Land Races Of The Common Beans

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  Land races of the common beans

Crop plants, besides being recognised as botanical species, are classified into a number of subspecies, varieties and forms, under each species.   Up to the level of the subspecies, crop plant nomenclature is governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, the same Code of Nomenclature that also applies to the wild species.   Varieties of a crop are recognised as cultivars (abbreviated as cv) whose nomenclature is governed by the International Code of Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants.   Cvs are to be registered to protect the interests of their breeders.

In addition to the botanical varieties and the cultivars, there are number of variants of crop plants, each differing by one or few characters of local choice and importance.   These are called the Land Races, many of them cultivated in very restricted areas.   Their codification is a difficult matter, in spite of their importance to the plant breeder and the cultivator.  

The differences among the land races may be genetical.   Since these characters are of interest, it is strongly felt that all genetic variation of a specific crop be conserved for future use, since we do not know which one of these characters may become more important in future.   Efforts are being made the world over, to record all of the genetic variation in crop plants, their varieties, land races and the wild relatives, in order to use it in the improvement of crop plants.

Wild relatives of crop plants are very important since they provide certain characters of importance.   For example,  genes for the resistance of the red rot disease of sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum1) ware taken from its wild relative (Saccharum spontaneum1) and introduced into sugarcane, to make it resistant to the disease.

Millennia of cultivation has resulted in enormous numbers of varieties of crop plants.   For example the rice has over 1,00,000 varieties in the world.   Some 15,000 varieties of potato and over 12,000 varieties of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris1, Fabaceae), also exist.   Which of these are cultivars and which are land races, is not an easy matter to decide.

All of them together constitute genetic diversity of a crop plant.   It is important to know, record and conserve all the diversity of a crop plant.  

Land Racaes1, illustrates a few of several thousands of varieties of the common bean.