New Caledonia and its potential for new floriculture crops.

摘要

The flora of New Caledonia is rich and unique, but it has been poorly explored for new floriculture crops. Historically, the first explorers and botanists who came to New Caledonia brought back ornamental native plants to Europe for evaluation in greenhouses. A research program within the New Caledonian Agronomic Institute was developed, and several attempts were made locally and internationally to use the germplasm. A small number of New Caledonian native plants can be found in nurseries, garden centers, in landscapes and international botanical gardens include mainly Schefflera elegantissima, Oxera pulchella subsp. grandiflora, some palms and Araucaria pines. However, given the rich, genetic diversity of the flora New Caledonia many spectacular species remain unknown to the global ornamental trade. The three main ecosystems of New Caledonia are the dense evergreen rainforest, the sclerophyllous forest and the maquis minier (typical New Caledonian scrubland found on oxidic soils). These ecosystems in combination with a range of altitude from sea level to more than 1,600 m offer a wide range of plant habitats yielding species that could be grown in different climatic zones. In 2003, a specific program on the domestication and introduction of ornamental native plants to promote their use in gardens and landscaping was established at the Vegetable and Horticultural Research Station part of the New Caledonian Agronomic Institute. This program has collaborations with a project funded to protect the endangered dry forest ecosystem and local nickel mining companies who fund studies on the propagation of rare and endangered species. A breeding program on the sub-endemic Oxera genus has been established. This paper will present an overview of the ecosystems of New Caledonia and highlight key genera for development of new floricultural species.