Luigi Guarino

February 1, 2009February 2, 2009

The Tale of the Bizzarria

I totally agree with the Evil Fruit Lord that the story of the periclinal citrus chimera known as Bizzarria is both fascinating and very well told over at Home Citrus Growers. I know what I’ll be doing the next time I’m in Florence.

February 1, 2009February 1, 2009

Nibbles: Vanilla, Bhutan, Oca, Satoyama

Vanilla domestication 101.
Bhutan ponders biodiversity database. We say: Don’t forget the crops, people.
“Crap crops of the Incas.” One man’s on-off relationship with oca.

Satoyama: Japan’s Secret Water Garden. A different approach to rice.

January 30, 2009January 31, 2009

Confusion at New Scientist

The New Scientist’s blogger manages to confuse the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with the Millennium Seed Bank. I guess it was inevitable.

LATER: No, it wasn’t me that left that first, rude comment! And I’m offended that you think it might have been.

January 30, 2009

Indigenous Tourism and Biodiversity Website Award

Don’t forget to vote!

January 30, 2009

Call for info

Got any information on the effect of climate change on heritage apples? Barbara Tremain-Howard over at Fruit Forum would like to hear from you.

Fresh Nibbles

Swapping maize for indigenous crops won’t fix African food systems designed around markets and policies that still favour a narrow range of crops.
Cassava is both a food security fallback and a commercial crop in Uganda, but disease, climate change and declining diversity make its conservation an increasingly urgent form of insurance. But what about the markets and policies?
When livestock and crops fail, Ugandan pastoralists draw on wild plants for food, underlining how much food-system resilience still sits outside the formal agricultural system, with its markets and policies.
The Morton Arboretum is using living collections and genetic research to help the threatened butternut tree cope with changing conditions.
Webinar discusses global approaches to seed provenancing and transfer zones, useful for anyone who wants to move native plants without moving the wrong genes. Butternut very interested.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo preserves genetic material of plant and animal species that may disappear, from DNA to cells to organisms. Butternut volunteers.
New Indian facility combines ex situ fish conservation with community aquaculture. Good model for much of the above?

Published on October 6, 2026