Towards a 'red list' for crop plant species

An attempt is made toward the application of IUCN criteria and Red List Categories to agricultural and horticultural plants (excluding ornamentals). The main sources for this study were Mansfeld's Encyclopedia (2001) and the IUCN Red List of threatened plants (2001). About 200 threatened cultivated plants are considered and presented in the respective lists, among them completely extinct crop plants such as Anacyclus officinarum and Bromus mango. The information available about neglected and underutilized crop plants still lags behind that about wild plants, especially at the species level, and more studies are required. On the other hand studies of major crops at the infraspecific level, are very advanced and can serve as models for investigating the wild ones.