Luigi Guarino

May 11, 2017May 12, 2017

EucarpiaGR2017: better late than never

Oh gosh, I forgot to give the obligatory shout-out to the EUCARPIA meeting, this year on “Mobilizing the green gold of plant genetic resources.” Silly me. Follow what’s left on #eucarpiaGR2017, there’s some really interesting stuff on.

The Doyen of seed system research Mauricio Bellon presented new data and analyses from sites around the world. #eucarpiaGR2017 pic.twitter.com/4bydfiY43c

— Ola Westengen (@OlaWestengen) May 11, 2017

LATER: Oh, and compare and contrast with this:

May 11, 2017May 11, 2017

Ghostly Bramley

I don’t think I linked last year to the sad news of the impending demise of the original Bramley apple tree. I did link a year before to the news that the pie filling made from said apple was being protected by the EU. And I’ll link now to an article about what Brexit may mean for British apple growers. But all merely by way of introduction to this stunning 3D scan of that fading mother tree in Southwell.

3D scan and drawing of the 200 year old original Bramley Apple tree in Southwell. The 'mother' of all modern Bramley apples. pic.twitter.com/gCq1zmpl0n

— Wolfgang Buttress (@WButtress) May 10, 2017

May 11, 2017

Nibbles: Rice in Trinidad, Sweet potatoes in Ethiopia, EU crop diversity double, Sir Peter on the ginkgo, Forages, Brazilian peanuts, Seed moisture, Phenotyping double, Svalbard deposit, CATIE data, Herbarium double, Seed #resistance, Father of the apple, Agave congress

African rice out of Africa, and out of the genebank.
The other way around for sweet potato.
Markers for micronutrients. And diversity for taste…
The deep history of the ginkgo.
Study plants to decrease the effects of burping.
Brazil rationalizes peanut collections.
Measuring moisture in seeds.
Big data for better seeds. And not only in Iowa.
NZ seeds in Svalbard.
CATIE on Genesys.
Oz biosecurity fail. Better stick to online.
I want to be a seed rebel too.
Maybe in Kazakhstan?
Agave under the volcano under the cosh.

May 11, 2017May 11, 2017

Citrus in a nutshell

Look, I suppose I could try and explain that recent Citrus phylogeny paper in Annals of Botany. But am I really likely to do better than this graphic?

I didn’t think so.

Important to know what’s what. But if all that’s just too much for you, wind down by listening to Helena Attlee on Eat this Podcast on citrus in Italy.

May 10, 2017May 10, 2017

An Indian pigeonpea GIF for the ages

Thanks to GIFmaker for allowing me to produce a, well, GIF, out of those maps of the distribution of India’s pigeonpea collection that I put up yesterday. I think you’ll need to click on it to get the full benefit.

Look at those swathes of green becoming orange, i.e. going up 2 degrees in mean maximum temperature during June-January. Will pigeonpea be able to adapt in situ? Or will there have to be a transfer of material from the currently orange areas? And what to do about the areas becoming red? Not much pigeonpea in the currently red areas…