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A very cold hotspot

Seeds of some 10% of the world’s flora are stored in the coldroom behind this door…

You can see a few more pictures on my Flickr set, and read all about the Millennium Seed Bank on their web page. If you do, you may well be intrigued by this story:

Recently we have conducted germination tests on seeds of 33 South African species collected in 1802/3. The seeds were found at the National Archives in London among the papers of a Dutch merchant, Jan Teerlink whose ship was captured by British privateers during its return from the Far East via the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. Seeds of three species germinated: two legumes (Liparia sp. and Acacia sp.) and a Proteaceae (Leucospermum sp.). Our report in Seed Science Research 1 of seeds surviving for over 200 years (supported by carbon-dating) under sub-optimal conditions, suggests adaptation for extreme seed longevity in species of seasonally dry, Mediterranean environments.

And if you are so intrigued, and would really like to see what a Leucospermum plant germinated from 200-year old seeds looks like, well, here it is:

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Crop genebanks taken for granted, again

The Crop Science Society of America suggests that in order to adapt agriculture to climate change we will need to

Genotype the major crop germplasm collections to facilitate identification of gene treasures for breeding and genetics research and deployment of superior genes into adapted germplasm around the globe.

Which is all well and good, but it does rather assume that “the major crop collections” will be there to genotyped in the first place. 2

‘Twas ever thus with genebanks. It’s just assumed that they will always be there, ready, willing and able to provide breeders and geneticists with the material they need, forever, no matter what. It’s really scary to realize that, actually, such an assumption is unjustified. Somebody should tell CSSA that.

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Grain and Cities

The wait is over. Rachel Laudan’s talk at Postopolis is now available in two versions. Rachel herself carries a transcript of her talk, with some photos. And Nicola over at Edible Geography has the same transcript with different photos and a bit more by way of introduction. 3

There is so much content there that I hardly know what to say, except that I am in awe of the research skills and basic understanding of the problem. The basic point is that “without food energy, a city is nothing”. For most people and most of history, that energy came from grains: about a kilo per person per day. And the consequences of that … go read!

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Mangoes and lychees save girls’ lives

A heart-warming story from BBC News: in the village of Dharhara in India, parents plant 10 or more fruit trees when a baby girl is born. The trees mature slightly faster than the girls, and by the time a girl is nubile the profits from the sale of fruit is more than enough to pay the bride price commonly required by the groom’s family. Bihar has the highest death rate among families who cannot pay a bride price. But not in Dharhara.