My ex-colleagues at the Crop Trust have a very nice animation on the Genesys blog-type thing showing the progress of landrace collecting around the world over the past 125 years.
Do please read the post for the details of how it was done, and some observations on the results.
Here I just wanted to highlight something that has always intrigued me: how did Spain get so heavily collected? It’s really striking how in any global map of collecting localities, Spain looks like a solid carpet, with genebank accessions from practically every nook and cranny. More so than most neighbouring countries, I would say.
Well, it’s a little difficult to be sure because there’s no slider on the animation to take it backwards and forwards at will, but it looks like a burst of collecting first in the 40s, and then some filling in of gaps in the 80s, are responsible for the blanket coverage.
Maybe someone more familiar with the history of germplasm collecting in Spain can explain more.