the origins of cultivated plants part 2

7/28/2019 The Origins of Cultivated Plants Part 2

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Report by: Crisencio M. Paner

Ph.D. in Biological Science (student)


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Turnips-Brassica campestris, thought to have grown originallywild in Europe and Asia.

Eggplant-Solanum melongena,native to India or S. China

Peanut-Arachis hypogaea, native to Peru.

Chayote- Sechium edule,first domesticated in Mexico in

Pre-columbian times.

Pineapple-Ananas comusus, indigenous to the New World.

Grapes-Vitis vinifera, native to eastern Mediterranean region.


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Sweet Orange-Citrus sinensis, believed to be derivedfrom extinct Chinese species.

Tomato-Lycopersicon esculentum, current opinion favorseastern Mexico as the area of first domestication.

Sweet Peppers-Capsicum anuum, first domesticated inMexico around 8,000 years ago.


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Coconuts-Cocos nucifera, current evidence supports the

hypothesis that coconuts are native to Indo-Pacific region and that they dispersed across

oceans passively by currents.

Bananas-Musa spp., are all native to eastern Asia andAustralia.

Avocados or Alligator pears- Persea americana, Avocados areknown only as a cultivated species and theyappear in some of the oldest archaeologicaldeposits in southern Mexico (7000 B.C.)


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Mangoes (Mangifera indica, Anacardiaceae) are themost popular of a truly tropical fruits.

They are particularly appreciated in their native regionof southeast Asia, where not only the pulp but also the

seeds have been used for food.

Mangoes were introduced to Brazil by the Portuguese inthe early 1700s and brought from South America to t heWest Indies in 1742.

CONT..

Carabao Mango


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They now constitute an important seasonal food sourcefor the poor populaces of Jamaica and Haiti.

(A) Mangoes dongle from trees onlong stalks

(B) A single mango flower shown(C) Cross section of the flower(D) The fruit in cross section

shows the fleshy mesocarpand the hard endocarp

A

BC

D

Indian Mango


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Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus, Malvaceae)-Althoughthe native region of okra is still uncertain, it is thought tobe either southwest or south-central Asia.

The spread of the domesticated species must have been

very early because okra was used in ancient Egypt andspread from there to the Far East and Europe.


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Okra first reached the New World in the 1600s, and inthe 1700s it was adopted as a crop by French immigrantsin Louisiana.

They referred to the vegetable by its African name, gumbo , and used it with such frequency that it becamean integral par t of Cajun cooking.

Many people find the mucilaginous coating on okra

seeds objectionable but the gum acts as a thickeningagent in soups , stews, and gumbos.

Okra as a crop can tolerate even the hottest months.

Okra gumbo Cajunstyledinner


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Papayas (Carica papaya, Caricaceae)- are smooth-textured, musky-flavored fruits native to centralAmerica.

The demand in the US for papayas has not traditionally

been for the fresh fruit but for papain, an enzymeextracted from the latex exuded when the skin of thefruit is scored.


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Papain is very effective in breaking down proteins andthus forms the basis of commercial meat tenderizers.

It is also used in chewing gums and cosmetics.

Medicinally, papain is effective for digestive ailments.

Papaya plants are short-lived, soft-wooded trees thathave a characteristic umbrella-shape growth form.

Because papayaflowers are

cauliflorous, the fruitsare borne directly on

the plants stem.


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For latex tapping, green fruits are used, beginning whenthey are 10 cm in diameter.

The skin is scored diagonally in such a way that only theouter part of the exocarp is cut.

The latex which oozes out is collected the next day.

A single fruit can be tapped several times.

The fruit can still be eaten after having been subjected totapping.


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Kiwi (Actinidia chinensis)-A recent introduction into U.S.supermarkets.

Despite the fact that most Americans associate the fruitwith New Zealand, it is a native of Asia.

It has been grown commercially in New Zealand andmarketed as the Chinese gooseberry for 30 years.

However, fruit sales remained poor until New Zealandheld a national contest to rename the fruit.


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Under the name of Kiwi, supplied by the contest winner,the fruit has steadily increased in popularity.

