Natural History Wanderings

The New York Times has a story on why we shouldn’t put pine nuts in pesto. Most pine nuts come from the Korean pine in Russia where it is a keystone species. A keystone species is a plant or animal that plays a unique and crucial role in the way an ecosystem functions. Without keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.  The Times reports

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a majority of pine nuts imported into the United States come from the Korean pine tree, a keystone species found primarily in the southern parts of the Russian far east. The temperate rain forest of this wild corner of Russia represents a mere 1 percent of the country’s territory yet contains about a quarter of its endangered vertebrate species.

Read the full story at  Making Pesto? Hold the Pine Nuts – The New York Times