
Finding and Preserving Native American
Grapes By Hank Becker December 1, 1998Last summer, botanist Diane Pavek drove and hiked 12,000 miles exploring
wild terrain in the United States. Her mission: find and preserve in
situ populations of the native rock grape, Vitis rupestrisScheele. In situ means growing in native habitat. Rock grape is prized as rootstock because of its excellent disease and
insect resistance. It can adapt to harsh environmental conditions such as
drought. If undisturbed, this grape can continue evolving and adapting. According to
Pavek, the plants may hold genes useful in developing new grape varieties. But
she found the grape along fewer than half the waterways where it previously had
grown. Pavek is with the National Germplasm Resources
Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. The lab is part of the
Agricultural Research Service, the
principal research arm of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Rock grape typically grows along rivers and creeks, on gravel bars and in
areas with large boulders. Flooding may uproot and redeposit the plants or
transport the fruits downstream, where seeds can germinate. Pavek looked for the plants in 60 waterways in 10 states--from Pennsylvania
to Texas--where the plants had previously been collected. Because of stream
channeling or other changes that eliminated rock grape habitat, she found the
plants on only two dozen of the 60 waterways. At each site, she measured the plants and took leaf samples for genetic
screening. In her lab, she recorded physical data on 238 plants from 19
waterways. Her analyses identified populations that differed in specific
favorable traits. As a result, she has proposed seven populations as in
situ conservation sites. A story about in situ preservation of grapes and other plants appears
in Decembers Agriculture
Research magazine. The story also is on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/dec98/situ1298.htm Scientific contact: Diane S. Pavek, ARS National Germplasm Resources
Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural
Research Center, Beltsville, Md., phone (301) 504-5692, fax (301) 504-6305,
[email protected] Story contacts National Germplasm Resources Laboratory U.S. Department of Agriculture | |