Nibbles: Plant Guardians, Peruvian Solanum, Sunflower genomics, California drought, Brazil drought, Sri Lankan tea, Minnesota wine, Seed of Hope, Sugarcane engineering, King Cotton, Rubber boom

Do you want to be a Plant Guardian?
Some people are already getting busy guarding Solanum in Peru.
The sunflower family gets a molecular makeover.
What the California drought means for food.
And the one in Brazil for coffee.
And tea in Sri Lanka is also in trouble, though for once drought is not to blame.
Minnesota has a wine industry thanks to wild relatives. But I won’t hold that against them.
In today’s Seeds of X story, X=hope and the place is Aceh.
If sugarcane was a cold-tolerant oil-producing crop, would it still be sugarcane?
Cotton has a lot to answer for. Or rather, the people who grew it do. Or did. Oh crap.
Rubber too. Though not as much. I guess. Oh crap.