Diversity of native begonias and impatiens - great horticultural potentials of South West Cameroon.

摘要

Ornamental plants constitute a considerable portion of the Rainforest Non-timber Forest Product (NTFP). To date, they have not enjoyed the attention from scientists during their exploration of forests. Nevertheless, they offer a formidable horticultural value that has to be exploited to the benefit of humankind. The Cameroon Rainforest is part of the Congo Basin and ranked by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) as one of the world biodiversity hot spots. The Southwest (SW) region of this country has the Mount Cameroon range with diverse forest types and full of endemism and new species of plants. The attribution of value to ornamental plants of the forest will give more weight to its conservation and sustainable use. Impatiens L. and Begonia L., the two most popular flowers in the world were studied. These taxa are pandemic in natural distribution and they are present in SW Cameroon in glacial rainforest refuges in massifs that survived the last global glaciations. These massifs have very ancient relatives of these taxa still in existence and other unique species. These wild species could be of tremendous importance for horticultural plant improvement, and the introduction and creation of new crops. The current germplasm collection and conservation of these genera in Cameroon is minimal. Some of the key species in this region include in particular Impatiens mannii, I. niamniamensis, I. macroptera, I. hains, I. filicornu, I. burtonii, I. palpebrata, I. sakerana. Species such as I. grandisepala Grey-Wilson is strictly endemic to Mount Cameroon and a new species, and another new species is endemic to Mount Etinde. Some key Begonia species are B. oxyanthera, B. preussiiand B. ampla. The B. quadrialata subsp. dusenii (Warb) Sosef is an endemic rare Begonia species to the SW slope of Mount Cameroon. This paper will bring to light the rich genetic resources of wild Impatiens and Begonia in SW Cameroon.