A biologist and a historian are looking for art to trace fruit and vegetable evolution
Tuesday, July 14, 2020 - 15:10
in Biology & Nature
Plant geneticists seeking to understand the history of the plants we eat can decode the genomes of ancient crops from rare, well-preserved samples. However, this approach leaves significant gaps in the timelines of where and when many modern-day fruits, vegetables, and cereal crops evolved, and paints an incomplete picture of what they looked like. A Science & Society article publishing July 14th in the journal Trends in Plant Science details a unique approach to filling these gaps using art—and calls on museum goers and art aficionados to help find paintings that could have useful depictions.