From Robin Oakley-Hill
You report that the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment has
approved trials of potatoes containing virus resistant genes because
“potatoes have no wild relatives in Britain”
(This Week, 12 September, p 21).
I have had a lot of woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) in my
garden, and Keble Martin’s New Concise British Flora lists 11 species
that, like the potato, belong to the Solanaceae family, including deadly
nightshade (Atropa belladonna), black nightshade (Solanum
nigrum) and henbane (Hyoscyamus niger).
Evidently, the ACRE is not really “into” British flora.
Sevenoaks, Kent
