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Italy belongs to the Mediterranean gene centre proposed by Vavilov and is rich in endemic rare plants and many vegetables, crops that belong to about 40 species. Horticultural landraces are a source of useful genes as well as a cultural heritage of extraordinary importance. They are characterized by a specific adaptation to the environmental and cultivation conditions of the particular area where they have been selected, so playing a crucial role in order to maintain and improve the efficiency and resilience of production systems. Vegetable crops, even if less threatened by genetic erosion than other crops, would benefit of in situ and ex situ conservation that are complementary both for taking in account agronomic, environmental and economic changes and for reintroducing lost germplasm into the original cultivation areas.

A complementary approach of ex-situ conservation of native Israeli geophytes with horticultural potential is presented. Sixty-eight species with ornamental traits were selected out of the 234 geophytes of Israeli flora to be collected and preserved by the Israel Plant Gene Bank (IGB) and the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens (JBG). The target list is categorized into three types of potential horticultural products: garden plants, cut flowers, and flowering pot plants. In addition to their attractiveness as ornamental plants, many of the Israeli wild geophytes are potentially self-maintained crops that can be utilized in water-saving horticultural practices. The new ornamental species might also provide extra value in international markets, as well as for gardening and landscape development in the Mediterranean and semiarid regions. Selected species with ornamental potential are discussed and detailed in five test cases.

Plants may not have any ideology, but empires were intricately linked to plants: their exploitation for agricultural, horticultural, and afforestation purposes; their transport across the globe, to and from the metropolitan power and between colonies; and their scientific exploration. And to support such enterprises, modern empires developed networks of botanical institutions such as botanic gardens, botanical departments, botanic stations, forestry departments, and herbariums to investigate the scientific and horticultural nature of species. Empire also resulted in periodic plant crazes in Europe, with nursery firms publishing hand-illustrated botanical magazines to popularize the species which had been introduced through the state botanical institutions such as the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Keywords: botanic gardens; botany; environmental history; forests; imperial history; natural resources; plant hunters; plants

Members of the Brassica family include a wide range of horticultural crops (eg. cabbage, mustard, rocket, pak choy, daikon, broccoli) all of which contain compounds known as glucosinolates. Certain glucosinolates and their breakdown products, isothiocyanates, have been linked to a reduction in the prevalence of certain types of cancer (eg. colorectal cancer). One glucosinolate that has recently received much publicity for its anti-cancer action is glucoraphanin, a compound found in high abundance in broccoli, particularly in seed and sprouted-seed. Many other glucosinolates exist with anti-cancer potential, located within different members of the Brassica family. The present investigation identified the glucosinolates present in seed of a range of Asian and Western cultivated species. Based on the known CD values of individual isothiocyanates, the anti-cancer potential of each species was estimated. Seed of species with a similar anticancer-potential to broccoli included red radish and daikon. Seed of species with moderate anti-cancer potential included garden cress, rocket, kale and watercress. The remaining species had moderate to low anti-cancer potential. Other factors that can negatively impact on anti-cancer potential include the ESP-related conversion of glucosinolates to nitriles (rather than isothiocyanates) in some species, and the presence of 'anti-nutritional' glucosinolates.