In search of a better bee...

The quest for a better pollinator took Washington State researchers to
Asia's Tien Shan Mountains.

BY DR. WALTER S. SHEPPARD, Washington State University, Pullman, and DR.
THOMAS R. UNRUH, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research
Service, Wapato, Washington

Neither apples nor bees originated in the United States. The ancestors of
our cultivated apples are native to central Asia, while the homeland of the
honeybee encompasses Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia. This means that the
search for both new germplasm used in apple breeding and for the parasites
and predators used to fight imported apple pests (e.g., codling moth and
some leafrollers) takes place in the wild apple forests of present-day
Kazakhstan, Kyrgzystan, and Uzbekistan.

read the rest at:

http://www.goodfruit.com/archive/Oct-01/feature8.html