Berry go Round No. 49

Bora Zivkovic at Blog Around the Clock hosts the latest Berry go Round blog carnival, with botanical news of all sorts. There is much there of interest to us, including longer pieces on items we merely Nibbled. Like the utility of myrrh trees and the story of Maasai reconciliation grass, which some sheep could have told whoever named it thus wasn’t a grass. Wonder if it gets crushed when elephants fight? There’s a new orchid that smells of Chanel No. 5 (but not, apparently, of ylang-ylang). Bitter almond essence, an instructional video for blowflies, and wild licorice round out the picture, but there’s a lot more there to explore.

Thanks Bora. Next month’s carnival will be hosted by Greg Laden. Submit here, and why not volunteer to host?

Nibbles: Sunflowers, Gardens, Cassava, Gates, History

Five peas in a pod

So, just to recap, that Afghan pea accession with resistance to a couple of different strains of Peronospora viciae (which causes downy mildew):

PS 998 = WBH 2126 (Plant Breeding Institution, Weibullsholm, Landskrona) = NGB 102126 = ATC 2432 (Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection, Horsham) = PI 222117 sel.

Thanks to Jenny Davidson, Dirk Enneking, Tony Leonforte, Bob Redden and assorted databases for helping to sort that one out.

Nibbles: NERICA vs landraces, Asian breeding, Wild wheat threats, Indian agrobiodiversity area, GBIF, Ancient Amazonia

  • NERICA shmerica.
  • Did you know that the Society for Advancement of Breeding Research in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) 12th Congress from 13-16 January 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. No, neither did I.
  • Whither wild wheat?
  • Koraput and its agrobiodiversity, including aus rice, makes it on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).
  • GBIF has many duplicates. I’m shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
  • Amazonia was densely populated. No it wasn’t. Yes it was. No it wasn’t.

Crowdsourcing land cover data

You know how we’ve occasionally wondered out loud here whether it might be possible to crowdsource information on the geographic distribution of a crop (or indeed crop wild relatives), or even of threats to crop diversity. Well, some clever folks have gone out there and are actually doing it, for global land cover. And making it fun to boot. Now we have no excuse.