Climate change: Could centuries-old wheat help feed the planet?
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BBC/TONY JOLLIFFE
The Natural History Museum's archive includes wheat collected on Captain Cook's voyage
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"The collection spans back to the 1700s, including a specimen that was collected on Captain Cook's first voyage to Australia," says Larissa Welton. She's part of the team digitising the archive so it can be accessed online.
The James Cook sample is a wild wheat plant. It looks spindly and grass-like - quite different from the varieties growing in fields today. But it's these differences that the team is interested in.
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"We have specimens that are from before the introduction of various agricultural techniques, so they can tell us something about how wheat was growing wild or before things like artificial fertilisers.
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The wheat we grow is going to have to change - scientists hope that looking back into our past and rediscovering lost varieties could be the best way to move forward.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63457903