Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

Mansfeld's Encyclopedia of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops and the Mansfeld phenomenon
Some other taxa, which had been thought to be extinct in parts of their former areas
of distribution, were rediscovered, e.g., Cucumis melo var. flexuosus (L.) Naud., the
snake melon, in South Tunisia (PISTRICK et al. 1994).
Amaranthus lividus L. convar. lividus, an old vegetable with purple coloured
broadened stems, had been reported as “now probably only in Botanical Gardens” in
the second Mansfeld edition: we found it in Central Romania in traditional cultivation
(PISTRICK 1996).
Of all the 240,000 higher plant species presently described, 2.5 % are cultivated as
agricultural and horticultural crops (except ornamentals). The top ten families with the
largest numbers of species are clearly led by the Leguminosae and Gramineae
(Table 1).
Tab. 1: The “Top ten families” of Mansfeld’s Encyclopedia
Family
26
Species
number
Percentage
of crop
plants
1 st German
ed. 1959
2 nd German
ed. 1986
1 st English
ed. 2001
Leguminosae 18,000 4.2 196 658 759
Gramineae 9,500 7.1 183 596 670
Compositae 22,750 1.2 47 215 271
Rosaceae 2,825 9.1 82 226 258
Euphorbiaceae 8,100 2.2 28 136 181
Labiatae 6,700 2.6 38 129 174
Palmae 2,650 5.8 23 82 154
Solanaceae 2,950 4.5 48 115 132
Umbelliferae 3,540 3.2 30 78 113
Rutaceae 1,800 5.1 30 78 92
In all these families the numbers of species treated increased very greatly from 1 st to
2 nd editions, with yet more additions for the 3 rd edition. Let us have a closer look on
the Umbelliferae and Labiatae, for which I was more or less responsible during this
last revision. Major uses could be indicated for all species by commodity groups
following the Mansfeld data (PISTRICK 2002). Numerous neglected and under-utilised
crops of interest for future breeding activities are included in these overviews, as well
as many little known possibilities of their utilisation.