The Status of the Hungarian National Apiaceae Collection László Holly, Zsuzsanna Kollár, Attila Simon Research Centre for Agrobiodiversity, Tápiószele Institutional background The last decade was quite hectic and instable for the activities of PGR in Hungary. Several reorganisation of the national plant gene bank at Tápiószele, the strict cost‐cutting of the budget of the collection holding institutions and the interruption of the funding scheme provided by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2004 brought the national PGR activities in difficult situation. These difficulties caused a serious decline in some collections, especially in case of vegetables. This period was closed by the Ministry’s re‐launching of the grant scheme in 2009. The Ministry of Rural Development provides funding for the maintenance of collections in the frame of a new grant scheme. This financial support is available for all institutions, persons and other organizations carrying out genebank activities if they meet the following requirements: ‐ The applicant should possess unique germplasm, not duplicated in existing germplasm collections. ‐ The material should be made freely available. ‐ A basic set of passport and/or collecting information should be supplied to the National Gene Bank Database managed at the RCAT. ‐ After multiplication of the accessions, the applicants should arrange for long‐term preservation of the material in the National Base Collection. ‐ Supported genetic resources activities should be conducted in accordance with international standards (FAO/IBPGR standards for genebanks, IBPGR descriptor lists). Beside the recovery of the financial background the establishment of the Research Centre for Agrobiodiversity on 1st November 2010 was also a key issue. Research Centre for Agrobiodiversity Tápiószele (RCAT) as an independent institute reporting directly to the Ministry of Rural Development maintained its nation‐wide responsibilities on PGR and acts as the main depository for genetic resources of field and vegetable crops in Hungary. Today the RCAT genebank – working under the international genebank standards ‐ has 46 716 unique accessions maintained in medium‐ and long term storage. Table 1: National Collection at RCAT Crop groups Active Active and base Base Total Percentage Cereals 17 315 2 984 5 20 304 43% Food legumes 7 697 2 164 41 9 902 21% Forage legumes 2 321 332 1 2 654 6% Grasses 1 954 243 1 2 198 5% Industrial crops 2 122 800 9 2 931 6% vegetables 6 137 1 286 23 7 446 16% Other 1 172 104 5 1 281 3% Total 38 718 7 913 85 46 716 National Apiaceae Collection The Hungarian National Inventory contains 46 716 unique accession, of which 693 accessions belong to Apiaceae (Table 2). Table 2: Apiaceae at RCAT by crop groups and genera Crop group Accession herbs / condiments 108 Ammi 2 Angelica 1 Carum 31 Conium 1 Coriandrum 30 Foeniculum 32 Heracleum 2 Peucedanum 1 Pimpinella 6 Falcaria 1 Ferula 1 vegetables 585 Anethum 97 Apium 91 Daucus 195 Levisticum 5 Pastinaca 42 Petroselinum 155 Total 693 It contains 29 taxa of 17 genera (Table 3). Table 3: Taxa of Apiaceae maintained at RCAT Crop group Taxon Accession herb / condiments Ammi majus L. 1 (108) Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam. 1 Angelica sylvestris L. 1 Carum carvi L. 31 Conium maculatum L. 1 Coriandrum sativum L. 30 Falcaria vulgaris Bernh. 1 Ferula assa‐foetida L. 1 Foeniculum vulgare Miller 32 Heracleum sosnowskyix Manden 1 Heracleum sphondylium L. 1 Peucedanum officinale L. 1 Pimpinella anisum L. 6 vegetables Anethum graveolens L. 97 (585) Apium graveolens L. 90 Apium inundatum (L.) Reichenb. fil. 1 Daucus aureus Desf. 1 Daucus carota L. 6 Daucus carota L. subsp. azoricus Franco 1 Daucus carota L. subsp. carota 13 Daucus carota L. subsp. commutatus 1 Daucus carota L. subsp. gadecaei (Rouy et Camus) Heywood 1 Daucus carota L. subsp. gummifer 1 Daucus carota L. subsp. maximus (Desf.) Ball 1 Daucus carota L. subsp. sativus (Hoffm.) Arcangeli 167 Daucus muricatus (L.) L. 3 Levisticum officinale Koch 5 Pastinaca sativa L. 42 Petroselinum crispum (Miller) A. W. Hill 155 Total 693 The 55 % of the accessions is collected material: 29 accessions are wild crop relatives, 354 accessions are landraces, local populations. The sample of status is unknown in case of 160 accessions representing 23% of the total holdings (Table 4). Table 4: Distribution by status of sample SAMPSTAT no of accession percentage 100 29 4% 300 354 51% 500 150 22% unknown 1608 23% Total 693 The majority of accessions originated from Hungary (358 accessions) and Romania (44 accessions, 1 wild and 42 landraces). There are 11 wild crops relatives, 296 landraces among the accessions with Hungarian origin. In case of the Hungarian accessions there are only two accessions of which the sample of status is unknown (Table 5). The proportion of accessions of unknown country