expansions, plant species are expected to experience changes in interactions with other organisms, especially with belowground biota that have a limited dispersal capacity. Nematodes form a key component of the belowground food web as they include bacterivores, fungivores, omnivores and root herbivores. However, their community composition under climate change‐driven intracontinental range‐expanding plants has been studied almost exclusively under controlled conditions, whereas little is known about actual patterns in the field. Here, we use novel molecular sequencing techniques combined with morphological quantification in order to examine nematode communities in the rhizospheres of four range‐expanding and four congeneric native species along a 2,000 km latitudinal transect from South‐Eastern to North‐Western Europe. We tested the hypotheses that latitudinal shifts in nematode community composition are stronger in range‐expanding plant species than in congeneric natives and that in their new range, range‐expanding plant species accumulate fewest root‐feeding nematodes. Our results show latitudinal variation in nematode community composition of both range expanders and native plant species, while operational taxonomic unit richness remained the same across ranges. Therefore, range‐expanding plant species face different nematode communities at higher latitudes, but this is also the case for widespread native plant species. Only one of the four range‐expanding plant species showed a stronger shift in nematode community composition than its congeneric native and accumulated fewer root‐feeding nematodes in its new range. We conclude that variation in nematode community composition with increasing latitude occurs for both range‐expanding and native plant species and that some range‐expanding plant species may become released from root‐feeding nematodes in the new range.

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123 Genet Resour Crop Evol (2011) 58:125-137 DOI 10.1007/s10722 -010-9601-5 currently consists of 220 accessions from 15 countries: 169 of these come from European cultivation countries, 18 from commercial areas in non EU countries, 26 from regions of minimal or relict production and/or from abandoned fields and 7 from commercial nurseries. The non-saffron Crocus collection currently comprises 352 accessions: 179 collected from the wild in 12 countries of natural distribution, 24 from donations of public and private institutions, 91 from commercial nurseries and 58 acquired from BGV-CU collection management. Here we provide a record of collections, activities concerns and current strategies for documentation, conservation, characterisation, and management of the collection as important tools for researchers with interest in these valuable genetic resources.

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