Biogeography of wild Arachis: Assessing conservation status and setting future priorities. Crop Science 43

ABSTRACT plant species are threatened globally, equivalent to some 12.5 % of the estimated world flora. Other estimatesThe conservation status of wild Arachis spp. is not well character-suggest that 25 to 35 % of plant genetic diversity couldized for its maintenance and possible future exploitation for the im-provement of cultivated peanut, Arachis hypogaea L. Our objectives be lost in the next 20 yr. Those taxa that include crop were to use 2175 georeferenced observations of wild peanut (Arachis species and their wild relatives (crop gene pools) are of spp.) to assess the conservation status of the genus and to prioritize particular concern from a conservation perspective. The biologically and geographically future conservation actions. Species economic and social consequences of such an irredeem-distribution predictions were made on the basis of 36 climate variables, able loss of plant diversity, combined with rapid human and these data were synthesized with land-use data to map the poten- population growth, could be potentially disastrous. The tial distribution of each species, and hence the species richness of the conservation of plant diversity, particularly of those spe-whole genus, excluding A. hypogea. hotspots of species richness were cies essential for human nutrition and crop improve-found in Mato Grosso around Cuiaba ́ and Campo Grande in Brazil ment, is of critical importance. One of the most pressingand around the Serra Geral de Goias, northeast of Brasilia. The challenges facing biologists today is the description ofcurrent state of in situ conservation areas poorly represents wild peanut, with only 48 of the 2175 observations from National Parks. biological diversity at the ecosystem, species, and ge