- Special Journal issue on Environmental changes and pre-Columbian human influence in the Amazon region.
- Porn on the cob. A smut story with a headline so good, I’m sure to steal it.
- A practical field manual cum guide to Improving nutrition with agricultural biodiversity.
- Ag researchers “speak with a single voice” to “call on climate negotiators to endorse a work programme for agriculture”. We shall see.
- And will it come in time to Save the Walnut?
- New book on “Custodians of Biodiversity“.
- Brussels Briefing on Food Price Volatility. Today! Soon!
- China hears how Kenyan farmers can benefit from traditional vegetables.
- “Are plants like us?” It depends …
- A minor increase in biodiversity protects peaches from nematode pests.
- Climate change in the Pacific: The problem, according to the Aussies. The solution, according to the ADB.
Searching British newspapers for agrobiodiversity now virtually possible
The British Newspaper Archive is potentially a great resource for research into agricultural biodiversity in the past.
We have scanned millions of pages of historical newspapers and made them available online for the first time ever.
Search millions of articles by keyword, name, location, date or title and watch your results appear in an instant.
I did a search on the apple variety Pearmain and got 44 hits from 1753 to 1944.
So, for example, the Caledonian Mercury has a classified on Monday 1 January 1753 which says:
…glifh Apples, fuch as Nonpareis, Holland Pippens, Royal Rennets, Kentilh Pippens, Pearmains, and Rulfets, inno IcfsQuantity than a Box containing two bufhels; alfo very Hne and large Chcfhire Cheefe, from a 200 Pound-weight and do^tovard, the beft Gl…
Alas, if you want any more than that, you have to pay, and rather steeply too. Pity.
LATER: All the more so as Google seems to have discontinued its Timeline feature in News Archive search. Which I hadn’t noticed and I’m quite sad about now.
Nibbles: Q&A, Zoopharmacognosy, Pigeonpea genome, Turkey, Wheat relatives
- Everyday agriculture mysteries solved.
- Other animals self-medicate too.
- Dueling pigeonpea genome sequencers? Who knew. Well spotted, James.
- I’m thankful for turkeys.
- And for the crop wild relatives in ICARDA’s genebank too.
Nibbles: Taiwan seedbank, American agroforestry
- Taiwan should establish a national seed bank. It says here. But will it be a genebank?
- Agroforestry in the USA and in the ancient Maya lands.
Those elusive pizzutelli, again
With thanks to Giuseppe for pointing out another fruit painter, I went looking for Bartolomeo Bimbi’s depiction of our current favourite grape, and found a reasonable version. I reckon that’s it fourth from the right in the third row down.
Unfortunately, on the version I found the names of the varieties, which I take to be somewhere within the escutcheon at the bottom of the painting, are illegible. Having looked at all the bunches hanging there, that’s the only one that does seem vaguely horn shaped. The original is in the Villa Medicea in Poggio a Caiano, about 15 km northwest of Florence, and if I’m ever in the area I’ll try and get a better look. Old paintings and manuscripts are clearly a good source of information for modern-day fans of diversity sleuthing, although I confess I rely on others more expert than me to do most of the legwork. A perfect example is Andrea Borracelli, whose website is full of this kind of information (and for which I am grateful).
From him, we learn that Galletta Bianca belongs to the group ‘Pizzutello’ for the characteristic shape of the berries, and was found ((In the sense, I think, of being rediscovered after being lost for some time.)) in the area of Montepulciano, growing in family gardens. It is an old Tuscan variety … described in 1809 by Targioni Tozzetti as having “acini corniculatis flavescentibus” — horn-shaped, yellow berries. Galletta Bianca (there is also a black form), differs from the known Pizzutello white, ((Alas, Borracelli does not say exactly how it differs.)) is listed in the Catalogue of Betti (1851) ((Betti P. 1851. Catalogo degli alberi fruttiferi e delle uve succulenti, coltivate nei pomari di Barbacane presso Firenze. Atti dell’Accademia dei Georgofili, which I found details of here.)) and in the catalogue for the Public Exhibition of the Horticultural Society of Tuscany (1858). Low (1982) lists Uva Cornelia as a synonym for Galletta Bianca. Vine of medium vigour, with normal (?) productivity, limited to the provinces of Siena and Arezzo. It has an average percentage of fruit set, with the first fruiting shoot on the third or fourth bud, with two inflorescences per shoot, and has a normal tolerance to the most common parasitic diseases.
And I reckon that’s about all the sleuthing we’re going to do, unless, of course, something even more interesting turns up.
Just for comparison, here are a couple of my own pictures of pizzutello bought just up the road a little more than a month ago.
Bimbi, by the way, clearly had a great interest in diversity; he also painted a two-headed lamb for Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici.