Variety is the spice of life
9 April 2010
A British university is lending its expertise to a project to reproduce the saffron crocus from its wild ancestors, potentially improving production of this valuable spice.
The Crocusbank project, funded by the European Union, has been trying to increase the genetic variability of Crocus sativus, whose red stigma is highly prized as a spice to flavour and colour cooking. Most of the commercial crop grown in southern Europe, Iran and Kashmir are clones and therefore potentially at risk from flooding or an outbreak of disease.
Geneticists at Leicester University have now lent their expertise to help track down about 100 different selections of the crocus, most grown by small producers who have developed their own heirloom strains over many generations, all of which will be placed in a genebank to preserve their unique characteristics
“We've been finding growers who are known to have their own strains of saffron crocus,” says team leader Professor Pat Heslop-Harrison. “There was a worry that any diversity would be lost because some small grower stopped, or a meadow was ploughed up.”
The team is also working to identify and re-hybridise the two wild ancestors of the saffron crocus, as well as producing new variants with improved resistance to disease and tolerance of waterlogging – a common cause of failure in commercial plantings.
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