The collection of seed (germplasm) of selected Priority-listed, rare and threatened species of Crop Wild Relatives for Ireland-Final Phase.
In 2013,22 plant specieswere the focus for seed collection. This was to ensure that the outstanding species of Irish CWRson Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture but which, have not yet been the focus of sampling were collected. The approach taken was through the targeting of ‘Hot Spots’ where a number of species are known to occur in close proximity to each other with a furtherfocus on forage-rich sites, undisturbed sites and those likely to contain only native genotypes. There was an emphasis on SACs, NHAs and areas known to have been farmed in a non-intensive manner and there was an avoidance of areas where possible contamination from modern cultivars/landraces had occurred.
The aim was to make 66 accessions though by the end of November, 2013, a total of 79 accessions had been made which brought the total for 2010, 2011 & 2013 to 224. Though over 100 sites were visited, there were a number of factors that prevented the collection of some species populations. These included populations being still extant but which produced no seed. This in contrast to other years was a result of a very warm late-June and July. In the case of White clover, as was the case for Red clover in previous years, little seed was noted which may be due to weevil predation. Also, loss of some populations through habitat destruction was a factor andcertain populations were not found at sites from which they were previously known. In the case of Bearded couch, selective grazing by deer was obvious
All of the collection details were enteredin a EURISCO-compatible database which was submitted to DAFF together with all accessions collected up to November 2013 and a Final Report for 2013.
Project Coordinators: Dr Tom Curtis & Faith Wilson
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