Mainstream

Nibbles: Coffee taxonomy, Agarwood trade, Apios promotion, Dog species concept, Seed collecting, Kudzu control, ICARDA chickpeas, Ancient maize beer, Quinoa landscapes, History of domestication, Breeding mistakes, EU breeding value, Priming, Wild flower ecotypes, Vitellaria use

Coffee botany resources.
Uncovering the illegal agarwood trade.
Developing the potato bean. First step: find a new name.
Dog taxonomy explained.
Project Baseline sets a, ahem, baseline, for studying plant diversity under climate change.
Ok, random shout-out for my niece Francesca’s work on kudzu bug natural control. Because I can. And she’s fabulous.
Blooming chickpeas!
The inhabitants of Casas Grandes brewed maize beer in the 14th century. Well of course they did.
Peruvian quinoa landscapes have a name: aynokas.
Crop domestication 101.
Where (commercial) breeders go wrong.
Presumably none of above mistakes are made by EU plant breeding companies.
Stimulating plant defences for faster response to pest and disease attack.
Germany told to go for local meadow seeds.
Use of shea butter trees goes way back.

Climate change is going to hit us where we live. Or die.
How to make GBIF more relevant for agrobiodiversity: a 10-point plan.
Killer fungi on the loose? ‘Twas ever thus. But genomics will save us?
Planting trees is good for lions too.
There are still medieval oaks in England.
“…where sommelier-like ‘budtenders’ sell gourmet ganja in a designer showroom.”
Rewilding the wild horse.
More about the cassava variety Kasetsart 50, poster child for CGIAR impact.
It’s not just genetic resources that are contested. Yep, agronomy too.
“Scientific conclusions and business or policy decisions should not be based only on whether a p-value passes a specific threshold.”

Mike Jackson wants to know how many crop varieties you can name. Please tell him. My number is 42.
This is what CRISPR looks like. In an infographic, that is.
Japan’s rice terraces were better for biodiversity when they were, you know, full of rice.
A Wendell Berry biopic?
Yep, more on eating insects. It’s definitely a thing now.

Peak hops? Say it ain’t so.
Day-long plant-breeding-for-the-masses course at Oxford in April.
Botanists of the twenty-first century: Roles, challenges and opportunities. An e-book for the ages.
Genes to beans: polyploidy on a plate. A Royal Society lecture by Kathy Willis.
Some naughty people have been collecting plants in India without permits.
IPBES tells it like it is on pollinators. In a press release. You try to find the actual report online. Oh and here’s FAO getting in on the act. Though at least for this the report is easy to find.
Great interactive map of the work of the Rainforest Alliance. Check out the agriculture tab.
Italian researchers build a time machine. A phytotron, really, but let them have their little fun.
Speaking of fun, GCARD3 Youth Agripreneurs Projects on “Climate Resilient Indian Cattle” and “fake seeds.” Lots more too, all interesting.