Earliest concerns about weed species disappearing from the fields in France rose in the 70s, but they gained recognition in 1993 only with a scientific meeting entitled: “Are weeds worth protecting?“. Thereafter, the French Ministry of Environment initiated a data collection and expert discussion through the network of the National Botanic Conservatories (scientific structures in charge of the survey and preservation of the wild flora and habitats). This approach recently ended with the release of a 241 pages document presenting the state of the art about 102 species strictly associated with arable lands in France: the “Messicoles” (from Latin words meaning “living in cereals”). In 2009 and 2010 more than 190,000 data were collected from the NBC’s databases, each data related to a district, a municipality, an observation date and/or a publication date and an author. Two periods were considered to assess the decrease of plants related to arable lands, before 1970 and after 1990. It also provides guidelines for study, preservation and communication actions that will be implemented according to local actors and funding (http://www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Plan-national-d-actions-2012-2017.html). In parallel, in order that the issues of rare weeds do not remain the only field of experts, the “Messicoles” network has been set up in 2006 to build awareness, raising tools and training resources on these plants. It connects actors of agricultural education, researchers, farmers and professionals in nature conservation, to capitalize and share data showing the role messicoles play in the agroecosystem. The wiki collaborative website is set up and managed by Supagro Florac, thanks to the implication of the ministry of Agriculture, the ministry of Ecology and with the participation of Europe through the European Social Fund. It contains discussion forum and information presented as index cards on biological, technical and educational data for high schools and colleges (http://www.messicoles.org/wakka.php?wiki=ActuAlite). The Messicoles network organizes training courses and aims at opening it action in Europe in the framework of a Leonardo da Vinci Mobility European program (www.ecodiag.eu). Besides, many local actions are carried out by local actors (regional entities, colleges, associations, consortium including farmers) aiming at different goals (tourism, education, plant preservation, research of best management practices). The presentation provides several examples of distribution of rare plants and interesting communities throughout France, and past and present projects of monitoring and conservation activities.