Wild Rutaceae Resources In The Three Gorges Area And Their Ex-Situ Conservation States-an Overall Investigation

The Three Gorges Area, located between the East of Sichuan and the West of Hubei province, is one of the three major biodiversity and endemic plant distribution centers in China. Because of the special geographical position, the Three Gorges Area possesses a wealth of botanical resources, including wild Rutaceae plants. Presently, biodiversity conservation, especially for wild plants, has provoked a great deal of concern worldwide. Several domestic institutions have been conserving the wild Rutaceae plants in the Three Gorges Area via ex-situ strategies. However, the detailed states of wild Rutaceae plants in the Three Gorges Area and their Ex-situ Conservation remain unclear. In present investigation, the distribution of wild Rutaceae resources in the Three Gorges Area and their ex-situ conservation were investigated, the main results were as below.1. In the past 3 years, wild Rutaceae resources distributed in 152 villages (towns) of 23 counties (city, state and district) of the Three Gorges Area were comprehensively investigated. A total of 11 genera included 28 species and 8 variants of wild Rutaceae resources were observed, which covered 38% and 19% of the total genera and species in Rutaceae in China. Generally, shrubs predominated among the wild Rutaceae resources.2. Notably the Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) DC. was found in present investigation, which distribution was never recorded in the Three Gorges Area before. Furthermore, new distribution locations of 14 wild Rutaceae species (var.) were also found. Over 90% of the wild Rutaceae resources in the Three Gorges Area covered 1 to 5 species, suggesting that the wild Rutaceae plants have well adapted to the environment of Three Gorges Area.3. Our investigation results of ex-situ conservation of wild Rutaceae resourves in the Three Gorges Area showed that only four domestic institutions conserved the wild Rutaceae plants from the Three Gorges Area (Wuhan Botanical Garden, Three Gorges Botanical Garden, Chongqing Botanical Garden and Huazhong Agricultural University). Today, a set of 20 species of the Three Gorges Area wild Rutaceae plants are concerved in Wuhan Botanical Garden, except 11 individual plants of Boenninghausenia albiflora (HK.) Meiss. ex Reich survived, not more than 6 plants survive to other species. Less than 5 species are conserved in the other three institutions. Overall, low surviving rate and poor growth vigorous hampered the ex-situ conservation, and both the number of species and individuals of each species are below the basic standard of resources ex-situ conservation.Based on above results, suggestions on the protection of wild Rutaceae resourves in the Three Gorges Area were also proposed.