Botanic Gardens Are Important Contributors to Crop Wild Relative Preservation

Abstract

Humans rely on crop wild relatives (CWRs) for sustainable agriculture and food security through augmentation of crop yield, disease resistance, and climatic tolerance, among other important traits. Many CWRs are underrepresented in crop gene banks. With at least one‐third of known plant species maintained in botanic garden living collections, the botanic garden community serves as an important global ex situ network that supports plant conservation and research around the world. We sought to characterize botanic garden holdings of CWRs and demonstrate capacity for cross‐sector coordination in support of CWR ex situ preservation. To do this, Botanic Gardens Conservation International US (BGCI‐US), in partnership with the United States Botanic Garden, used the BGCI PlantSearch database to conduct an ex situ survey of CWRs maintained in botanic gardens. We found 28.6% of global priority CWR taxa and 75.4% of US priority CWR taxa represented in botanic gardens. By comparing with priority CWR holdings in crop gene banks, botanic gardens maintain 22 global priority and 108 US priority CWR taxa not reported by crop gene banks. A combination of crop gene bank and botanic garden holdings results in broader taxonomic coverage. Looking more closely at 10 US priority CWR species, findings demonstrate that botanic gardens have the capacity to fill critical CWRs gaps in crop gene bank collections, and botanic gardens maintain samples from wild populations not represented in crop gene banks. We call on the crop gene bank and botanic garden communities to use an integrated collections development approach for further coordination, complementarity, and duplication of ex situ CWR plant genetic resources.

An inventory of crop wild relatives and wild‐utilized plants in Canada

“…These collections complement the conservation work of genebanks through scientific research and training, display and public outreach, and through preservation of germplasm or living specimens (Heywood, 2017; Maxted & Kell, 2013). Botanical gardens are increasingly showing support for plant genetic resource conservation and research through the collection of genetically diverse native plants, and so these institutions have a supportive role to play in acquiring, maintaining, and distributing CWR and WUS (Heywood, 2017; Khoury et al., 2019; Maxted & Kell, 2013; Meyer & Barton, 2019; Mounce et al., 2017). However, resources in botanical gardens remain to be sufficiently integrated with conservation efforts in genebanks (Khoury et al., 2019).…”

Main Challenges and Actions Needed to Improve Conservation and Sustainable Use of Our Crop Wild Relatives

“…Many of these wild species are CWRs. Almost one-third (315, or 28.6%) of the 1076 aforementioned global priority CWR taxa are maintained by botanic gardens [79].…”

Crop Science Special Issue: Connecting Agriculture, Public Gardens and Science

“…From Greene et al (2019), we learn about Seeds of Success, a collaborative approach to collect seeds of wild native species in the US where previous collecting efforts have filled gaps in the conservation of native crop wild relatives. With onethird of the world's flora maintained in botanical garden living collections, Meyer and Barton (2019) assess these collections for global crop wild relatives; their findings highlight the significant role that botanical gardens are playing in backing up crop wild relative diversity. The importance of conservation strategies for woody perennial plants is illustrated by Migicovsky et al (2019), who identify current strengths and future priorities for collections and conservation.…”