Orchids are the kinky perverts of the plant world - says news book
The avocado undergoes a sex change overnight, and orchids are the kinky perverts of the plant world, but although there are 20,000 varieties of orchid we only eat one – the vanilla pod! These are just some of the fascinating facts unearthed in Professor John Warren’s new book The Nature of Crops – How we came to eat the plants we do, to be published by CABI on April 24. Professor Warren is the Director of Learning and Teaching at Aberystwyth University’s IBERS (Institute of Biological Environmental and Rural Sciences) and formerly worked as a cocoa breeder working on the world chocolate bank at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. He has an academic interest in the sex-life of plants and a recreational interest in all things edible. Professor Warren said: “Wheat, rice, potatoes and cassava are all crops that were domesticated a long time ago. I strongly believe that we should still be domesticating new crops as we do in IBERS if we want to make the world a better place. Un...