Half of 600 native plants in the United States that are wild relatives of important agricultural crops are endangered in their natural habitats, and “the great majority” of them require further conservation action, said a team of researchers. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers note that wild plants related to domestic crops provide important genetic resources for plant breeding and may be useful in adaptations to climate change, since some of them grow in extreme climates, in poor soils, and under pressure from pests and diseases.
“These plants are central to research on domestication, evolution, and anthropology, and may themselves be attractive candidates for de novo domestication,” says the paper. Five of the nine researchers were from the U.S. Agricultural Research Service. “Furthermore, many of these species are collected for direct dietary and other cultural uses.” Many of the plants, the paper says, are “poorly conserved,” either in their habitats or in seed and plant collections.
“Knowledge gaps … constrain their potential use in crop improvement,” says the paper. “These gaps likewise affect conservation efforts, which are essential to protect vulnerable populations from habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, invasive species, and over-harvesting in their natural habitats (in situ), and to ensure that these cultural-genetic-natural resources are safeguarded over the long term and available for research and education in ex situ plant conservation repositories (i.e., gene banks and botanical gardens).”
Among the plants the researchers determined to be in need of urgent conservation were “wild genetic resources of cereal, fiber, fruit, nut, oil, pulse, root and tuber, spice, sugar, and vegetable crops that collectively generate more than $116 billion in annual U.S. agricultural production value.”
The article, “Crop wild relatives of the United States require urgent conservation action,” is available here.