The evidence for the extent of N.I. Vavilov's new world Andean centres of cultivated plant origins

Vavilov's ideas on New World centres of crop plant diversity are reviewed and the development of his ideas from 1926 to 1940 are described. More recent collecting work and taxonomic studies by the author confirm largely the delimitation of the American gene centres suggested by Vavilov, even in regard to details, e.g. within Bolivia.