Author: Luigi Guarino

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Featured: Plants Map

Tim likes the sound of Plants Map, but thinks we need a different approach to germplasm evaluation:

We are thinking a lot about this sort of platform at Seed Savers Exchange. Gardeners need better tools to learn what grows well in their area. In this day and age, there are so many models for citizen science projects like that… we just need the funding and a reliable coding partner to make one definitive site for data collection and dissemination. Such a tool would be very useful for breeders and genebanks too looking to crowd source the acts of assessing lines and identifying novel traits — but it would require breeders to screen in a different manner, that being they would need to ask simpler questions and be more open to qualitative data.

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A genebank in central Madrid

Had a nice afternoon out at the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid last week, offspring in tow (who thankfully didn’t complain too much). It goes back to the late 18th century, and it’s beautifully laid out, and indeed located, though a cool and wet afternoon in early May did not show it off at its best. Anyway, there were a few nice wild Allium specimens out.

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But what really caught my attention were the alley of local olive varieties…

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…and, to a slightly lesser extent, the rows of local grapes.

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I say “to a lesser extent” because some of the grape specimens seemed decidedly ropey to me. But maybe they’ll look better in the summer. Interestingly, the botanic garden does not feature in WIEWS as a genebank. Which it should, as it clearly is, and has been for a while, if the size of those olives is anything to go by.

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Nibbles: GRIN-Global, Old gardens, Grain buildings, Roman eating, Armenian wine, Coffee GI, PAPGREN, Tamar Haspel double

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Food and plant resources roundup

A couple of meta-resources today. First, a handy database of botanical illustrations, with thanks to Mark Nesbitt of Kew for the tip:

Plantillustrations.org is a non-commercial website and will not trouble you with irritating advertisements or ask you for donations. It provides a searchable index so that you can easily find plant illustrations by using accepted or synonymous botanical names. The database is copyrighted but most illustrations can be used freely under the Creative Commons License. Please visit the website of the original contributors for further details. You can find them on the left side of the HD illustration page. If you want to use photographs please ask Max Antheunisse or contact Jan Koeman.

Second, a list of food museums from the Oxford Symposium on Food & Cookery:

Symposiasts and followers of our Facebook page responded enthusiastically when I asked about their favourite food museums. There is, in fact, a searchable online listing of some 1400 such museums compiled by Shirley Cherkasky and friends at http://foodhistorynews.com/directory.html.

But for the fun of it, here is a rather more selective listing of the ones that our symposiasts and Facebook followers came up with. Feel free to suggest others through your comments! My personal favourites are The Endangered Cake Museum and The Burnt Food Museum.

Yeah, I know. There goes your afternoon.