Collection of Local Vegetables Genotypes along with Their Wild Relatives in North Cyprus

The island of Cyprus has an extremely rich flora in terms of genetic diversity and is localized on two genetic diversity centers of many cultivated plants. There are many local varieties and landraces grown for centuries in the island but they are under the risk of extinction due to the pressure of modern agriculture, especially hybrid cultivars and seedling use. A project has been carried out since 2010, with the purpose of collection and conservation of local vegetable genetic materials and to establish the core of a future gene bank for this purpose at the European University of Lefke, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Technologies. In this project, all genetic material was provided as items to a "core collection" of important major and minor local vegetables cultivars. In addition, wild relatives of many vegetables species such as wild asparagus, wild watermelon, wild chard, hostess of herbs, capers, mallow and wild mustard were also collected