Couldn’t resist today’s trifecta of Brassica papers. At the meta level, there’s “Origin and Domestication of Cole Crops (Brassica oleracea L.): Linguistic and Literary Considerations” in Economic Botany. Then some of the same authors follow up in GRACE with “AFLP analysis of genetic diversity in leafy kale (Brassica oleracea L. convar. acephala (DC.) Alef.) landraces, cultivars and wild populations in Europe.” And finally, in Plant Breeding, enjoy “The cytoplasm effect comparison between Brassica napus and Brassica carinata on floral characteristics of Brassica oleracea.” Enough to keep brassica boffins busy for weeks.
Nibbles: Heat, Pastoralism, Yams, Caimito, Pavlovsk, Beans, Tomatoes, Trees, Grasslands, Rice in LAC, Fossil sunflower, Apples, Fish in Africa
- Unpacking the heat of chillies.
- Debating pastoralism, a new journal.
- Celebrating (instead of growing?) yams.
- Economic Botany releases free download of paper on caimito domestication.
- More than 50,000 people care about Pavlovsk Experiment Station. Unstoppable?
- A bean diversity fair was held in Uganda on the 21st of June 2010. Did we miss it then?
- Searching for the Blue Zebra … tomato. Wonder if AVRDC know about it.
- Those blogging diplomats — How to make a scarf from a tree.
- Tibet’s disappearing grasslands. Pastoralists see item 2 above.
- IRRI DG says, in Latin America, that Latin America could be next global rice bowl. Well, he would, wouldn’t he. Very data-heavy presentation.
- One VERY remote sunflower wild relative. Very cool.
- Chaffey’s regular words of wisdom on anything botanical. Well, mostly wise. But more on that later…
- The history of the apple in the early US.
- IUCN does for African freshwater fish what it does best. Ring the alarm bell.
Nibbles: Ireland, Plumpy’nut, Saola, Food heritage protection, Millet, Wild veggies, Brassica, UNMDGs, Ukraine
- Celebrating the Irish Seed Savers Association celebrations. We had wanted to be there…
- CAS-IP on how to “break” the Plumpy’nut patent.
- Cattle wild relative seen for first time in 10 years. Well, by scientists anyway.
- “Initiatives that merely codify cultural products without taking the social-organizational context into account risk becoming little more than ‘museums of production.'” Ouch.
- Millet domestication pushed back in time.
- Antioxidant properties of traditional wild Iberian leafy greens. Yes, I know, this medicalizes nutrition, but I thought it was interesting that these wild species are still used.
- “…a trait of the diploid species, which apparently looks undesirable, might in fact be highly valuable for the improvement of amphidiploids…”
- “Food? We don’t need no stinkin’ food,” say UN negotiators.
- UK ambassador’s observations on agriculture in Ukraine. Love the contrast between 100 ha fields of sunflowers and the table groaning under home-grown fruit and vegetables.
- In other news, the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine has a blog. And so do a number of others. Sorely tempted to subscribe to their RSS.
Nibbles: Dingo, In vitro, Human diseases, Aphandra natalia, Cave fish, Pets, Pavlovsk, Elderberry, Urban ag, Chilies
- Aussies in a fluster about saving the dingo.
- Malaysia conserves a bunch of things in vitro.
- Cities good for TB resistance.
- Peruvian palm has 17 different uses.
- Mexican ceremony drives fish evolution.
- Today’s thing-that-made-us-human is: pets.
- Today’s new take on Pavlovsk: literature.
- Domestication in action: Elderberry improved.
- Urban ag in context, from Liverpool to Lagos.
- Pepper cultivation driven my masochism.
Nibbles: European plant conservation, Homegardens, Anthropogenic vegetation, Soil Association, Wheat and heat, Coconut meet, Pavlovsk beatdown, Plant species numbers, Vegetation and climate change, Genebank software
- How is Europe doing at saving its threatened plants? Paper and website available. How many crop wild relatives are threatened in Europe? I think it should be possible to work it out…
- Bioversity colleagues summarize their work on homegardens.
- Introduced plants can be useful too!
- Soil Association continues to quibble about need to double food supply.
- ICARDA looks for heat-beating wheat.
- “Coconut Biodiversity for Prosperity” meet coming up soon in Kerala. Local press excited.
- Jeremy sets the world straight on Pavlovsk.
- Kew et al. set the world straight on how many plants there are in the world. Jury still out on the number of crop wild relatives.
- Vulnerability of vegetation to climate change varies around the world. Well there’s a thing now. Nice maps.
- If you’re running a livestock cryobank I’ve got the software for you.