|
Systematic
Biology and Biodiversity Status 1.The Institute of Horticulture is the professional institute representing 2000 members having specialist expertise in all facets of horticulture. Horticulture embraces the commercial production of crops, environmental and landscape design and management and the social impact of plants. Within the Institute are members concerned with education, research and development and technology transfer both nationally and internationally. 2. We endorse the cases made by the Institute of Biology, and the Linnean and other societies in support of work on Systematics and Biodiversity. In addition we wish to make a specific case for their relevance to Horticulture. Introduction 3. We support the contention of Lord May when he was the government's Chief Scientist that Systematics is an important branch of Biological Science, Horticulture and Agriculture. To quote him, " Without taxonomy to give shape to the bricks, and systematics to tell us how to put them together, the house of biological science is a meaningless jumble." Response 4. The botanic gardens are the main repositories in the UK of expertise on the taxonomy and systematics of both the British and World floras. The gardens benefited enormously from the large increase in plant collecting expeditions in the 18th and 19th centuries and collecting continues to the present time. The introductions have made significant contributions to the plants grown in the UK and, of course, none of the major edible crops are native to the UK. The study of the taxonomy and systematics of the plants in the botanic gardens now uses modern molecular and biochemical methods in addition to the traditional morphological techniques. 5. The plant collections in the botanic gardens and elsewhere are not simply "stamp collections". They are working collections that explore the various attributes of the plants and how they can be used. This is very obvious in the gene banks of economically important plants such as those of Alliums and Brassicas maintained by Horticulture Research International and the National Fruit Collection managed by Imperial College at Wye. Some of these collections have international significance, for example the collection of 's' alleles in the Brassica gene bank and the Malus species and cultivars in the National Fruit Collection. Detailed information material in the collections allows breeders to use the collections to improve cultivated species. For example, it helps to identify useful sources of resistance to pests and diseases and their efficient introduction in new cutlivars. 6. The systematics and taxonomy of cultivated plants can be very complicated because they are the results of a large breeding effort that has often involved hybridisation; yet the effort expended on these topics is minimal. It is, nevertheless, very important because the registration of new cultivars for Plant Breeders Rights depends on the ability of breeders to show that the new cultivars are Distinct from other cultivars, are Uniform, and are Stable. Without this DUS testing and successful registration the breeding effort would be uneconomic. 7. The situation with ornamental plants and species that are not used currently in commerce is less clear. Collections of cultivated ornamental plants are co-ordinated by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. Some of these collections are held by the Royal Horticultural Society, the National Trust, local authorities and specialist nurseries, but many are in the care of enthusiastic amateurs. None of the collections receive government funding. The nation's parks and gardens depend on these plants and the new cultivars developed from them. Although there are good scientific reasons for supporting the study of the taxonomy and systematics of cultivated plants, there is also an economic aspect to the work. The direct value of the landscaping and environment section of horticulture is about £15 billion per annum and this is inflated considerably by its importance to the tourist industry. 8. There is increasing effort on trying to identify species that could be used medicinally; yet relatively few species have been investigated. A large number of drugs have been obtained from plants, and the search continues at Kew, the Institute for Grassland and Environmental Research and elsewhere. The work is producing potentially useful products both from the UK and other floras and the latter, especially, have raised ethical issues on who owns the germplasm. The problem will have to be resolved on an international basis and is urgent because the world-wide destruction of natural habitats is leading to the loss of many potentially useful species. This loss emphasises the importance of the work on the plants already in the collections and the preservation of biodiversity through efforts such as the Millenium Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place. 9. The future of the large botanic gardens, Kew and Edinburgh, seems to be relatively secure, although a recent quinquennial review of Kew by DEFRA asked whether it was necessary! The future of the smaller botanic gardens is more uncertain. Many are associated with universities and much of the biological research effort in most universities is now at the molecular level and has had little call recently on access to extensive plant collections. The garden at Royal Holloway College, London University was lost in the early 1990s and that at Bristol University is currently under review. It would be unfortunate if more collections were to disappear at a time when expertise in molecular biology has reached a stage where it can be used to take advantage of the vast diversity that is available. February 2002 |