Posts

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Call the cops

Update: things are almost back as they were, and that’s how I’m leaving them.

You may have noticed some changes here. They’re not my fault, honest.

I decided to upgrade to the new version of our software, and quite by chance discovered that nefarious actors had hacked the site. A cunning wheeze, designed to place links inside posts but not have anything visible on the outside. It took an awfully long time to clean up, and in the process I upgraded everything, so things should be more secure now. BUT …

I cannot seem to figure out how to get the two sidebars back as they were, one on either side of the main content. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t bother. Leave a comment to say whether you prefer this version or one on either side. If necessary, I’ll get back to that.

I also cannot make those dinky little bullet points show up when we have several items in a Nibble. that has to be fairly simple, but I fear that if I keep going at it now, gone midnight, I’ll make some even greater error.

  • Maybe
  • Bullets

Work in an ordinary post?

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Was sunflower domesticated in Mexico or what?

I don’t know much about sunflower. That’s obvious enough from the cavalier fashion in which a recent Nibble of mine referred to a press release on a PNAS paper on sunflower domestication by David Lentz and others. 1 Briefly, that paper presented a range of archaeological, linguistic, ethnographic and ethnohistoric evidence for the domestication of sunflower in Mexico by 2600 BC. This would complement a separate, independent, well-attested domestication in the Mississippi Valley. That’s important not only academically but also for the insights it would give into genetic structure within the species, and hence possible breeding strategies.

But it looks like I unwittingly walked into a bit of a controversy. It seems things are a bit more complex than the press release made out. In a 2007 short communication in GRACE, the great Charles Heiser reverses himself with regards to some archaeobotanical material he had previously identified as a sunflower achene and as a result comes out against the Mexican domestication for the crop first advocated by Lentz in 2001. The available molecular evidence seems to support Heiser.

I don’t know much about sunflower. But after today, I know a little bit more. And I’ll be keeping an eye on this academic spat to learn more.

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Another source of seeds

Aspen Edge from Semilla Besada contacted us, saying “we collect, sow and save heirloom seeds, predominantly organic, in order to maintain biodiversity and farmer’s autonomy.  I should like to be listed as a source of heirloom seeds in Spain, although these can only be supplied when they are surplus to our requirements”.

Despite the caveat, we’re happy to list them on our Seeds page, and to use the opportunity to ask for other suggestions of sources you think we should list.