Biogeography of wild Arachis: Assessing conservation status and setting future priorities

plant species are threatened globally, equivalent to some 12.5% of the estimated world flora. Other estimates The conservation status of wild Arachis spp. is not well charactersuggest that 25 to 35% of plant genetic diversity could ized for its maintenance and possible future exploitation for the improvement 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 irredeemdistribution 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 spewhole genus, excluding A. hypogea. hotspots of species richness were cies essential for human nutrition and crop improve% %