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Completion of the InnoWert Project: Wild Plant Species as a Chance for New Value Chains

19.11.2025
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Evening primrose in front of the Jänschwalde thermal power plant. Photo: IGZ/K. Witzel
Evening primrose in front of the Jänschwalde thermal power plant. Photo: IGZ/K. Witzel

The ‘InnoWert’ project at the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ) has been successfully completed after two years of research. The work focused on the wild plant species Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) and Burnet Saxifrage (Pimpinella saxifraga), assessing their potential to contribute to sustainable value creation in agriculture, crop production and soil health.

The findings show that different Evening Primrose genotypes respond distinctly to drought stress and activate specific metabolic pathways. Seed flour of Burnet Saxifragedemonstrated promising antifungal activity against the soil-borne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani in lettuce cultivation, indicating potential for sustainable plant protection approaches. Both species also proved resilient to soil compaction, making them suitable for a range of site conditions. The project further demonstrated that drone and hyperspectral data can be used to map Evening Primrose stands with high precision in the field, supporting model cultivation and digital monitoring approaches.

Throughout the project, collaboration with partners from research, practice and industry was strengthened through participation in conferences, trade fairs and workshops.

Further information

The InnoWert project is part of Land-Innovation-Lausitz (LIL). LIL is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space as part of the WIR! (Change in the Region through Innovation) programme. Partner institutions were Fraunhofer IME, Fraunhofer UMSICHT and Forschungszentrum Jülich.

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