Conservation Planning for Crop Wild Relatives Brings Botanic Gardens and Agricultural Organizations to the Same Table.

Our native crop wild relatives have proved useful as genetic resources in breeding better food, forage and feed, industrial, and ornamental crops. Their utilization is expected only to increase with better information on the species and improving breeding tools, but may well be constrained by their limited representation in conservation systems and the ongoing loss of wild populations due to habitat modification, invasive species, climate change and other impacts. Complementary ex situ and in situ conservation efforts for native crop genetic resources are therefore warranted, with species-specific requirements, and the necessity for education and outreach in conservation, making collaboration across conservation institutions the most prudent way forward. We present foundational information useful to collaborative efforts. An inventory of U.S. crop wild relatives has prioritized taxa related to a broad range of important crops. Utilizing occurrence data gathered from herbaria and genebanks in combination with expert inputs, resulting potential distribution models are enabling the identification of hotspots of taxonomic diversity of wild relatives in the country, and a ‘gap analysis’ methodology is facilitating efforts to identify those taxa and geographic areas of particular conservation concern. Results indicate that a broad range of wild relative diversity remains to be conserved. Numerous populations of high priority taxa could be actively managed in existing conservation areas, although many are distributed in areas without long-term habitat protection. We discuss the value of collaboration across agriculture and botanic garden organizations to better conserve our nation’s heritage of crop wild relatives.