{"id":53904,"date":"2016-09-02T15:29:29","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T19:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/plant-talk\/?p=53904"},"modified":"2016-09-23T11:17:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-23T15:17:52","slug":"seedless-grapes-with-roots-at-nybg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2016\/09\/nybg-in-the-news\/seedless-grapes-with-roots-at-nybg\/","title":{"rendered":"Seedless Grapes, With Roots at NYBG"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Arlow B. Stout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Recently, The Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0examined an obscure and surprising piece of New York’s botanical history that began right here at NYBG nearly 80 years ago\u2014the Bronx Seedless table grape, a species of the common fruit hybridized in the 1930s by one of NYBG’s most prolific scientists, Dr. Arlow B. Stout.\u00a0Sophia Hollander interviewed Stephen Sinon,\u00a0the LuEsther T. Mertz Library<\/a>\u2019s Head of Special Collections, Research, and Archives, to learn more about this\u00a0obscure grape species and the\u00a0enormous impact it had before fading into obscurity\u2014and near extinction.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to his groundbreaking research\u00a0into avocado plants and\u00a0hybridizing many new daylily<\/a> species that continue to delight visitors to the Garden each summer, Dr. Stout partnered with Cornell University\u2019s New York State Agricultural Experiment Station\u00a0<\/i>to make a better grape. Seedless, tasty, and hardy, the end result of “more than 20 years tinkering with grape genetics” was the Bronx\u00a0grape, named for its home borough. Cultivation of this species faded over time. While not successful as a commercial crop, all seedless grapes that we enjoy today are descended from this Bronx native, the result of NYBG’s commitment to plant science and conservation that continues to be one of our core values.<\/p>\n

Now, from the brink\u00a0of disappearing altogether, this species is being rediscovered as a source of local pride and historic\u00a0interest. Click here to read the Wall Street Journal<\/em> article<\/a> (subscription required) and learn about Dr. Stout’s remarkable life. NYBG has\u00a0always endeavored to teach people about where their food comes from\u2014sometimes the answer is closer than you think!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that all seedless grapes are descended from a species developed right here at NYBG? The Bronx Seedless table grape was named by its creator, NYBG scientist Dr. Arlow B. Stout, for it borough of origin almost 80 years ago. Once on the verge of extinction, this historic grape is now being rediscovered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":53917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1346,1170,18],"tags":[2602,5070,5069,4613,5068],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/0915-stout-190x285.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph0lU-e1q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53904"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53904"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53991,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53904\/revisions\/53991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}