- “The growing consensus among researchers is that multiple factors such as poor nutrition and exposure to pesticides can interact to weaken colonies and make them susceptible to a virus-mediated collapse.”
- “…breeding spring wheat specific to organic agriculture should be conducted on organically managed land.”
- “A project developing medicinal products from plants found in Kakamega forest, western Kenya, has transformed the livelihoods of nearby communities…”
Fungus flavours fermented food
Did you know that…
[t]he edible fungus Monascus purpureus imparts a distinct flavor and red color when added to fermented rice dishes such as those served in Asia.
Neither did I. But the boffins at USDA do.
Penis pepper finally reveals its identity
A weird, comma-shaped fruit is often to be seen “floating over the soldiers marching off to be sacrificed or flying priests” in the artwork of the Moche, an agricultural people that frequented the coastal plain of northern Peru from A.D. 100 to 800. That’s been recognized since the 1930’s, when archaeologists gave it the name ulluchu — meaning “penis pepper” because of its shape — but without actually been able to say what the fruit was. Modern-day Peruvians just don’t recognize it, and botanists need more to go on for a scientific identification.
They got it recently when the actual remains of a fruit were found during excavation of the the tombs of Dos Cabezas in the ancient Moche city of Sipan. Ethnobotanists Rainer Bussmann and Douglas Sharon had been asking around for ulluchu for years:
“We would go to these markets and people would say, ‘We think we know what that is, but it’s not being sold here,'” said Sharon, the retired director of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California-Berkley. “Well, one of the reasons it wasn’t being used is because the Ulluchu seems to show up during sacrifices. And no one is being sacrificed anymore.”
But armed with the physical specimens, desiccated as they were, Bussman, who works at the Missouri Botanical Gardens, eventually homed in on the genus Guarea, which is in the mahogany family, not the pepper.
“Rainer is a first-rate taxonomist,” Sharon said. “He studied every physical characteristic of these plants until he was absolutely certain we had it.”
Guarea seeds contain hallucinogenics and chemicals which raise blood pressure. Both would have been useful in sacrifices.
Bussmann, director of the garden’s William L. Brown Center for Plant Genetic Resources, plans to further study the plant’s chemistry and suspects it might have applications as a blood pressure and erectile dysfunction treatment.
The sacrificial soldiers in Moche artwork over which ulluchu fruits float often appear to have erections. Expect huge plantations to spring up in the Peruvian lowlands.
Nibbles: Peppers, Medicinals, NYC gardening, Science writing, Urban ag, Pouteria
- Hot chili peppers on a blistering night, dust on my face and my cape…
- “North America’s only medicinal herbs germplasm collection.” New one on me.
- “Brooklyn was a breadbasket for the city only until the middle of the nineteenth century.” New one on me.
- Different journalistic takes on cow genome.
- Edmonton learns from Havana.
- Lucuma no longer novel, can enter Europe.
Nibbles: Aurochs, Medicinal plant, New species, Orchards, Imprecations
- Nazi cattle invade Britain. Are they the ones that have been sequenced? I think we should be told.
- ICIPE helps Kenyan farmers domesticate hangover cure plant.
- New, useless acacia found. No word on who lost it in first place.
- Yet another plea to save the effing British orchard.
- Hunter-Gatherer-Sculptor. “I got your imprecations right here,” says Jeremy.
- Razib rounds up horses.