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Abstract
Many food plants are classified as minor or underutilized, as they are used only by a minority of\n people or occur in a limited geographical area. We surveyed five plants consumed as vegetables\n in Papua New Guinea: Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.), black nightshade, (Solanum nigrum L.),\n vegetable fern (Diplazium esculentum (Retz) Sw.), and tree leaves from Ficus copiosa Steud. and\n Gnetum gnemon L. Amaranth and nightshade are fast growing annual crops; they are suitable for\n small plot cultivation and have high nutritional value. Vegetable fern and tree leaves are widely\n enjoyed but commonly harvested from the wild, usually by women and young children.\n Occasionally people are lost in the forest in the search for these ferns and leaves; cultivation\n would help avoid such incidents. A first step would be access to germplasm. We used the Global\n Gateway to Genetic Resources (GENESYS) to survey germplasm conserved around the globe and\n the Global Biodiversity Information Facility to check georeferenced occurrences. No accessions of\n fern or the two tree species were found in GENESYS. Occurrences were concentrated in Oceania.\n Our search revealed 180 accessions of black nightshade and 6380 amaranth accessions\n worldwide; 0 and 7 from Papua New Guinea, respectively. The results highlight that except for\n amaranth, indigenous vegetables identified as relevant for Papua New Guinea are not part of the\n global food plant conservation system. To move forward, an interdisciplinary collaboration\n including botany, agronomy and conservation should be initiated and local germplasm collection\n and cultivation trials should be conducted.