- Mapping the Genetic Diversity of Castanea sativa: Exploiting Spatial Analysis for Biogeography and Conservation Studies. Mapping genetic data is both fun and instructive.
- Effects of farmer social status and plant biocultural value on seed circulation networks in Vanuatu. Big Men control Important Plants.
- Diagnostics of Seed-Borne Plant Pathogens for Safe Introduction and Healthy Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources. Genebanks need seed health labs.
- Characterization of Disease Resistance Loci in the USDA Soybean Germplasm Collection using Genome-wide Associations. Phenotypic data in GRIN meets SNP data, hilarity ensues.
- The global expansion of quinoa: trends and limits. From 8 to 75 countries in 35 years. But need new arrangements for access and benefit sharing for genetic resources.
- Evaluation of Vegetative Growth, Yield and Quality Related Traits in Taro (Colocasia esculenta [L.] Schott). A lot of the characters you want to improve are strongly heritable.
Will international tea party include genebanks?
Announcements such as this from UC Davis, of the launch of the Global Tea Initiative, make me wish there was a market for roving agrobiodiversity bloggers and tweeters. Alas, I’m reduced to the usual ploy of asking participants if they’d like to blog the thing for us.
Will genebanks be discussed? There aren’t that many collections around the world, and one of them, in Japan, accounts for 7,500 of the 11,700 accessions WIEWS knows about. And where’s China? Can’t help thinking that’s not altogether healthy. Lots to talk about…
Nibbles: Coffee strategy, Agroforestry, Superfoods, Cyperus, Potato history, Precious tea, Wheat disease, Crowdfunding conservation
- Strategizing about coffee. Over cappuccinos, I suspect.
- Treesilience. I like that.
- Enough with the superfoods already.
- Which is not something anybody ever called tiger nuts.
- You can now officially blame the potato for the fall of civilization.
- A really expensive cup of tea.
- Wheat blast reaches Asia.
- Crowdfunding tree conservation on Hawaii.
Nibbles: Bears loose cherry, Swiss cheese birth, Aussie genebank, Palestinian genebank, Wine genebank, Mexican maize, Beer in Israel & Germany
- Bears shit wild cherry seeds in the woods. But uphill.
- The origins of Swiss cheese. And I mean WAY back.
- The Australian Grains Genebank in the news. Well deserved too.
- Likewise the new Palestinian genebank.
- And the Bourgogne grapevine genebank too, since we’re at it.
- Saving popcorn.
- Jesus’ beer recreated. But would it pass the German purity law?
Another Pacific hibiscus to marvel at
More from our friend Lex Thomson on the Pacific Hibiscus saga:
Excited to report on the finding of a presumed new Hibiscus species in Solomon Islands. This Hibiscus has several distinctive features including round, saucer-shaped leaves with an entire or shallowly crenulated margin and very small, bright red flowers with a windmill arrangement of petals. The serrated dark red eye may indicate a relationship with the Fijian Hibiscus storckii but other features suggest affinities with Indian Ocean islands Hibiscus such as Hibiscus liliiflorus. The new species appears of ancient origins and may represent a ‘missing link’ between Pacific Islands and Mascarene Islands Hibiscus. Am looking forward to working with Solomon Islands botanist Myknee Sirikolo to describe this new species, which is thus far known only from a 1970’s collection from Santa Cruz Islands and the photographed plant in Mrs Bronwyn Lilo’s garden (Gosi Anikisina) near Honiara.
This from the Facebook page of Savurua Botanical Gardens in Fiji.
Lots more work to be done, clearly.