- Apple diversity on display at Terra Madre.
- A drought-resistant sorghum for Karamoja. Read the script of a radio programme.
- CIAT advises Ugandan farmers: produce what you can sell, don’t sell what you can produce. Hmmmn.
- Local cow breeds and Protected Designation of Origin cheeses. There’s a conclusion here struggling to emerge, but I can’t recognize it. Help me.
- CABI pushes for crop diversification. Get in line!
- Where giant pumpkins come from.
- Nutritionists should get to grips with human diversity.
- 2nd State of the World’s PGRFA launched by FAO to much fanfare. And usual incorrect figures on genetic erosion. Oh I give up.
Nibbles: Milk-drinking, Diversity and stability, Indian sheep, Development of the African savannah, Teaching rice, Silk, Diverse diet, Huge phallic inflorescences
- Der Spiegel does its usual impressive number, this time on the Völkerwanderung. Via.
- Diversity and stability in grasslands. Yes, there’s a connection.
- Sheep breeds in India deconstructed.
- The future of the Guinea savannah. Probably not that great.
- IRRI teaches Singaporean cityslickers to grow rice.
- Silk beginning to fade where it was born.
- The diverse benefits of an agrobiodiverse diet. Should someone tell rich Indians?
- Tales of two giant inflorescences. What are the odds?
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.
Nibbles: Pigeonpea, Livestock breeding, Ecotourism, Data
- Pigeonpea gets the genomics treatment.
- Animal genetic resources for the poor: “…one of the highest priority interventions for the smallholder systems is the development of innovative approaches for the strategic use of appropriate genotypes from the available range of global breed resources.”
- How good is ecotourism?
- Gapminder does per capita food supply.
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.
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.