Summary of Proposal
Background
The main objective of the botanical gardens today is the conservation of biological diversity ex situ, allowing for the potential loss of this because of the destruction of the environment. However, in the past the main activity of the botanical gardens was the buildup and maintenance of diversity that explorers brought back from unexplored regions, near and far, in order to make them available to growers that they would explore the potential that plants collected. Much of ornamental crops are now widely grown were developed in this way, including palms and hedges, and some flowers such as roses and orchids. There is always the risk of biodiversity loss and this in turn would deprive us of finding its possible application for the benefit of mankind, however, the work of botanic gardens is essential for conservation and to develop the process of domestication some plants that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Currently it is estimated that the diversity of plants in the world exceeds 250 000 species, of which only 7000 are cultivated by humans as food, fiber, medicine, forage, with a greater or lesser degree of domestication, excluding ornamental plants, which could reach more than 28,000 cultivated species, although their number continues to increase (Khoshbakht and Hammer, 2008). Of these crops, the most important are cereals and their domestication took place several thousand years ago and probably some ornamental species that accompanied them became part of the crops that the first cloned human populations with aesthetic concerns (Heywood , 2002).
From the great diversity cultivated by humans, 6.5 million varieties have been preserved over 1,400 ex situ conservation systems, but these a...
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Evidence has shown that the corn we know today is quite different from the first time it was domesticated in Mexico. Although researchers and the academic world acknowledge that corn began its world journey in Mexico, they are unsure as to the time and location of the earliest domestication (American Society of Plant Biologist). Through genetics, teosinte is found to be corn’s wild ancestor. Although the two do not look much alike, at a DNA level they are surprisingly alike, such as having the same number of chromosomes and a remarkably similar arrangement of genes (The University of Utah).
The Steinhardt Conservatory is a $25 million complex holding BBG's extensive indoor collection in realistic environments that simulate a range of global habitats. The Tropical Pavilion, 65 feet high, re-creates a rain forest complete with a waterfall and streams. Flora from the Amazon Basin, African Rain Forest, and tropical eastern Asia thrive here. The Helen Mattin Warm Temperate Pavilion houses plants from central China, the Mediterranean, Australasia, southern Africa, and the western U.
Pat Willmer, Pollination and Floral Ecology (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2011), 536.Dressler, L. Robert. The Orchids: Natural History and Classification. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1981.
As a result of these factors, the flora has adapted to these conditions in a variety of ways including their shape, leaf type, root system, and color. One of the most prominent adapt...
Since the beginning of the human race mankind has depended on the natural resources in their environment for survival. They utilized the available flora to nourish their body, heal their wounds, comfort their ailments and to create products to ease their daily lives. Many of the same plants utilized thousands of years ago by the indigenous people have been integrated into modern day medicines. The scientific interest and knowledge of plants for nourishment, healing, and practical uses is called ethnobotany.
The communities of various native plants have been significantly minimized as a result of ...
Humans have long recognized that flowers are an indication of future fruits. Therefore it was vital for nomadic hunters to remember where in the wild they saw flowers. And further yet each type of flower produced a specific fruit. Thus fruits and flowers had something in common; the preference of one fruit meant the preference of a type of flower. Most often, as in modern times, the most healthy looking flower shows signs that it will produce quality fruit. The beauty of a flower told hunters that a nutritious fruits would ripen after the flowers bloomed. This concept explains how we have evolved toward preferring healthy looking flowers. But how does this explain the security of a plants reproduction? It is necessary to mention that plants not only produce fruits to stop herbivores from eating the plant, but in their own diabolic plan, plants found a new way to spread their seeds through fruits. Herbivores would eat the fruits an...
...iple types of plants in them) rather than monoculture as found in the Old World.
1) It is also cultivated both indoors and out for the production of its flowering tops.
Lauffer, H. B., Williams, P., & Lauffer, D. (2012). Wisconsin Fast Plants® Program. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from http://www.fastplants.org
Janick. J. (2011). Center for New Crops & Plant Products - Department of Horticulture and
Every day, new worries arise concerning over-population and the future of earth. People are afraid of starvation and endemic diseases. The problem with present food production is not of land shortage, but of yields too low to feed a doubled world population. Plant geneticists are creating hybrid plants that have higher yields and more resistance to unwanted and harmful organisms. Even with the new plants, pesticides must be applied to reap the hybrid's full potential.
Various plant and animal species depend on each other for what each offers and these diverse species ensures natural sustainability for all life forms. A healthy and solid biodiversity can recover itself from a variety of disasters. It is estimated that the current species extinction rate is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be. Therefore, there is an urgent need, not only to manage and conserve the biotic wealth, but also restore the degraded ecosystems. c) Captivity breeding species can again be reintroduced into the wild.
Since the plant’s domestication the sunflower has been one of the most important crops in production that is native to North America, comparable to maize and wheat. The sunflower, what was once a plant utilized only in the Americas is now one of the most widely and diversely recognized used plant species in the world.