- The Mystery of Black Rice: Food, Medicinal, and Spiritual Uses of Oryza glaberrima by Maroon Communities in Suriname and French Guiana. There’s a rich oral history of African rice in Maroon communities, but that doesn’t mean either the traditional knowledge or diversity of the crop is safe.
- The Invisible Tropical Tuber Crop: Edible Aroids (Araceae) Sold as “Tajer” in the Netherlands. Another example of traditional knowledge on crops surviving far from their home.
- Rethinking Pliny’s “Sicilian Crocus”: Ecophysiology, Environment, and Classical Texts. There might have been two distinct saffron species in ancient Sicily. Another way of recovering traditional knowledge is by reading ancient texts.
- Trees, terraces and llamas: Resilient watershed management and sustainable agriculture the Inca way. The sedimentary record can be used to recover traditional knowledge too. No word on what ancient text have to say, but I’m sure it’s something.
- Yield, growth, and labor demands of growing maize, beans, and squash in monoculture versus the Three Sisters. Sometimes traditional knowledge can use a helping hand from scientists. And vice versa.
- Interdisciplinary insights into the cultural and chronological context of chili pepper (Capsicum annuum var. annuum L.) domestication in Mexico. About the only thing that’s missing here is traditional knowledge.
- Afro-Indigenous harvests: Cultivating participatory agroecologies in Guerrero, Mexico.
Makes one wish these authors had been involved in the pepper study above. - Tradeoffs between the use of improved varieties and agrobiodiversity conservation in the Sahel. The effect of improved varieties on local landraces (and presumably associated traditional knowledge) is different for pearl millet and groundnut, and for Mali and Niger.
- Illuminating the multidimensional contributions of small-scale fisheries. I’m sure lots of traditional knowledge is involved.
- Satellite imagery reveals widespread coconut plantations on Pacific atolls. They could have just asked the small-scale fisherfolk, but ok.
Nibbles: USDA NPGS, Korean seed museum, Endangered plants, National security, Sicilian grapevines, Mike Jackson again
- A way to get free seeds from the US government? Yeah probably not. And if so, maybe not for long?
- Ok, let’s try the Korean government then.
- A way to find endangered plants in the US. And get the government to protect them, of course.
- A way to ensure national security? Why, conserving crop diversity of course. Government unavailable for comment.
- A way to ensure the future of Sicilian wine? See above.
- A genebanker looks back on the 1990s. And, given all of the above, sees that not much has changed?
Rounding up the breadfruit
Jeremy’s latest Eat This Newsletter has a piece on Dumbarton Oaks’ Plant of the Month feature on breadfruit. And much else besides. Do have a look. In contrast to Jeremy, I myself have knowingly eaten breadfruit, in various forms. It makes pretty good chips. I’ve also blogged about it here — a lot.
Breadfruit’s Bounty
Dumbarton Oaks is a beautiful building, museum, library and garden in Washington DC and I have often linked to its Plant of the Month features. This month’s is breadfruit, and well worth exploring. I’ve never knowingly eaten breadfruit, though I have tasted its close relative jackfruit, and yet one thing I know about it is that it was at the heart of the Mutiny on the Bounty. The British government tasked Captain William Bligh with transporting breadfruit seedlings from their home in the Pacific to the Caribbean, where it was hoped the trees would provide cheap food for enslaved people on the sugar plantations. Then it gets complicated.
There’s a lot to savour in the story of breadfruit’s enforced migration from its origins in the Pacific to the plantations of the Caribbean and the lasting impacts there. The article brings all these facets out with (occasionally clunky) links to images, maps and cooking videos.
Brainfood: Diversity patterns double, Diversification drivers, Polish genetic erosion, Tibetan naked barley diversity, Indian sorghum diversity, Do novo domestication, Eggplant tree, Banana diversity, Pearl millet diversity, Pigeon pea genome, Grasspea genome, Jersey bull diversity
- Floristic classifications and bioregionalizations are not predictors of intra-specific evolutionary patterns. You can’t use spatial structures in interspecific diversity to predict spatial structure in instraspecific diversity. Gotta do the hard work, there are no shortcuts.
- Intraspecific trait variability in wild plant populations predicts neither variability nor performance in a common garden. You can’t use intraspecific diversity in wild populations to predict how those populations will do elsewhere. Gotta do the hard work, there are no shortcuts.
- Farming for the future: Understanding factors enabling the adoption of diversified farming systems. Access to extension services, strong social networks, and perceived environmental benefits contribute to the diversification of farming systems, but their effects are context-specific. So yeah, you guessed it, you still gotta do the hard work.
- Changes in Plant Genetic Resources in the Southeast Region of Poland from the 1980s to 2023. I wonder which one(s) of the above has been missing in the Lubelskie Voivodeship.
- Abundant Genetic Diversity Harbored by Traditional Naked Barley Varieties on Tibetan Plateau: Implications in Their Effective Conservation and Utilization. I wonder which one(s) of the above has been most effective in the Tibetan Plateau.
- Genetic diversity in in situ and ex situ collections of sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] landraces. I wonder which one(s) of the above has been most effective in norther Karnataka.
- Enhancing food security amid climate change through rewilding and de novo domestication. Sounds like hard work. But worth doing.
- Characteristics of the ET, a new species created by interspecific hybridization of two wild eggplants. Sounds like hard work. But worth doing?
- Painting the diversity of a world’s favorite fruit: A next generation catalog of cultivated bananas. Chromosome painting, that is. Definitely worth doing.
- Delineation of selection efficiency and coincidence of multi-trait-based models in a global germplasm collection of pearl millet for a comprehensive assessment of stability and high performing genotypes. Stable AND high-yielding? Sounds like the hard work has been done.
- Chromosome-scale reference genome of an ancient landrace: unveiling the genetic basis of seed weight in the food legume crop pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan). Now for the hard work…
- A chromosome-scale reference genome of grasspea (Lathyrus sativus). Now for the even harder work…
- Assessment of genetic diversity, inbreeding, and collection completeness of Jersey bulls in the US National Animal Germplasm Program. I suspect it will be hard work, but don’t forget the low merit bulls. And that probably goes for plants too.
Nibbles: KC Bansal, Mike Jackson, Spain strawberry genebank, Ho-Chunk maize, Heritage varieties, Roman apples, Hazelnut breeding, Old rye, Serbia grapevine herbarium, Horse domestication, Mt Vernon fruits, Worldwide Day of Botanical Art, Pre-colonial African agriculture
- Prof. KC Bansal, who used to run the Indian national genebank, gets a much-deserved UNESCO honour.
- Friend-of-the-blog Dr Mike Jackson on running a rice genebank. UNESCO honour for him too?
- Spain’s strawberry genebank gets its 15 minutes.
- University and Native American nation collaborate on regenerating heritage corn varieties.
- The pros and cons of heritage varieties, according to an American farmer.
- Did the ancient Romans have heritage apples?
- Beautifully written piece on the use of heritage varieties — and much else besides — in breeding hazelnuts in the US. If you only read one of these Nibbles, read this one.
- Old shipwrecked rye seeds may end up in whiskey. Best place for them.
- Old Serbian grapevine herbarium samples should stay right where they are.
- Old horses most certainly did not stay where they were. But where was that exactly?
- Not sure where old bottled fruit from Washington’s estate will end up. The DNA lab maybe, like those Serbian grapevines?
- There’s going to be a Worldwide Day of Botanical Art on May 18, 2025. Rejoice.
- Decolonizing food insecurity in West Africa.