Category: Information

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Manihot esculenta, I presume?

A blog post from Kew’s archivists on the Zambesi Expedition of 1858-1864 led me to Dr Livingstone’s papers, among which I stumbled on this wonderful letter to Joseph D. Hooker:

Hadley Green Barnet 11th July 1857

My Dear Dr Hooker

I beg to return you my hearty thanks for your note and the trouble you have been at in deciphering the mere fragments submitted to you. Your willingness to examine anything botanical will certainly make me more anxious to secure something for you in Africa more worthy of your time. We get meal of a kind of millet in Londa which I think is the lesser bird seed. It grows on a high stalk in this way. The seeds are small & a {slight tinge} of slate colour on the outer scale. What is the botanical name for it? It is so extensively cultiv-{ated} in Africa I think you must know. The Holcus Sorghum is the most general article in use. We speak of it as Caffre corn. Is that correct?

There are two kinds of Manioc. One sweet the other bitter & poisonous they are both mentioned in a work by Daniel on the West Coast but I have not that work nearer at hand than Linyanti so I beg to trouble you to tell me the proper names of the two species of Manioc, the Jatropha Manihot and –

As I am boring with questions. Have you the proper names for the melons which form such an important article of support on the Kalahari Desert and of one there which has the flavour of an apple. What is the name of the Palm which when the leaves are broken off gives the idea of it being triangular The ends of the leaf stalks stick on and give it the appearance referred to. A fruit mentioned at the end of Bowdich’s work with by the name Masuka was found by me in very large quantities. It is good. As it seems know can I have the proper name. Now please just attend or not to these questions as it is convenient – though I send them it is not because I think I have any claim on your time or attention – I am only putting you in the way of doing an act of charity to yours &c David Livingstone

Now, how to find the reply?

And with that, dear reader, I take my leave of you for about three weeks, which I will spend not too far, relatively speaking, from where Stanley found Livingstone. In fact, I should already be there…

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Nibbles: Huitlacoche, Failure, Food sovereignty, Cold storage, Hunger, Prices

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Nibbles: Trojan Horse? Farmer preferences, Yucca moths, Bees, GM bananas, Coffee

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I’m just wild about saffron

We’ve Nibbled the crocusbank — a global collection of Crocus sativus funded by the EU and hosted in Cuenca, Spain — before. So it is good to be able to bring you an update from José Antonio Fernández, Crocusbank Coordinator. 1

There’s a lot of fascinating information in the article. The genebank itself currently contains 454 accessions, 197 of them saffron crocus from 15 different countries and the rest wild relatives from more than 50 crocus species. And I had no idea that there were quite so many Protected Denominations of Origin for saffron; 7 granted and at least 5 more on the way. Which is a puzzle …

C. sativus is a sterile triploid. That is going to make using the assembled diversity to breed a little more difficult, and raises definite questions about how much diversity is represented in the collection, because the plant reproduces asexually and is generally propagated by replanting the little offsets that form at the base of the corm. Asexual reproduction of this sort does not usually give rise to much genetic diversity, and so it has proved. Back in March we briefly Nibbled “Many saffron clones identical shock,” a preliminary report on the work of Professor Pat Heslop-Harrison at Leicester University in England.

Saffron is all hand-harvested, hand processed and dried in different ways, which is why saffron from the major growing areas of Spain, Italy, Greece, Iran or Kashmir all have different qualities and characteristics.

What we’ve been looking at is the genetic diversity within the different types of saffron that are grown and we have found that many of the clones grown worldwide are genetically identical. It’s only the processing that makes the product different.

That and, perhaps, terroir. So, does the genebank need to keep all those genetically identical accessions of saffron crocus, or might it be sufficient to preserve only the knowledge of how to harvest, process and dry the saffron in all those different ways? How would you do that anyway?

There are, of course, some genetically diverse accessions, which are coming under closer scrutiny to discover “their special characteristics, and why they’ve dropped out of production in many of the world’s saffron producing areas”.

There are other mysteries, too, such as the parents of the saffron crocus. One is believed to be C. cartwrightianus, which has similar large stigmas, but the other remains unknown. If it can be identified, it might be possible to recreate the saffron crocus from its wild ancestors, as has been done for bread wheat, which could offer a whole new range of diversity to saffron growers.