Abstract
Societal Impact StatementAgroecosystems are constantly evolving to meet the needs of a growing population in a sustainable manner. Concerns about ecological impacts of agriculture, including soil loss, have focused attention on crops that provide both agricultural products and ecological services. Perennial, herbaceous crops that live for multiple years and can be harvested mechanically produce large root systems that may reduce soil loss; however, these species are largely absent from agriculture. The diversity of wild, perennial, herbaceous legume species documented by the Perennial Agriculture Project Global Inventory (PAPGI) increases resources available to breeders of perennial, herbaceous legumes, and raises awareness about untapped wild plant diversity in future crop development.Summary Concerns about soil health and stability are focusing attention on crops that deliver both agricultural products and ecological services. Deep rooted, perennial plants that build soil organic matter, support diverse belowground microbial communities, and produce edible seeds are key components underpinning ecological intensification; however, few perennial, herbaceous crops have been domesticated for food. To facilitate development of edible, perennial, herbaceous crops, including perennial grains, we constructed an online resource of wild, perennial, herbaceous species—the Perennial Agriculture Project Global Inventory (PAPGI; http://www.tropicos.org/Project/PAPGI). The first component of this project focuses on wild, perennial, herbaceous Fabaceae species. We extracted taxonomic names and descriptors from the International Legume Database and Information Service. Names were added to PAPGI, a special project within the botanical database TROPICOS, where they link to specimen records and ethnobotanical and toxicological data. PAPGI includes 6,644 perennial, herbaceous Fabaceae species. We built a searchable database, a framework for the ongoing incorporation of more than 60 agriculturally important traits for perennial, herbaceous legumes. Here we highlight food and forage uses for 314 legume species, and toxicological data for 278 species. The novel contribution of PAPGI is its focus on wild, perennial herbaceous species that generally have not entered the domestication process but that hold promise for development as perennial food crops. By extracting botanical information relevant for agriculture we provide a dynamic resource for breeders and plant scientists working to advance ecological intensification of agriculture, and for conservation managers working to preserve wild species of potential agricultural importance.
Highlights
Agriculture is the world’s largest and most rapidly expanding ecosystem and the leading cause of biodiversity loss (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005)
Have perennial herbaceous species been used for food in the past and do they have any known toxic properties? In this first phase, we focus on the Fabaceae family
We present a summary of known toxicology information (Table S7), we recommend that for species with unknown toxicology information, users consult toxicity information recorded on the Perennial Agriculture Project Global Inventory (PAPGI) genus page, because this information applies to all species within the genus
Summary
Agriculture is the world’s largest and most rapidly expanding ecosystem and the leading cause of biodiversity loss (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005). Agricultural intensification, increased productivity per unit area, results in dramatic yield gains through breeding and agronomic inputs (Mann, 1997), and leads to soil degradation and erosion (Cox et al, 2006; FAO, 2009; Pretty, Toulmin, & Williams, 2011). Ecological intensification or multi-functional agriculture, an approach which aims to maximize agricultural products while simultaneously providing ecological services, is a compelling concept framing conversations about sustainable food production (Cassman, 1999; FAO, 2009; Doré et al, 2011; Bommarco, Kleijn, & Potts, 2013; Tittonell, 2014). High-yielding, deep rooted, perennial, herbaceous plants prevent erosion, build soil organic matter, support diverse below-ground microbial communities, provide ecosystem services, and produce seeds and biomass that can be harvested mechanically (e.g. Glover et al, 2010; Pimentel et al, 2012; Crews et al, 2016; DeHaan et al, 2016; Crews & Cattani, 2018). Herbaceous species are grown for biomass (e.g., alfalfa), here we turn our attention to perennial herbs grown for their edible reproductive structures, and focus in part on perennial grains (dry edible seeds harvested from perennial cereal, legume, oilseed, and pseudocereal crops; Van Tassel & DeHaan, 2013)
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