Orchards of the dioecious vines now cover largeacreages in New Zealand.

The pulp of the ovoid, fuzzy green fruits is delicate inflavor and blends well with other foods.

In addition, slices of the fruit with their translucent, palegreen flesh surrounding a narrow ring of tiny black seedsare striking and produce attractive desserts.


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Passion fruit (Passiflora edulis)-Because of advertising for

a canned fruit drink that includes their juice, passionfruits have become familiar to most Americans.

To many people, they seem to represent the essence oftropical fruits.

It was the flowers, however and not the fruits thatoriginally attracted Europeans to passion flowers.


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The intricate and showy flower parts were considered byreligious immigrants to represent the instruments of

Christs passion. Plants were consequently taken to Europe where they

were grown as curiousities in greenhouses.

Although the fruits have been eaten by native Americanslong before European contact, systematic cultivation ofpassion flowers as a fruit crop began only a few hundredyears ago.


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Of the 55 or so edible species, Passioflora edulis is nowgrown on the largest scale.

This species, a native of Brazil, was introduced to Hawaiiin 1810.

Since the species grows best in tropical montanehabitats at about 2,000 m elevation, Hawaii providesexcellent growing conditions.

The parts of passion fruits that are eaten or pressed forjuice are the arils surrounding the seeds.

Each fruit has a tough pericarp surrounding numerousseeds, all of which are embedded in fleshy, aromatic,

red-yellow arils.


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Guava (Psidium guajava)- has spread from its native

home in South America to the Old World tropics. The pear-shaped fruits of the guava are yellow when

ripe and contain more vitamin C than most citrus fruits.

Because guavas have distinctly pungent taste wheneaten raw, they are most commonly stewed orprocessed into jams, jellies, or pastes.


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Macadamia nuts (Macadamia integrifolia)- One of the

most expensive, and to many the most delicious, oftropical nuts.

Although native to Australia, macadamias are nowproduced primarily in Hawaii, where they have been

cultivated as ornamentals since the 1800s. Hawaii provides well-drained soils and abundant rainfall

that are ideal for macadamia growth.


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The problem of freeing macadamia nuts successfullyfrom their shells was eased somewhat when it wasdiscovered that drying the fruits before crackingfacilitates the operation.

Nevertheless, a hefty 300 lb/in2 must still be exerted inorder to crack the shells.

While macadamia nut production is still limited byclimatic conditions, asynchronous fruiting patterns, andtenacious shells, Hawaii now enjoys a 6-month (July-January) season during which orchards yield anabundant harvest of the sweet, buttery nuts.


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Cashews (Anacardium occidentale)- are native to SouthAmerica.

It is related to poison ivy and mangoes and also containstoxic compounds in various parts of the plant.

The latex in the seed coat, for example, is irritating, butthe seed itself is not.

The nut is the embryo borne inside a hard seed coat.


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This structure sits atop a large, fleshy, inverted pear-shaped organ.

Presumably, the fleshy portion attract animals that

dispersed the seeds.

In Brazil, the fleshy portion of the fruit, called the apple,is occasionally crushed and fermented into a wine calledkaju.


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Rice (Oryza sativa)- can quite properly be called the

worlds most important crop. More people in the world eat rice than wheat.

It is estimated that 1.6 billion people depend on rice withover 200 million tons of rice consumed each year.

The cereal has been an integral part of eastern culturesfor thousands of years.


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It is considered sacred and a symbol of fertility in theOrient, a feeling expressed by the throwing of rice atweddings.

Many Asians do not consider that they have completed ameal unless rice was among the items eaten.

The fact the Oryza sativa was originally domesticated in

Asia is unequivocal, but the exact time and place withinthe continent are uncertain.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Brown_rice.jpg


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China, India, and Indochina have all been suggested aspossible places where cultivation first began.

The greatest diversity of rice varieties is in the region ofnortheastern India and across southeastern Asia.

While rice must have been an important food item inAsia several thousand years before the birth of Christ, it

was unknown in ancient Egypt and not mentioned in theBible.


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Alexander the Greats conquests led to the first mentionof the grain in Europe about 320 B.C.

