Extinction risk of Mesoamerican crop wild relatives

Ensuring food security is one of the world's most critical issues as agricultural systems are already being impacted by global change. Crop wild relatives (CWR)—wild plants related to crops—possess genetic variability that can help adapt agriculture to a changing environment and sustainably increase crop yields to meet the food security challenge. Here we report the results of an extinction risk assessment of 224 wild relatives of some of the world's most important crops (i.e. chilli pepper, maize, common bean, avocado, cotton, potato, squash, vanilla and husk tomato) in Mesoamerica—an area of global significance as a centre of crop origin, domestication and of high CWR diversity. We show that 35% of the selected CWR taxa are threatened with extinction according to The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List demonstrates that these valuable genetic resources are under high anthropogenic threat. The dominant threat processes are land use change for agriculture and farming, invasive and other problematic species (e.g. pests, genetically modified organisms) and use of biological resources, including overcollection and logging. The most significant drivers of extinction relate to smallholder agriculture—given its high incidence and ongoing shifts from traditional agriculture to modern practices (e.g. use of herbicides)—smallholder ranching and housing and urban development and introduced genetic material. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge and research around different aspects of CWR. Policies that support in situ and ex situ conservation of CWR and promote sustainable agriculture are pivotal to secure these resources for the benefit of current and future generations

Estudios sobre Rubiáceas Mexicanas XVI. Psychotria lozadae una especie nueva en la flora del estado Guerrero

The exploration of the extremely rich Mexican flora stepped into a more intensified phase according to the decisions and recommendations of the XVI. Mexican Botanical Congress (Oaxaca, 2004). Within the framework of the studies in the Rubiaceae family three kinds of activities has been required: 1) To summarise the existing knowledge about the taxonomy of the family giving a stable base for the further explorations. 2) Extension of the collecting activity. 3) Revision of the collections of the different federal institutions, universities and local authorities or societies. For fulfilling the first requirement, the monographic treatment of Rubiáceas de México was published by the Akadémiai Kiadó, in 2006. For the further requirements new, hitherto not visited areas have been collected in different states and also several institutional and regional collections have been revised and determined (e.g. Flora of the state Guerrero of the UNAM, SERBO de Oaxaca, INEGI, Universities of Tabasco, Querétaro, Aguascalientes) and naturally the materials of the central collections of México (MEXU, FCME, ENCB). For publishing the new findings a series of articles started in 2003, with the title: Estudios sobre Rubiáceas Mexicanas . The results of the first ten articles of the series are included into the monograph, but the new taxa published after 2006 are additional data, not included into the Rubiáceas de México . A new addition to the knowledge of the Mexican Rubiaceae is the Psychotria lozada e a small-leaved creeping subshrub of the high mountain evergreen forests of the Sierra Madre del Sur in Guerrero, with an uncommon habit. It belongs to the subgenus Heteropsychotria , by its bilobulate, permanent stipules. The most closely related species is P. minarum Standl. et Steyerm. of Guatemala, which differs from our species by its longer petioles, elliptic, nigrescent leaves, with obsolete or inconspicuos, nerves, corymbose and glabrous inflorescences, sessile or subsessile, 5-merous flowers, and glabrous hypanthium. The species is dedicated to Lucio Lozada-Pérez, the excellent collector and expert in the Spermacoceae tribe of Rubiaceae