b'20 MOST FAMOUSPLANT BREEDERSLooking back after two centuries of Mendel. Compiled by Marcel BruinsIn the year where it has been two centuries since Gregor Mendel was born, it seems appropriate to look at some of the other people who have made a bigger than normal contribution to plant breeding and have enriched our world and our plates with new, better, higher yielding and more delicious plant varieties. Nowadays, plant breeding isTHOMAS ANDREW KNIGHT MATTHIAS CHRISTIAN RABBETHGEvery much an interdisciplinary(17591838) - BRITISH HORTICULTUR- (18041902)GERMAN PLANT activity, with lots of inputALIST AND BOTANIST BREEDERfrom other departmentsAfter graduation, he took up the studyWith the purchase of a 212-acre within a seed company,of horticulture. In 1795 he published the(approx. 50 hectare) plot of land includ-such as the plant pathology,results of his research on the propaga- ing shares in a sugar beet factory in molecular or marketingtion of fruit trees and their diseases.Klein Wanzleben, Matthias Christian His breeding experiments, betweenRabbethge, the son of a farming family, departments. But in the oldidentified plant varieties, led to newlaid the foundation stone for the success-days it was often a one- apple varieties. He would select amongful linking of sugar production and sugar person job, and from time tohundreds of seedlings to pick out thebeet breeding in Germany as early as time it is good to look backfew with improved characteristics. For1847. Rabbethge recognised that increas-and see on whose shouldersexample, the Siberian Harvey cider appleing the sugar content in the beet was a we are standing. No doubt,was among about four seedings heprerequisite for profitable sugar beet pro-kept from 300 crosses. Distribution ofduction. The Klein Wanzlebener Original there are many others thatKnights apple seeds and scions to thebecame one of the highest-yielding and also deserve a spot in thisU.S. helped develop its apple industry. Inmost popular varieties. And as early list. Feel free to send us yourthe mid-19th century, the Downton straw- as 1910, around a third of the worlds proposals, and why thoseberry, bred by Knight, was a popularbeet seed requirements were met from persons should be on the liststrawberry in Britain, until it was eclipsedKlein Wanzleben. The Klein Wanzleben as well. by modern strawberry hybrids at thetype is still the progenitor of almost all turn of the century. It is not widely knownsugar beet varieties grown worldwide. that he studied variation in peas andHis insights were later pursued by his made similar observations to Mendel, butsons, Matthias Jr and Karl, in system-he failed to make the same imaginativeatic breeding trials and led to success. leap about the relationships betweenThroughout his life, Rabbethge was open these changes. to technical innovations and helped the Klein Wanzleben site to rise and become a global pioneer for high-performance sugar beet seed.40/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2022'