Plants for Arid Lands: Proceedings of the Kew International Conference on Economic Plants for Arid Lands held in the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England, 23–27 July 1984

Front Matter....Pages i-xiv
The needs of the people....Pages 1-8
The arid environment....Pages 9-18
Wild desert relatives of crops: their direct uses as food....Pages 19-33
Crops for arid lands....Pages 35-52
The nutritional composition of Australian Aboriginal food plants of the desert regions....Pages 53-68
Khoisan food plants: taxa with potential for future economic exploitation....Pages 69-86
Food plants of prehistoric and predynastic Egypt....Pages 87-92
Place and role of trees and shrubs in dry areas....Pages 93-102
 Prosopis tamarugo in the Chilean Atacama — ecophysiological and reforestation aspects....Pages 103-116
Forage and fuel plants in the arid zone of North Africa, the Near and Middle East....Pages 117-141
Forage and browse — the northern Australian experience....Pages 143-161
Bees and honey in the exploitation of arid land resources....Pages 163-175
Economic halophytes — a global review....Pages 177-188
Present and potential economic usages of palms in arid and semi-arid areas....Pages 189-202
Plants for conservation of soil and water in arid ecosystems....Pages 203-214
Nitrogen fixation in arid environments....Pages 215-229
The potential for the commercial utilisation of indigenous plants in Botswana....Pages 231-242
Ecodevelopment of arid lands in India with non-agricultural economic plants — a holistic approach....Pages 243-265
Some indigenous economic plants of the Sultanate of Oman....Pages 267-275
The ecological role of plant resources in the arid regions of China....Pages 277-287
Plants of the Australian arid zone — an undeveloped potential....Pages 289-301
Wild and semi-cultivated legumes as potential sources of resistance to bruchid beetles for crop breeder: a study of Vigna/Phaseolus ....Pages 303-320
Seed banks: a useful tool in conservative plant evaluation and exploitation....Pages 321-331
The potential for the in vitro propagation of a number of economically important plants for arid areas....Pages 333-342
Gums and resins, and factors influencing their economic development....Pages 343-356
Resins from Grindelia : a model for renewable resources in arid environments....Pages 357-368
Plant hydrocarbon resources in arid and semi-arid lands....Pages 369-384
Unconventional arid land plants as biomass feedstocks for energy....Pages 385-397
Rubber and phytochemical specialities from desert plants of North America....Pages 399-412
Plant information services for economic plants of arid lands....Pages 413-426
Back Matter....Pages 427-455