Wild relatives – Page 373 – Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog

December 11, 2007

Chestnuts coming back

Chestnuts roasting on open fires again. Bing Crosby unavailable for comment.

November 28, 2007

Bringing back a wild relative

Aurochsen. Tarpans. Nazis. Wait, Nazis?

November 22, 2007November 22, 2007

Potato taxonomy

Quick quiz: How many species of cultivated potatoes are there?

November 21, 2007

Jive turkey

Stop press: wild relative not in trouble.

November 19, 2007November 19, 2007

Many trees grow in Brooklyn

Crop wild relatives etc. in Prospect Park. Betty Smith unavailable for comment.

1. A North Macedonian professor’s 15-year rescue mission for landraces and crops surviving only in remote villages. Why bother? Stay tuned…
2. Ancient grapevines in Tigray represent a unique genetic lineage with potential value for breeding varieties adapted to dryland conditions.
3. Hawai’i Public Radio checks in on Maui’s coconut genebank. Useful to breed varieties adapted to really wet conditions, presumably.
4. The Cayman Islands are also hoarding coconuts, along with lots of tasty fruits.
5. A USD 400,000 boost from Taiwan for the Eswatini national genebank. Indigenous vegetables get much-needed love.
6. A regional survey of 25 orphan crops across 13 Latin American countries finds quinoa and amaranth well-catalogued, but characterization budgets are the real bottleneck. Collecting and conserving in genebanks is great, but not enough.
7. South Korea puts 330,000 seed accessions under “double lock”, hedging against both climate change and war. Conserving in one place is not enough.
8. FAO warns that nearly a third of the world can’t afford the USD 4.28 a day that a healthy diet costs — nearly three billion people, and rising. That’s why we need al the above, I guess.
Published on July 28, 2026