Crop wild relatives in the south of Primorsky Territory and the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China: studying and mobilization (based on the results of VIR’s collecting missions)

Presented here are the results of collecting missions launched by the N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR) to explore the plant diversity in the south of Primorsky Territory and the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, China. These areas belong to the Khasan-Korean botanical-geographical subregion, notable for its rich natural flora and a large number of endemics and rare species. Many species growing here are used as ornamental, food and medicinal plants. Among crop wild relatives (CWR), 63 species were found in Russia only in the south of Primorsky Territory. In total, 58 VIR’s collecting missions worked in this area in the period from 1926 to 2023, and 17 of them explored the southernmost Khasansky District that shares a border with both China and North Korea. These missions enriched the VIR collection with ca. 1,432 accessions of 154 wild plant species belonging to the Fabaceae, Rosaceae, Poaceae, Alliaceae, Ericaceae, Linaceae, Viburnaceae, Grossulariaceae, Polygonaceae and Cucurbitaceae families. The largest numbers were collected in the areas with the greatest CWR diversity: Vladivostoksky Urban (~464 accessions), Khasansky (~333) and Lazovsky (~308) Districts. Among the collected samples, fruit plants (934 accessions), legumes (258) and forages (101) prevailed. CWR explorations in the south of Primorsky Territory discovered plant forms resistant to diseases, pests, and unfavorable environmental factors, with high values of various agronomic characters. Many of them served as sources for the development of new cultivars successfully grown in the Far East and other regions of Russia.