A proposal for the conservation of the family Cucurbitaceae in Mexico

The pantropical Cucurbitaceae is one of the most important families of vascular plants. The family includes 118 genera and 825 species, and Mexico is one of its most important centers of diversity, with 34 genera and 141 species and subspecific taxa, including 13 cultivated ones. Five genera and 70 taxa are endemic to the country. Some Mexican and Latin American wild species are close relatives of important crops, and others are employed as food or medicine. Accordingly, in countries like Mexico the conservation of members of this family should be a priority. In this paper a list of members of Cucurbitaceae occurring in Mexico and their distribution patterns at state level are discussed. Using cluster strategies, the states were classified according to their floristic similarities. Hotspots of total diversity and endemisms at state level are identified, in order to discuss their role in future conservation strategies. Iterative methods applied by conservation biology to determine the best places for conservation are used to identify hierarchically the most important states that merit to be considered in this goal. Results indicate that implementing conservation strategies in half of the states would allow the protection of all the diversity found in the country, especially the endemisms. The combination of the results provided by the different methods is also discussed as a possibly more efficient way to propose conservation strategies for important species of the family.