Increasing interest in wildlands and the pressures exerted on existing range indicate that greater utilization of these areas is possible by introduction of better and more highly productive plants. The University's agronomy department maintains nurseries for evaluating plant species for use on range and wildlands at the Davis campus, Riverside campus, South Coast Field Station, West Side Field Station, and the Hopland Field Station. The Davis nursery is the largest, and promising species are planted at the field stations to determine degrees of adaptation, production, growth characteristics, and disease resistance. A shrub nursery at Davis also allows study of the behavior and adaptability of woody range plants.

This is a progress report Of the research program, “Cytogenetics Of range species, and their improvement by selection and breeding” (Hatch 1194).