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

genetic diversity of Lolium perenne in the Nordic countries, and multiplication of seed has begun.
Vegetables
Most of the vegetable material preserved by the NGB is landraces originating in a Nordic country
together with Nordic bred cultivars. Non-Nordic cultivars which have been grown in a Nordic country
to a significant extent are preserved if they are not preserved in any other genebank. Furthermore,
material from parental lines of F1-hybrids and genetic stocks of Nordic origin are preserved in the NGB.
The vegetable material is mostly stored ex situ as seeds in the NGB's seed store. The vegetative material
from onions and rhubarb is stored as clones in national clonal archives.
Roots, oil-crops and pulses
The main task for the Working Group has been to compliment the information on material already stored
in the NGB. The group is planning to compile the information about the stored material in a catalogue
ready in 1994. Norway is the only country that still might have some local varieties of root crops that
should be acquired for storage.
Medicals and Herbs
Since Working Group 9 was established in 1987, the group members have studied and compiled
information from available Nordic literature on the use of medicinal plants in the Nordic countries. The
group has prepared a preliminary list of medicinal plants by including species discussed in some of Linnés
papers and in the book Materia medica regno vegetabili, by Professor Peter Jonas Bergius, which was
published in 1778.
The preliminary list of species, updated in 1991, was revised by the Swedish group member in 1992 and
is now referred to as the main list. For each of the species in the main list, the Swedish group member
registered its origin, occurrence in the Nordic countries, biotope, and active chemical substances. The
historical use of each of the species is described together with the effects it was supposed to have on
various diseases. References to pharmacopoeia and literature have also been registered. Finally, for each
species the need for preservation was evaluated and specific preservation methods recommended.
To illustrate the cultivation of spices and medicinal plants a small report has been written in Denmark
called "Cultivation and Trade with Spices and Medicinal Plants in Denmark".
2. In situ conservation
Conserving genetic diversity in situ wherever possible is essential because it relates to continuity of the
evolutionary systems that are responsible for genetic variability. In the NGB context in situ conservation
means the preservation without radical and regular interference by man, e.g. planting and harvesting.
Consequently, planted clonal archives are not included while meadows are.
Species growing wild in the Nordic countries are entirely or partly to be conserved in situ in the
following cases:
A. The species comprise cultivated as well as wild growing forms in the Nordic countries:
I. The species is difficult to manage;
II. the species is very widely spread in the Nordic countries, and