Review. Beyond elite crops: Designing resilient agriculture from wild plant diversity

When looking at the foods that fill our supermarkets, it can be hard to imagine we are relying on just a handful of domesticated plant species. Thousands of wild plants, each with its own unique strengths, remain overlooked and underused. For years, plant breeders have tried to borrow these unique traits by crossbreeding wild relatives with familiar crops, but the process is often painfully slow due to genetic hurdles. Meliá and Cárdenas proposed a new idea: instead of squeezing a few wild traits into existing crops, why not domesticate some of these wild plants directly? Thanks to advances in genomics sequencing and drone-based crop monitoring, we can now study and select wild plants with greater precision than ever before, speeding up the journey from the wild to staple food. We are already seeing the successful cases. Salicornia, a halophyte, is being developed as a promising crop for coastal farms where salty soils make traditional agriculture impossible. Another wild plant, Chenopodium album, is showing potential as a highly nutritious food that can grow in temperate climates. These examples signal a major shift in how we think about the future of farming. By combining ecological knowledge with scientific advances, we can build more resilient, diverse, and sustainable food systems that use valuable local wild varieties. (Summary by Ching Chan @ntnuchanlab @ntnuchanlab.bsky.social) Plants, People, Planet 10.1002/ppp3.70209