Perennial Wheat "Salish Blue" developed by Washington State University

Found this article on NPR today about a perennial wheat called "Salish Blue" (×Tritipyrum aaseae) that is a hybrid of wild wheat and the domesticated variety. It's still in development by Washington State University. It's height ranges from 2-6 feet tall. The kernels are also blue! Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/02/08/513239465/dont-call-it-wheat-an-environmentally-friendly-grain-takes-root



Here's more info about it from Washington State University's page: http://cahnrs.wsu.edu/news-release/2017/01/12/scientists-discover-perennial-hybrid-of-wheat-wheatgrass/

And, here's an article written in scholarly journal, "Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution": http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10722-016-0463-3

Caption from Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution's article wrote:"Morphology and FGISH of ×Tritipyrum aaseae ‘Salish Blue’. a FGISH image showing 42 chromosomes of wheat and 14 from Thinopyrum. b Comparison of seeds (left to right) of Thinopyrum, ×Tritipyrum aaseae and T. aestivum. c. Flower of ×Tritipyrum aaseae.d Spike of ×Tritipyrum aaseae.e ×Tritipyrum aaseae in the field post-harvest. f Ligule and leaves with coarse venation of ×Tritipyrum aaseae. g New tillers with roots emerging from senesced tiller of ×Tritipyrum aaseae"

Yes, I just saw info on it... how exciting!  How do we get our hands on it (since our tax $ paid for the project, I think.)  BTW, I think the Bread Lab in Mt. Vernon is associated with a bakery up there.   An excellent review of this bread lab, and Jones,  is in Dan Barber's 'The Third Plate'... a great book : )

I hope Wes Jackson has heard about this!

That's really cool. There is much untapped potential for crops like this. Just not much time and money going into it.

Per Nicole's links, they've been working on it for 21 years!

I contacted Seth Truscott Public Relations/Communication Coordinator
WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Office: 509-335-8164

And asked them if we could get some seed for trials here at permies.

He replied "Miles,Let me check in with our Bread Lab researchers, Colin and Steve, and see what they know about availability of Salish Blue seed. They’ll know best about timing, resources, etc."

I will let you know if they have seeds for us to try!