- Saving Dhofar’s frankincense tree. Evocative things they are too.
- The rich may have trouble getting into heaven, but they manage more agrobiodiversity. At least of rice. At least in Nepal.
- Gotta be careful with niche modeling in mountain areas. Well, duh.
- New Pacific food leaflets from SPC.
- Ok, how weird is it that I have a personal connection of sorts to all of the above? Probably not much.
- Ex situ not enough for wild rice. Say it ain’t so!
- The evolution of coffee.
- “If the rains do not fall we may face problems with certain crops.” Right.
- Network on natural fibres proposed by Industree Craft Foundation and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Sounds like fun.
- Screening lactic acid strains for sorghum beer making. Well, kinda. Somebody please fund this vital research!
Nibbles: Fungi, Dogs, Protected areas, Banana, Ethiopia, Haiti
- Chromosomes can hop from one pathogenic fungus to another. Probably not a good thing.
- Dogs originated in the Middle East after all. Decide, already, will ya?
- IUCN also has a Protected Area of the Day. Genebank of the day, anyone?
- Problems with bananas in Uganda surprisingly mainly abiotic. Live and learn.
- Vaviblog celebrates Gary Nabhan’s birthday. Kinda. Which is also St Patrick’s Day? How cool is that?
- Report on Haiti’s seed security. Needs digesting.
Nibbles: Drugs, Chains, Data, Year, Svalbard, Twitter, Laurel
- Opium gene decoded. Is that good?
- ILRI shares a bunch of presentations on value chains. Can’t be bad.
- Missouri Botanical Garden opens Center for Biodiversity Informatics. Will any good come of it?
- Agri scientists promote 2010 as biodiversity year. But that should have read Bioversity International. Bad.
- Wild edibles could hold key to protecting food supply? They mean wild relatives, of course. Very bad.
- More on our Twitter feed. You following us, right? Good!
- Beware the Ides of March! Laurel wreath bad for some.
Nibbles: Wild strawberries, Year of Biodiversity, Dog breeding, Vancouver’s Old Apple Tree
- NY Times does Svalbard.
- Gus Molina does agrobiodiversity.
- Dogs “continue to wither genetically.” Ouch.
- Rescuing an historical apple tree.
Another critically endangered crop wild relative
Like London busses in days of old, the IUCN’s endangered species doodad is featuring another crop wild relative just days after the previous one. This time it is Ramosmania rodriguesii, a somewhat distant relative of coffee, at one time reduced to a single tree on the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues.
RBG Kew has been propagating the plant, and has this to say about its uses:
Locals on Rodrigues believe that a tea made from the leaves of café marron is an invigorating drink that can treat venereal diseases and hangovers, although this has not been scientifically proven. An even more fanciful story is the ability of café marron to prevent children from having nightmares, but only if the child’s cuddly toy is thrown at the plant!
Café marron clearly hasn’t had much opportunity to contribute to coffee breeding programmes — it only set its first seed after being brought into captivity in 2003 — but you never know.