That's got to be one big tree...

300 varieties of mango grow on one tree in Mahlihabad (DailyIndia.com)

These all-in-one multi-graft trees never turn out to be as cool as you might expect. Of course, 300 varieties on one tree would be so cool, that you could still be considerably less cool and still be mighty awesome.

I'm back!

Actually, I haven't gone anywhere. I just got busy. Or lazy. No, busy. Busy definitely sounds better.

Now I'm half a year plus into my new job, settling in and enjoying California. I've always been pleased with the pomological offerings of everywhere I've lived, from New York, to Arkansas, to Florida, but it's hard to imagine a better place for temperate fruits than the Central Coast of California.

Anyway, I was guilted (not intentionally, I don't think) into returning by Luigi, over at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog, an interesting site I really should keep up with more often. In addition to his recent post citing my post (which I will refrain from linking to for fear that we all would be caught up in a horrifying infinite loop), a few stories back is a link to a baffling an upsetting and baffling story from India:

Indian Genebank Doomed(?)

Apparently the local government is going to bulldoze the thousands of genotypes of litchis and mangoes to build bungalows for MPs.

This kind of short-sighted idiocy is nothing new, although this instance is particularly brazen. Fruit cultivars, once gone, are gone forever. Practically speaking, there is no way to recreate a fruit cultivar. You might come close, but generally it'd take a lot of breeding and expense, and you'll never be able to recreate any unique alleles that died with the original. Biotech can do many impressive things, but we are a long, long, long way from "building" a particular cultivar.

Anyway, I'm sure it's utterly futile, but for all my many readers with connections among the Indian powers that be, please lean on these people and make them realize just how horrible an idea this is.

A few more links, while I'm at it

Just a collection of interesting fruit news links:

Stinkless Durian: Fans claim this takes the fun out of it, and I suspect it would. I also wonder what it does to the flavor, considering the significant link between aroma and taste? I'd be curious to learn the genetics of durian stink, too.

Bruce Mowrey: Another fruit breeder profile in the mainstream press (too bad they spell the name wrong). Bruce actually now heads the whole breeding department at Driscoll's, so he's not just in charge of strawberries.

Pierce's Disease Resistant Grapes: This is probably deserves a more complete write-up, given the fact that the glassy-winged sharpshooter (the vector for the disease) was recently found in Napa. That could be a very bad thing, though I'd bet it would have to be really, really bad before they started planting hybrid grapes.

Rutgers Blueberry Breeding: A little blurb on the Rutgers blueberry breeding program. The comment about blueberries needing to be blue reminded me of Paul Lyrene's pink blueberry, 'Florida Rose'. A cool idea, even if it hasn't caught on.

Indian Mangoes Finally Arrive: Coming soon to a table near you, through the wonder of irradiation!