Nibbles: Community genebank, Traditional medicine, Agarwood, Radish introgression, Kentucky bluegrass, Frison, Vavilov, Pollinators, Collecting strategy

Bamboo microscope used to document rice varieties at Indian village genebank. Want one.
And more documentation and conservation of traditional knowledge in India: this time it’s medicines.
Nigel Chaffey’s latest botanical buffet table at the Annals of Botany has stuff on nomenclature and genomes. Always worth following.
Latest on saving agarwood. And more. Thanks to twittering by @AsiaForestry.
Biofortified blogs research on geneflow between crops and their wild relatives.
Kentucky bluegrass pix. Botany Photo of the Day is also worth following. You guys all use Google Reader, right?
“Any serious discussion of biodiversity conservation must include the diversity of crops and livestock…” Right on.
Vavilov hits Abyssinia. Another one for Reader.
Pollinator trends in Europe and the world. It ain’t good.
Your botanic gardens needs at least 15 individuals of that palm.

A paean to diverse diets is just what we all need.
And another one, from the MIT Technology Review of all places.
Menawhile, there’s only one reference to dietary diversity in the World Bank’s investment framework for nutrition.
Maybe you have to quantify that diversity before you can save it? Now where have I heard that before?
Meanwhile, Europe reports on biodiversity-friendly farming practices. Does that include the biodiversity of the actual crops? Perhaps surprisingly, yes!
You want biodiversity-friendly farming practices? Talk to Indigenous people. The Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has launched an e-consultation on “Preserving, strengthening and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ food and knowledge systems and traditional practices for sustainable food systems.”
There’s diversity in asparagus too.
Genebanks can help with those biodiversity-friendly practices, diverse diets and rops and Indigenous practices.
Even big international genebanks.
Even the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
But some are in trouble.
Though others are coming back.