
The Handled Ancient American Watermelon - fanf2
https://www.rareseeds.com/art-combes-amazing-ancient-watermelon/
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nkurz
This beautiful watermelon story makes an odd-turn midway through. It starts
with a tale of watermelon seeds found in Southwestern US cave, and then
smoothly segues into a prison interview with Cliven Bundy, who turns out have
been instrumental in preserving the variety:

"Bundy is better known for his involvement in a nationally publicized dispute
over paying to graze cattle on public land. He had passed these seeds along
with his other precious heirloom melon varieties to our Southwest gardener
friend, just a few hours before Bundy’s fellow protester Levoy Finicum was
shot at the infamous Oregon wildlife refuge occupation. Shortly after the
shooting, he was taken into custody and has been held without bail since. The
last known steward of the ancient watermelon, Bundy, is federally incarcerated
at a prison outside of Las Vegas, Nevada."

This is a side of Bundy that I haven't seen covered elsewhere, although
Bundy's son Ryan touched on some similar topics in his recent opening
statement: [https://thewashingtonstandard.com/ryan-bundys-opening-
statem...](https://thewashingtonstandard.com/ryan-bundys-opening-statement-
something-every-red-blooded-american-hear/).

~~~
plussed_reader
He was the nicest malcontent...

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rexgallorum
This 'article' is an advert. The story about the origin of the seeds is most
likely a fabrication invented to sell melons (and now seeds). The watermelon
is native to Africa. It is possible that the seeds were in fact old, but not
that they predate the arrival of Europeans and Africans in the New World. If
anyone is seriously interested, a genetic analysis of the plant would clear
things up.

~~~
whyenot
While I am also skeptical, there are watermelon-like species native to the
southwest, for example calabazilla (Cucurbita foetidissima) that could have
been the starting point for selective breeding. Native Americans selectively
bred other cucurbits, so it's not entirely unreasonable to think they could
have created a watermelon-like fruit. Comparing DNA would give you the answer,
but you could also look at morphological characteristics. For example, true
watermelon (Citrullus lantanus) has highly lobed leaves, while based on one of
the pictures in the article, this "watermelon" species does not. Potential
wild relatives in the southwest also don't tend to have lobed leaves, for what
it is worth.

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DavidAdams
I was not expecting Cliven Bundy to be a part of this story. Too bad he wasn't
content to just be a famed ancient melon farmer.

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Dowwie
How the hell did you manage to get an heirloom sees catalog on the front
page!? That's great! I have been getting this catalog for the last few years
and have big plans about starting from seed this winter indoors. I finally
have garden space but little time to enjoy it.

~~~
mixologic
I was literally looking at this catalog last night, and I was intrigued by
this watermelon seed in particular. Afterwards, I went to a Beatles/Circus
show featuring some contortionist acrobats, and today on hacker news is an
article about this weird watermelon seed, and also a link to the
contortionists handbook. I know its all just strange coincidence, but its
uncanny just how _strange_ the coincidences are.

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maxton
Is there supposed to be any content here? All I see is a giant image of some
watermelons and links to other images of fruits and vegetables. The links are
under "read our other stories" so I assume there is supposed to be text.

~~~
sp332
At first it only loads a bit of the article, but if I scroll down it shows all
the rest. It also works if I click the down arrow on the big picture.

~~~
maxton
When I click the down arrow, I am brought to the bottom of the page with the
links to other articles but there is no article between the big picture and
the links, just the "Read Our Other Stories" header.

EDIT: Resizing my browser to a smaller vertical size made it load. Strange UX.

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coldcode
Where can one get these seeds?

~~~
Splendor
It appears they only sell the handle-less variety at the moment.
[https://www.rareseeds.com/art-combe-s-ancient-
watermelon/](https://www.rareseeds.com/art-combe-s-ancient-watermelon/)

