Wild ancestors of favourite plants under threat
24 September 2009
Researchers have found that almost one in seven species of plant native to Europe is under threat of extinction in the wild. Plant conservation charity Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has drawn up its own ‘red list’ of almost 2,000 endangered plants. These include the wild ancestors of daffodils, delphiniums and pinks as well as some important food crops including sugar beet, onions and carrots.
Among them are Aquilegia barbaricina, a particularly attractive Sardinian aquilegia which has now been so heavily collected for its flowers that it is down to just a few individuals in the wild. Wild crop species on the list, such as Allium rouyi, a Mediterranean relative of the onion under threat due to encroaching pastureland, are a particular cause for concern as plant breeders use their genetic diversity to breed new disease-resistant or more climate-tolerant cultivars.
‘If we don’t take action now, we will start to lose the wild flowers and vegetables that have grown in hedgerows and fields across Europe for thousands of years,’ said Suzanne Sharrock, one of the list’s authors. Less than half the threatened plants are currently conserved in botanic gardens and seed banks, and BGCI is calling on botanic gardens and other plant conservation bodies to work to meet the European target of having 60 percent of threatened plant species in conservation programmes by 2010.
The charity hopes that publishing the full list of threatened plants will make it easier to decide priorities.
More at the BGCI website