Species-targeted plant conservation: time for conceptual integration

To date, there have been only limited attempts to conceptually unify ex situ and in situ approaches as parts of an integrated conservation methodology. This paper is an attempt of such conceptual integration of existing approaches for the efficient conservation of rare and endangered plant species. My integration of available plant conservation biology literature is based on the idea that ecologically significant species genetic variation is of primary importance for plant conservation. This idea is used for providing guidelines about inventory of existing populations, sampling and propagating sampled material, and use of this material in species recovery actions.