Several major, international programmes on legume genetic resources are presently active. They each have a web portal giving detailed and comprehensive information, mainly for germplasm, taxonomy and products. The emphasis is on genetic resources rather than the ecological roles and agronomy of legumes.
Click a link in the list below to move down this page to find a brief description of each resource and related web links.
- ECPGR European cooperative programme for plant genetic resources
- Grain legumes portal
- ILDIS International legume database and information service
ECPGR European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources
ECPGR is a collaborative programme among European countries that aims to conserve ex situ and in situ plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and increase their utilisation. It contributes at national, sub-regional and regional scales.The programme operates through broadly focused networks dealing with groups of crops or general themes related to plant genetic resources. It has individual databases for the main forage and grain legume genera and supports the Grain Legumes Working Group.
Web site: ECPGR forage and grain legume databases
Grain Legumes Portal
Web site: Grain legumes portal. Does not seem to be operating - 24 November 2012.
ILDIS International legume database and information service
ILDIS aims to document and catalogue the world's legume species diversity in a readily accessible form. Research groups in many countries are participating on a cooperative basis to pool information in the ILDIS World Database of Legumes, which is used to provide a worldwide information service through publications, electronic access and enquiry services. ILDIS is coordinated through the Center for Plant Diversity and Systematics, School of Plant Sciences, University of Reading UK. Much of the information on the database has been compiled at ILDIS Regional Centres, and collected from local herbaria, national botanists and from literature written in many different languages, making accessible a wealth of information that would otherwise remain hidden. (Text extracted from the ILDIS 'about' page.)
Web site: ILDIS
