- African data centre planned.
- “…genetic variability and phenotypic plasticity of plant anti-herbivore defences allow plant populations to rapidly respond to changing environmental conditions.” In a crop wild relative, no less.
- The genetics of chicken domestication. I’d like to see the results of those crosses.
- Do you have these heirloom tomatoes?
- Getting increased heat tolerance from a wild relative into wheat.
Nibbles: Solanum nigrum, Blue tomato, Chickpea, COP10, Phosphates
- Leafy vegetable cures cancer! Well, nearly.
- Blue tomato seeds available. Well, nearly.
- Everything you ever wanted to know about chickpeas. Well, nearly.
- COP10 all over bar the shouting. Well, nearly.
- Phosphate supplies assured. Well, nearly.
Nibbles: Apple Diversity, Sorghum, Ugandan organics, Cows, CABI, Giant pumpkin, Nutrigenomics, SOTW2
- 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: Wild Hordeum, Barley landraces, Funny cucumber, Dogs, Wild Manihot, Taxonomy, ABS, Capsicum farmer selection, Bulgarian genebank
- Crop wild relatives from genebank in use shock.
- Landraces from same genebank in use shock. Hopefully a full blog post is coming soon from the author himself.
- Would you eat this cucumber?
- Dog evolution, again.
- New wild cassava species found.
- Thank goodness for our name-based bioinformatics infrastructure, eh?
- The history of benefit sharing deconstructed. Nothing on ITPGRFA?
- Mexican chili farmers maintain rather than direct with their seed selection.
- My genebank is bigger than your genebank!
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.