of origin is high, approximately 30% of the total items. Table 5: Distribution by country of origin and status of sample Country of origin 100 300 500 unknown Total AUT 1 1 BGR 2 2 CZE 1 1 CSK 15 1 16 DDR 1 8 9 DEU 11 4 15 DNK 4 4 ESP 1 1 2 FRA 1 8 9 GRC 1 1 HRV 1 1 HUN 11 296 49 2 358 ITA 2 1 3 JPN 1 1 NLD 10 10 POL 1 1 ROU 1 42 1 44 SLO 1 1 SUN 1 3 4 SVK 1 1 USA 2 1 3 unknown 8 57 141 206 Total 29 354 150 160 693 Collecting activity Recent Hungarian collecting activity is mainly based on intergovernmental scientific and technological cooperation programmes. Within the frame of a bilateral S&T cooperation programme between: ‐ Romania and Hungary (Table 6), a joint project entitled “Diversity assessment and collecting of plant genetic resources in the North‐eastern Carpathian Mountains and Békés region for 2008‐2009”. (Research project number: TéT RO‐41/2007) was developed. Between 2008‐2009, during the term of the project o 896 accessions were collected during six collecting missions from 19 collecting sites in Hungary, and from 27 collecting sites in Romania. 734 accessions of traditional crop varieties (245 from Hungary and 489 from Romania) 162 accessions of crop wild relatives (85 from Hungary and 77 from Romania). ‐ Hungarian‐Czech bilateral project (2009‐2010): o 2009: four collecting missions were organised, 62 localities were visited and in total 391 seeds and vegetative samples of crop wild relatives and local crop varieties were collected. o 2010: four collecting missions were completed: (two in Hungary and two in Czech Republic) ‐ Hungarian‐Slovenian bilateral project (2010‐2011): o The project will include four collecting missions to the North‐Eastern region (Goričko) of Slovenia and to the South‐Western region of Hungary (Őrség). Table 6: Collectings in 2000‐2010 by country of origin Crop group Taxon CRO CZE HUN ITA ROM SVK SLO Total vegetable Anethum graveolens L. 18 13 31 Apium graveolens L. 1 5 6 Daucus carota L. subsp. carota 1 2 14 1 9 1 28 Daucus carota L. subsp. sativus (Hoffm.) 10 6 1 17 Arcangeli Levisticum officinale Koch 3 1 4 Pastinaca sativa L. 2 1 3 Petroselinum crispum (Miller) A. W. Hill 15 14 29 Total 1 5 64 2 54 2 1 132 Table 7: Collecting in 2000‐2010 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Total Crop group Taxon herb Carum carvi L. 2 1 2 5 Coriandrum sativum L. 1 1 Foeniculum vulgare Miller 1 1 1 3 Heracleum sphondylium L. 1 1 2 Peucedanum alsaticum L. 1 1 Peucedanum officinale L. 1 1 Pimpinella saxifraga L. 1 1 vegetable Anethum graveolens L. 5 5 2 1 12 4 2 31 Apium graveolens L. 3 1 2 6 Daucus carota L. subsp. carota 1 6 3 2 2 2 1 8 1 2 28 Daucus carota L. subsp. sativus (Hoffm.) Arcangeli 5 2 1 6 3 17 Levisticum officinale Koch 1 2 1 4 Pastinaca sativa L. 1 2 3 Petroselinum crispum (Miller) A. W. Hill 9 5 3 1 1 7 3 29 Total 2 24 19 6 4 9 4 1 39 19 5 132 Figure 1: Collecting sites in 2000‐2010 Crop wild relatives (LIFE+ Pannon Seed bank project) The collecting landraces and crop wild relatives has a high priority in the development of our collections. Related to this concept a LIFE + project carried out by RCAT. The „Establishment of the Pannon Seed Bank for the long‐term ex situ conservation of Hungarian vascular wild plants” project was established in 2010 with the co‐financing of the LIFE+ found and the Hungarian Ministry of Rural Development. The coordinating beneficiary of the project is the Research Centre for Agrobiodiversity, associated beneficiaries are the Institute of Ecology and Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Aggtelek National Park Directorate. The main goal of this project is the long‐term seed preservation of the wild vascular flora of the Pannonian biogeographical region. The project aims to achieve this goal through expanding the current functions of the Research Centre for Agrobiodiversity (Tápiószele), having more than fifty‐ years of experience in the conservation of agricultural genetic resources. The establishment of a joint seed bank for the agricultural and wild flora would be a unique and demonstrative example worldwide. It is planned that by the end of the project, approximately 50 percent – at least 800 species – of the species of the wild native flora will be collected. The list contains 59 taxons belonging to the family of Apiaceae(Table 8), the total number of the list is 1 359. During compiling the list of species the main aspects of choosing species were the follows: ‐ storing behaviour of species ‐ taxonomical aspects ‐ determining problem of a certain taxa (easy to determine, or need an expert for identification) ‐ nature conservation status (protected/strictly protected) ‐ rarity and importance of the species ‐ nature conservation value categories of Simon (cultivated and adventiv species were eliminated) Table 8: Apiaceaes from the collecting list of the Pannon Seed Bank project Oenanthe banatica Heuff.