Ethnobotanique et conservation génétique : l'exemple des arbres fruitiers

Towards the erosion of genetic resources and that of knowledge brought with it, a few conservation plans are beeing set up in France today. This domain offers particularities which are narrowly connected with some important ways of ethnobotanical research trends. The evolution of fruit-trees varietal diversity appears trough the historical analysis, since the first printed documents untill the contemporary period. The inventory of cultivars, wether it is done in the littérature or in the orchards, must follow a certain rigour. A few considerations are made concerning avalaible sources of information and different methodological problems that may be raised by this kind of work, in the domain of the fruit-trees. Nevertheless, the ethnobotanist must not forget the pratical aspects which are tied to the conservation modalities. He has also to think deeply upon the way by wich vegetal resources can be preserved, maintained or rehabilitee inside the areas of their original distribution.