Revista Cubana de Ciencias Forestales. 2019, January-April, 7(1): 111-124

Translated from the original in spanish

Arboreal species of the Pinar del Rio Botanical Garden and their potential use

Especies arbóreas del Jardín Botánico de Pinar del Río y sus potencialidades de uso

Zenia Acosta Ramos¹

Alisberkys De la Caridad Gallardo Cruz¹

Jesús Alfonso Martínez¹

¹Jardín Botánico de Pinar del Río. Pinar del Río, Cuba. E-mail: zeniaacosta2012@gmail.com

Received: May, 5^th 2018.
Approved: January 10^th , 2019.

ABSTRACT

From immemorial time, botanical gardens have played a preponderant role in the conservation of plant species, especially those of economic interest to man. The Botanical Garden of Pinar del Río has not been left out of it and as an institution managing the sustainable use of its taxa, it harbours 160 arboreal species, which are grouped into 124 genera and 51 families. The best represented families are Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, Meliaceae, Sapindaceae, Boraginaceae, Combretaceae and Malvaceae. Regarding their potentialities it has been verified that they are all wood, 58 % medicinal, 29 % edible, 16 % ornamental and 11 % mellifluous. As for endemism, 27 species are endemic, representing 17 % of the total. In turn, 21 species have been categorized as endangered, representing 13 %, 33 % of them are categorized as preliminarily endangered, 52 % as critically endangered, 9 % as endangered and 4 % as vulnerable.

Keywords: living plant collections; trees; ex situ conservation.

RESUMEN

Los jardines botánicos, desde tiempos inmemoriales, han jugado un papel preponderante en la conservación de especies vegetales, especialmente las de interés económico para el hombre. El Jardín Botánico de Pinar del Río no ha quedado fuera de ello y como institución gestora del uso sostenible de sus taxones, alberga 160 especies arbóreas, que se agrupan en 124 géneros y 51 familias. Las familias mejores representadas son Fabaceae, Myrtaceae, Meliaceae, Sapindaceae, Boraginaceae, Combretaceae y Malvaceea. Referido a sus potencialidades se ha constatado que todas son maderables, 58 % medicinales, 29 % comestibles, 16 % ornamentales y el 11 % melífera. En cuanto al endemismo, 27 especies son endémicas, las que representan el 17 % del total. A su vez, 21 especies han sido categorizadas como amenazadas, las que representan el 13 %, de ellas 33 % categorizadas preliminarmente como amenazadas, 52 % en peligro crítico, 9 % en peligro y 4 % vulnerable.

Palabras clave: colecciones vivas de plantas; árboles; conservación ex situ.

INTRODUCTION

Botanical gardens, because of their capacity in the cultivation and propagation of thousands of plant species, as well as their experience in the cultivation of wild species, have been called upon to play a leading role in the conservation of plant species for the protection and management of biological diversity, and this was the key to their success in 1985, both the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) convened a meeting of all the botanical gardens to explore the multiple roles that these centres could play in the conservation of threatened plants and to lay the groundwork for promoting a global strategy for botanical gardens in conservation. The BGCS (Botanic Gardens Conservation Secretariat) was thus created as a body under the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In 1989, the "1989 IUCN, BGCS and WWF Botanical Gardens Conservation Strategy" was published. This document already provided a comprehensive and well-designed framework for botanical gardens in conservation.

The Pinar del Río Botanical Garden (JBPR) has as a fundamental premise the environmental education to its visitors, as well as to promote the use of its collections with scientific and cultural purposes, to increase the knowledge about biodiversity and the need of its conservation. In the collections of this institution, a great representation of tree plants can be found, many of them frequently used by the population. Taking into account this criterion, the present work relates 160 tree species present in the Pinar del Río Botanical Garden with the objective of divulging the current composition of the living tree collection, as well as offering taxonomic updates, common names most used in Cuba, category of presence, endemism, state of conservation and their potential use by man.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Based on the inventory carried out in the first semester of 2017, the tree species present in the live collections of the Jardin Botânico de Pinar del Rio were listed. A bibliographic search was made about their potential use for the population, through the review of the works by Roig, (1928, 1988), Barroso, (2000), Greuter, (2000b)a, b, (2000a), Vázquez and others, (2004) and Greuter and Rankin (2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014). From these bibliographical materials, information was obtained on the most commonly used common names of these plants in Cuba. For the taxonomic updating of the list and the distribution of the species, the research of the authors Greuter and Rankin, (2016), was followed, and the categories of threat were obtained by consulting the work of González-Torres et al.

RESULTS

The Jardín Botánico de Pinar del Río, as an institution that manages the sustainable use of its taxa, has 160 tree species with greater potential to be used by man, which represents 16% of the total species present in the collections of the Garden, These are grouped into 124 genera and 51 families, the best represented being Fabaceae with 16 genera and 17 species, Myrtaceae 8 and 16, Meliaceae 6 and 8 Sapindaceae 5 and 7, Combretaceae 2 and 6, Bignoniaceae 4 and 5, Boraginaceae 2 and 5, respectively (Table 1).

Table.1 - Species present in the collections of the Jardín Botánico de Pinar del Río

Legend: CAT. DE PRESENCIA (category of presence), (present and indigenous), C (widely cultivated), (C) (cultivated only occasionally),
N (naturalized), P (non-indigenous but possibly naturalized), D (present but doubtfully indigenous), END (endemic),
AME (category of threat), CR (critically endangered), EN (endangered), VU (vulnerable), A (threatened).

Regarding the category of presence in Cuba, 115 (71 %) are categorized as present or indigenous 20 (17.4 %) of them are threatened with extinction and 27 (23.5 %) are endemic to Cuba, 17 as non-indigenous but possibly naturalized, 9 cultivated only occasionally or no longer cultivated, 8 naturalized, 7 widely cultivated and 4 present but doubtfully indigenous (See table).

Regarding their potential use, all are timber, medicinal, 84 (52,5 %) edible, 53 (33,1 %) ornamental, 24 (15 %) and 17 (10,6 %) melliferous, the rest are below 7 % (See table).

The living tree collection of the Jardín Botánico de Pinar del Río is represented by 71 % of indigenous species and 29 % of exotic species, all of them wood species and most of them with multiple uses.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.
Copyright (c) 2019 Zenia Acosta Ramos, Alisberkys De la Caridad Gallardo Cruz, Jesús Alfonso Martínez