By the 15th

century, Spain and Italy were both growingrice.

Shortly thereafter, the Portuguese introduced rice intoBrazil and West Africa.

In the 16th

century, the English started importing ricefrom the island of Madagascar off the east coast ofAfrica.


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One hundred years later (1695) one of the British ships,sailing home loaded with rice, was blown off course and

and landed in Charlestown, South Carolina. This unplanned visit led to the first plantings of rice in

the U.S., but commercially profitable operations beganonly much later, in 1912 in California.

Australia, now a large producer, began commercial in1925.


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There are now several major kinds of rice and numerousmethods of rice cultivation.

Rice needs large quantities of water in order to growwell, but it does not need to grow in standing water.

Rice grown without standing water is known as uplandrice, but upland rice will produce a harvestable crop only

where there are 1.5 to 2 m of rain per year.

Brazil is now the worlds largest producer of upland rice.


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Most rice is wet rice, or rice grown in standing water.

A third method of cultivation makes use of natural floodwater.

In floodplain areas, seeds are sown on the plain at timesof low water.

As the water rises, the rice grows apace with it.

In some cases, the plants can reach 4 to 5 m in heightbefore they finish growing.

Harvesting is often done in such areas by boat.


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With the advent of modern milling procedures, the worldswitched from brown to polished rice.

The loss of the bran and germ was a subtle dietary

change that had profound consequences. In the 19th century, a number of Japanese navy men

experienced a loss of muscle tone in their arms and legsas a result of nerve inflammation.

The disease, later diagnosed as beriberi, soon broke outamong thousands of people in Asia and Africa whosubsisted on rice diet.


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A Dutch doctor, Christian Eijkmann, working in Java wasamong those who concluded that the disease resultedfrom a dietary difficiency aggravated by eating foods

high in carbohydrates. It was later shown that a lack of vitamin B1 was the

cause of the illness.

The brans of grains are naturally high in vit. B1, and

brown rice is particularly rich, containing 0.40 mg per100 g of grain.

Polished rice contains only 0.04 mg per 100 g of grain.


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Barley (Hordeum vulgare)- On the basis of archeological

evidence barley appears to have been the first cerealdomesticated.

Archeological digs in the Fertile Crescent (primarily Syriaand Iraq) have uncovered charred barley kernels about

10,000 years ago. Initially, barley appears to have been ground and made

into pastes.


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However, since raw starch, even mixed with water, isrelatively unappetizing, the grain was probably firsttoasted by heating it on stones.

By Egyptian times, barley had become such an integralpart of the culture that it had its own hieroglyphicsymbol.

Likewise, the ancient Greeks depended primarily on

barley and greatly expanded its uses. In addition to pastes, they produced variously flavored,

baked barley breads.


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They also learned to soak the grains in water beforedrying and grinding in order to make them moredigestible.

This process was the forerunner of malting.

The ground meal, once remixed with water was highlysusceptible to fermentation.

Baking and beer making thus became part and parcel ofthe same operation.


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Wheat (Triticum monococcum)- Wheat is now consideredto be the staff of life.

Its initial cultivation was probably synchronous with, orslightly later than, that of barley, since the wild wheatsthat were taken into cultivation occurred in the sameregions as wild barley.

Wheat was originally less popular than barley, and thegrain on the staff of Demeter was barley, not wheat.


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But by the time the Book of Genesis was written, wheathad become the dominant cereal of the Mediterranean

area and was the grain from which Adam and Eve wereforced to make their own bread.

Wheat has not always been a major crop in NorthAmerica.

The Spanish brought the grain to the New World in 1520.


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Oats (Avena sativa)- Of all the cereals native to the

eastern Mediterranean, oats appear to have been thelast domesticated, perhaps as late as 1000 B.C.

Domestication probably occurred first in Europe ratherthan in the Near East.


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The widespread use of horses in Europe (beginning 200B.C.) necessitated a good source of good feed, and oats

serve this purpose. In the U.S. as elsewhere, oats were extremely important

until mechanized equipment obviated the need for farmdraft animals after 1930s and 1940s.


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the origins of cultivated plants part 2

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