Collection and conservation of ‘Morado de Huetor’ Spanish tetraploid asparagus landrace

A cultivated tetraploid asparagus landrace ‘Morado de Huetor’ growing in the South of Spain has been collected and conserved ex situ in two experimental plots. This landrace has been reported to have an interspecific hybrid origin (A. officinalis × A. maritimus). A 59% of the total farmer plots cultivated in the region were visited and ripe fruits collected from 10 female plants per plot. Fruits from a total of 300 plants were collected and two half sibs descendents from each one were sown separate in two plots. Of the 88 farmer plots visited, the landrace was growing only in 34, in the rest the crop had been removed. Hence, ‘Morado de Huetor’ is in a very high risk of disappearing. Now this landrace is conserved ex situ in two experimental plots with sufficient number of plants to represent their maximum variability in order to be used in plant breeding.