Medicinal plants

Nibbles: Drying seeds, Saving citrus, Shakespeare’s food, Ganja double, TPP, Aurochs art, Coffee diversity, Biofortification, Training, Breeding booklet

Zeolite finds its genebank niche. Remember when we blogged about it?
The USDA citrus genebank at Riverside gets the podcast treatment.
Shakespeare, because it’s the 400th anniversary of his death: food and animals.
Weed, because weed: taxonomy and breeding. Could literally apply to any other crop on earth.
What will the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) do to farm-saved seeds?
Bring back the aurochs!
Barista Magazine on coffee diversity. In other news, there’s a Barista Magazine.
The chemistry of banana carotenoids.
Master of Arts in Food Studies in San Francisco! What’s not to like.
From plant to crop: The past, present and future of plant breeding. Nice booklet.

If we eat more meat, only 15% of possible scenarios lead to a maintenance of forest area.
Oregon mint breeders ready to come to blows.
The dark side of yesterday’s sustainable ganja Nibble.
The Smithsonian does heirlooms.
Enough with the superfoods already.

VIR on Atlas Obscura, with pic goodness courtesy of yours truly. And on the same site, something Vavilov would have approved of: a very diverse Tajik apple orchard.
A new avocado to conjure by.
Urban agriculture won’t cut the mustard.
Trees that named Fragrant Harbour disappearing.
The downside of coffee. But never fear, there’s a strategy coming!
The beernome!
Happy birthday Sir Hans Sloane, for many botanical reasons!
Chinese pollinators in trouble. Enough of the exclamation marks.
Do you have any examples of “plant or animal breeding that has successfully incorporated gender considerations into its strategies and end products”? Contact these people.
Can seeds learn from meds, policy-wise?
Bioversity DG lobbies for genebanks.
Get your fill of quinoa, courtesy of Jeremy.
Sustainable pot. ‘Cause that’s the California Way, man.

You know you want to try black sapote.
Podcast on how to save coffee. And it probably needs it.
Once we’ve saved the cultivated species, maybe we should save it in the wild as well?
If not, there are other species, other drugs, I guess. No, really.
Indigenous fire management in Australia.
Everything you need on lupins. You’re welcome.
Is anyone collecting endophytes? Or microalgae for that matter?
Marvellous interactive atlas of the botanical collecting of Richard Evans Schultes in the Amazon.
Wine yeasts are way inbred. Which can’t be altogether good.
Watermelons need flower diversity.
One does feel for climate-stupid varieties.

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.