I love photos of weird plants, and the Facebook group Rare Fruit-Rare Edible Plants is a great place to find them. Once in a while, you even get a photo of diversity in a weird plant, which is even better. Case in point is this great visual summary of diversity in Actinidia. Except of course the Facebook version had no caption, which was annoying as hell. Fortunately, thanks to Google Image Search, I was able to track down the original source, a 2008 paper in BMC Genomics. Now, where can I get some of these to taste?
Nibbles: Taro recipes, Pawpaw Kickstarter, Pica, Slow seeds, Forest foods, Pork rises, Landscapes, Best friend, Cooking & CC
- Ok, now you have no excuse not to eat taro.
- Do your bit to help pawpaws (Asimina triloba) go viral. No, wait, that didn’t come out right.
- “Pica is an unexplainable food curiosity—the overwhelming desire to eat the inedible.” Or, as we say in my house, German food.
- Tuscan seed journey.
- Living off forest foods can be fun.
- Pork beats beef.
- Picturing the Earth. Some of it ain’t pretty. But even then it’s pretty.
- Picturing working dogs. All of them pretty.
- Kenyan chef Ali L’artiste tucks into Rwandan bananas and beans before it’s too late.
Brainfood: Amorphophallus diversity, Physiological phenotyping, Jatropha diversity, Ass origins, Prickly lettuce diversity, Sugarcane in vitro, Pennisetum diversity, ABS and Norway, Seed storage behaviour, Barley diversity, Lentil diversity, Bilberry characterization, Potato genomics, Asian horse ABS
- Cytotaxonomic investigations to assess diversity and evolution in Amorphophallus Blume ex Decne. (Araceae). Out of 25 accessions and 7 wild species, “A. dubius may be the immediate ancestor of cultivated forms.”
- Physiological phenotyping of plants for crop improvement. High-throughput phenotyping is only the start.
- Geographic origin is not supported by the genetic variability found in a large living collection of Jatropha curcas with accessions from three continents. 900 global accessions fall into 2 genetic groups, but not related to geography.
- Genetic diversity of donkey populations from the putative centers of domestication. Sudan and/or Yemen.
- Genetic and Biochemical Evaluation of Natural Rubber from Eastern Washington Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola L.). I look forward to seeing those rubber lettuce plantations.
- An approach on the in vitro maintenance of sugarcane with views for conservation and monitoring of plant nuclear DNA contents via flow cytometry. It’s possible to conserve sugarcane in vitro, but it won’t be straightforward.
- Geographical Gaps and Diversity in Deenanath Grass (Pennisetum pedicellatum Trin.) Germplasm Conserved at the ICRISAT Genebank. 194 provinces in 21 countries? That’s a lot of gaps.
- Realizing access and benefit sharing from use of genetic resources between diverging international regimes: the scope for leadership. As supplied by Norway, that is.
- Classification of seed storage behaviour of 67 Amazonian tree species. 1000-seed weight and seed moisture content at shedding are good, together, at predicting seed storage behaviour.
- Genetic Diversity and Population Structure in a Legacy Collection of Spring Barley Landraces Adapted to a Wide Range of Climates. 10 climatic clusters.
- Assessment of genetic variation within a global collection of lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) cultivars and landraces using SNP markers. Geographic pattern for commercial varieties, but not for landraces.
- Omne Ignotum pro Magnifico: characterization of commercial Bilberry extracts to fight adulteration. That would be Vaccinium myrtillus. You need to keep a sharp eye on the whole production process.
- The Contribution of the Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project to Potato Breeding. It boils down to the Infinium 8303 Potato SNP Array, and it’s contribution to potato breeding has apparently been important.
- Horses as Sources of Proprietary Information: Commercialization, Conservation, and Compensation Pursuant to the Convention on Biological Diversity. You need a value chain with “a sequence of proprietary rights agreements governed and regulated by both tangible and intangible property regimes.” Well, yeah.
Nibbles: FAO Commission, Private genebank, DivSeek duo, Biofortified sorghum, African supermarkets, Enset, Health crops, Breadfruit conference, Denison podcast, Saving chocolate, Paramo app, CIMMYT genebank video, Pig milk
- FAO says genes are good for climate.
- India’s first private sector genebank established.
- Well, at least one person is really excited about DivSeek.
- And one major journal.
- DuPont video on increasing sorghum Fe and Zn levels in Africa.
- Will they sell it through local vendors or supermarkets?
- Let them eat enset. Which is not, however, on this list of today’s top healthy crops.
- Neither is breadfruit, but that shouldn’t stop you going to this conference in Trinidad.
- Ford Denison writes about his appearance on Eat This Podcast.
- Enough with the scary chocolate stories already.
- Here, go play with this app about the flora of the paramo from Missouri Botanical Garden.
- The CIMMYT genebank in the news.
- Pig milk in your tea, vicar?
Nibbles: Tonga, Seeds, Fusarium wilt, Fungal beer, Cover crops, Gates Foundation
- Tonga joins the ITPGRFA. About time too. I started talking to them about it 10 years ago.
- What exactly does it mean to be “amped” about seeds? And do they have to be organic? And do these Filipino ones qualify?
- Enough with the banana scare stories already!
- Go on, nominate someone for the World Food Prize.
- Mushroom beer? Yeah, ok.
- USDA waxes nerdy about cover crops.
- Gateses’ Big Bet for African agriculture. Move along, nothing to see here.