Category: Tourism

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Giant southern curled mustard in the Traditional Croplands

I couldn’t identify one of the plants in the Traditional Croplands exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian, but a quick post on their Facebook page solved the puzzle. Here’s the plant.

It turns out to be Giant Southern Curled Mustard, which GRIN suggests is Brassica juncea subsp. integrifolia var. crispifolia. This is described as an “old southern favourite,” or words to that effect, by many of the heirloom seed merchants I consulted online. There is also an ethnobotanical record online of the species being used by Native Americans, but only as a medicinal, at least in the book I was able to consult. Perhaps it is a relatively recent adoption.

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The Museum of the American Indian’s native crop garden

I spent last Saturday morning wondering around downtown Washington DC with a friend waiting for an afternoon flight. The day was bright and pleasant and we took in all the major sights. Including the National Museum of the American Indian, which is a pretty spectacular building on the Mall.

The Museum of the American Indian (photo courtesy of ReverendMungo under Creative Commons license http://www.flickr.com/photos/andynelson/2159713642/)

Apparently, the construction of the museum was partially funded by a large donation from a wealthy Native American tribe in Connecticut, whose casinos are clearly quite lucrative. We didn’t have much time to spend inside, unfortunately, but the outside was interesting enough. And not just for the architecture of the building.

A Native American food garden has been planted along the pavement by the side of the building. You can see maize and squash here on the left.

And also tobacco, sunflower and cotton (below).

Further along the pavement there is a nice bit of prairie, with some particularly important medicinal and other useful plants highlighted. All with very informative labels. A really nice idea.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything about this on the museum’s website, so I don’t know whether it is a temporary exhibit or a permanent feature. Anyway, I wonder if the next donation by that Connecticut tribe might be to some of the genebanks which maintain Native American crop germplasm.

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Nibbles: Ireland, Plumpy’nut, Saola, Food heritage protection, Millet, Wild veggies, Brassica, UNMDGs, Ukraine

  • Celebrating the Irish Seed Savers Association celebrations. We had wanted to be there…
  • CAS-IP on how to “break” the Plumpy’nut patent.
  • Cattle wild relative seen for first time in 10 years. Well, by scientists anyway.
  • “Initiatives that merely codify cultural products without taking the social-organizational context into account risk becoming little more than ‘museums of production.'” Ouch.
  • Millet domestication pushed back in time.
  • Antioxidant properties of traditional wild Iberian leafy greens. Yes, I know, this medicalizes nutrition, but I thought it was interesting that these wild species are still used.
  • “…a trait of the diploid species, which apparently looks undesirable, might in fact be highly valuable for the improvement of amphidiploids…”
  • “Food? We don’t need no stinkin’ food,” say UN negotiators.
  • UK ambassador’s observations on agriculture in Ukraine. Love the contrast between 100 ha fields of sunflowers and the table groaning under home-grown fruit and vegetables.
  • In other news, the UK’s ambassador to Ukraine has a blog. And so do a number of others. Sorely tempted to subscribe to their RSS.
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Nibbles: Yams, Agrobiodiversity, Melons, Cacao, Biotropica, Food, Seed saving, Rice pix, Mongolian livestock, Gums

  • IITA set to expand its ability to provide the world with yam diversity.
  • “Agricultural biodiversity is essential for farmers as it places them in a better position to manage climate change.” Wait, what?
  • An exotic melon is found in Birmingham, UK. But can you make juice from its seeds?
  • James dissects the latest genome announcement: cacao. Ignore the press release, just read this.
  • Biotropica has a special issue on biodiversity. Even some agrobiodiversity.
  • The history of food consumption in the 20th century. Scary reading.
  • New Internationalist magazine has a special issue on seed saving! But only a couple of articles available online, alas.
  • Wonderful photos of the rice harvest from Flickr.
  • Mongolian cashmere can only get more expensive.
  • Australians have more to cope with than a back-stabbing prime minister, it seems. Their eucalypts are in trouble. Something to do with fire, maybe.