An intriguing photo by a Flickr contact set off a spate of googling which quickly led to the discovery that there was a “Savile Row Field Day” in October last year, part of a Campaign for Wool. The prime locality in central London was given over to a flock of Exmoor Horn and Bowmont sheep. It’s not exactly groundbreaking (as it were), as far as marketing ploys go, but I wish I’d been there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0LtQBwXW1sPotato seeds or seed potatoes
It’s a curse, knowing (and caring) too much. Last week, we dutifully nibbled a Spanish-language report that seeds from Peru’s Potato Park were on their way to the Bóveda Global de Semillas de Svalbard. The BBC, equally dutifully, seems to have retailed the same story. But hang on. Are those true potato seeds, in which case I’ll just relax and go home? Or are they potato seed tubers, capable of safeguarding actual varieties, rather than merely a diverse sample of potato DNA? The BBC certainly suggests the former, by specifically mentioning one of the varieties by name.
I had always thought that named potato varieties do not breed true from true seed. so if seeds are being stored, then why bang on about varieties? And if it is seed potato tubers, which do preserve variety characteristics, why are they being stored at Svalbard, where they’ll die pretty quickly?
Someone put me out of my misery.
A greater curse is the curse of unreliable technology. This post was supposed to magically appear three weeks ago. It didn’t. I don’t know why. And I was on the road at the time. No wonder it evoked no response …
Nibbles: Cloves in Zanzibar, Invasive species, Fingerprinting genebanks, Seed ownership, Pollinator photography, Columbids
- Clovefield.
- They Eat Invasives, Don’t They?
- The Wrong Seeds.
- Seeds of One’s Own.
- Bee Photographs.
- Clay Pigeons.
More Venetian agrobiodiversity on display
Radicchio tardivo, that is. Or leaf chicory (Cichorium intybus, Asteraceae).
