Integration of Conservation Strategies of Plant Genetic ... - Genres

Plant genetic resources activities in Italy
founded by the CNR and coordinated by the Faculty of Agriculture of Florence. The Group, while
interacting with the ECP/GR European Working Groups, brought together the major national fruit tree
research institutions. Each of them takes care of the conservation of different species depending on the
Region in which it is located. As a result of this activity, carried out for several years, today there are
at least 18 Institutions which take care of the preservation of 14 genera of fruit crops and other
perennials , including 46 species and 13,560 accessions (Tab. 4). In particular as far as fruit trees are
concerned all over the Italian peninsula, there are, already, 43 stations, 6 of which for olive, pear, and
apple trees, 5 for vines, 4 for peach trees, 3 for almond, cherry and citrus fruit, 2 for apricot, plum trees
and other species. The more important and spread out the species, the higher the number of the stations;
in some areas the same Institution takes care of the safeguard of different species located in different
stations ( Perrino, 1990a ). It seems that this activity of creating other stations for field collections is still
going on ( Tab. 6 ).
Thus, a series of programmes organized in working groups has been carried out, in order to face the
problem of genetic erosion and conservation in a global way.
Within these initiatives, in Italy a range as wide as possible of genetic variability of fruit trees and their
wild relatives has been identified for collection and conservation purposes. This material is conserved
as field collections, because other methods of conservation do not guarantee their genetic stability and
"in situ" conservation is not always possible.
A methodology for the evaluation and documentation of accessions has been set up; information is
stored in computers and is available for all potential users.
Notwithstanding these efforts and the ones of IBPGR in coordinating the centres of collection and
storage of fruit germplasm, the number of stations and field collections is thought to be insufficient to
represent the variability still present in fruit tree species. In the future, it is desirable that the number of
specialized stations be increased and studies on "in vitro" culture and cryoconservation promoted.
2.3 Botanic gardens
The first botanic garden in Europe was founded in Italy in 1545. The model was soon imitated by the
main Universities and Courts of Europe. They became the meeting centres of explorers and scientists
with the aim of improving our knowledges about nature and man.
Today, in the world, there are about 600 botanic gardens conserving, as field and greenhouses
collections, only a small portion of the existing plant species. In Europe about 300 botanic gardens are
conserving thousands of plant species. It is difficult to figure out the exact number of species due to the
existence of several duplicates among botanic gardens.
In Italy there are 36 botanic gardens ( Tab. 5; Fig.1), of which 27 belong to Universities of different
Regions (Raimondo, 1992). Numerous field and greenhouses collections representing several thousands
of species of different geographical origin are maintained on a limited surface. In fact the surface of each
botanic garden ranges from ca. 1,000 to ca. 200,000 sq m, while the total surface all over the peninsula
is 1,258,239 sq m ( = ca. 1,3 sq Km ). In the absence of detailed lists of species, maintained at each
botanic garden, it is impossible to know the total number of species conserved over the total Italian
surface dedicated to this kind of protection. One can only report that the number of species present in
each botanic garden ranges from very few , say 10 to ca. 6,000 species. Usually, each botanic garden
conserves native and exotic species.