Due to overwhelming popular demand, 1 here’s the next instalment of Luigi’s tour of Caucasus genebanks. Below is the site of the Scientific Center of Agrobiotechnology of the Ministry of Agriculture, which houses the Armenian national genebank, and is one of the key stakeholders in the national plant genetic resources programme. It is located in Echmiadzin (Էջմիածին), about a half hour drive to the west of Yerevan. A couple hundred meters north of the institute is the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin, the central cathedral of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The national genebank boasts something like 450 wheat, 300 chickpea and 100 capsicum accessions, among others. The Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin boasts three pieces of the True Cross and a bit of Noah’s Ark.
Nibbles: GMO tomatoes, Achocha, Biofortified beans,
- “These awful tomatoes are genetically modified organisms, (GMOs)”. Oh, really? I do wish I didn’t have to naysay quite so often.
- Cyclanthera pedata, in all its Himalayan glory. I’ve grown achocha, and it is a wonderful plant to have around. There, I yea-sayed!
- A new spin on “biofortified”. Beans biofortied “against excess heat, drought, water and pests”.
Heirlooms for entrepreneurs
Pollin8r (geddit?)! An “open access photo bank of heirloom produce” and “an inventive new web-based project … that promises to connect heirloom-produce loving eaters to farmers willing to grow heritage produce — all with just the click of a mouse”. Bring it on? Bring it up?
Please, sir, what is an heirloom?
Autumnal Berry go Round
Apologies. I missed the publication of September’s Berry Go Round botanical blog carnival over at a DC Birding Blog. A birding blog? Well why not, they are as dependent on plants as the rest of us. Of agricultural interest is a post on sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) in Berlin. Like baobab, sea buckthorn is everywhere. That’s superfruits for you. It even has fact sheets.
The next edition will be hosted at the slugyard. I do hope someone will have written something interesting about aspidistras. You can submit posts here, your own or someone else’s, botanical (sense latu) rather than gardening. And if you’re willing to be a host, drop me a line.
Featured: Enough with the factsheets already
Michael says what Luigi was too much of a wuss to do more than imply:
These factsheets can be nice corporate/project hand-outs, if well done, but otherwise a waste of time. When I need information on baobab or other useful plants, I certainly will not go to an institutional website to look for factsheets. I google, and what usually comes up is a Wikipedia article (as for baobab) with oftentimes far better information.