Agriculture 1000

Chapter 7 & 8

How to Make an Almond

Apples of Indians

Created by: Patrick Chan

Yual Chiek, Tawnya Chomiak,

Ken Conrad

How did certain wild plants get turned into crops?

• Domestication can be defined as growing a plant and, thereby, consciously (or unconsciously) causing it to change genetically from it’s wild ancestor in ways making it more useful to humans.

Conscious Domestication

• Today, we plant many different seeds or roots, select the best progeny and plant their seeds or roots, applying our knowledge of genetics to develop good varieties that breed true, perhaps even using the latest techniques of genetic engineering to transfer specific useful genes.

Unconscious Domestication

• Plants which are more attractive to animals spread more readily and profusely than less attractive plants, thereby continuing the attractive traits. When humans harvested the more attractive wild plants, they unconsciously spread the seeds to four places; the path towards home (spilling en-route), latrines (through ingestion and defecation), spittoons (by spitting out the larger seeds), and garbage heaps (throwing away spoiled fruit). These areas became the breeding grounds for plants with traits attractive to humans.

What makes a plant more attractive?

• Visible traits: • Larger , bright fruit non-bitter, sweet or

tasty, fleshy or seedless fruit, oily seeds, long fibers

• Non-visible traits:• Seed dispersal mechanisms, thickness of

seed coat, lack of germination inhibitors, and reproductive system

Earliest Fertile Crescent crops

• Wheat , barley, peas

• 10, 000 years ago

Why were these crops the first domesticated?

• These crops were among the first wild plants domesticated in the Fertile Crescent because their wild plant ancestors had the following traits: Already edible, High yielding, Easily grown, Quick growing, Readily storable, High percentage of individual plants were self-pollinating

• Because of these traits, the first crops required very little genetic change to make them more useful to humans.

Fruits and nut trees Domestication 4000BC

Why were these plants domesticated later than barley

and peas?• This group of plants was domesticated later

than the first three due to the minimum of 3 years of growth to harvestable crop, thus making these crops suitable only those humans fully committed to settled village life.

Why were these plants domesticated earlier than other

fruit crops?• These plants could be grown more easily

than other fruit crops as they could be propagated directly from seeds or cuttings, and were more frequently self-pollinating

Why were these plants domesticated later than other fruit

crops?• These plants were domesticated later due to the

advanced agricultural techniques needed to grow them, including:

Grafting; plants could not be grown from cuttings (first developed in China). Most required cross-pollination, forcing farmers to find self pollinating mutants, or planting genetically different varieties. Crops that started off as weeds, but were used as crops in the same time period, include rye, oats, turnips, radishes, beets, leeks, and lettuce.

Why did agriculture never arise independently in some fertile and highly suitable areas? Why did it

develop earlier in some area?• The Fertile Crescent is one place agriculture

evolved independently early. This is due to certain advantages that were exclusive to this area as opposed to other suitable areas, including:

The largest zone of Mediterranean climate ( mild, wet winters/hot, dry summers) favored the evolution of annual plants. These annuals has seeds adapted to survive the long dry season, thus also adapted for long-term storage by humans.

Continuation

• This area has an abundance of highly productive, big seeded, annual wild species, a high percentage of which were self-pollinating, thus requiring very little genetic change.

• The topography and climate of this area varied greatly within small distances. This allowed foe staggered harvesting, and , by bringing highland varieties to the lowlands, productivity and hardiness was increased.

The four big mammals domesticated in the Fertile

Crescent• Sheep – possibly in the central part of the

Fertile Crescent

• Goats – either in the eastern part at higher elevations or in the southwestern part

• Pigs - in the north-central part

• Cattle – in the western part, including Anatolia

Area Crop Type

Cereals, Pulses Fibre Roots, Melons Other Grasses Tubers

Fertile Crescent emmer wheat, pea, lentil, flax - muskmeloneinkorn wheat, chickpea

China barley foxtail millet soybean, adzuki hemp -[muskmelon]broom corn millet, rice bean, mung bean

Mesoamerica corn common bean cotton jicama squashestepary bean [G.hirsutum] (C.pepo,etc.)scarlet runner bean yucca, agave

Andes, Amazonia quinoa [corn] lima bean cotton manioc, Squashescommon bean (G barbadense) sweet potato (C. maxima, etc.)peanut potato, oca

West Africa and orghum. cowpea, ground nut cotton African yams watermelonSahel pearl millet (G. herbaceum) bottleqourd

african rice

India wheat, barley, rice, hyacinth bean cotton sorghum, millets] black gram (G.arboreum) - cucumber

green gram flax

Ethiopia teff, finger millet, [pea, lentil] [flax] - -[wheat, barley]

Eastern United maygrass, - - Jerusalem squashStates ittle barley, artichoke (C.pepo)

knotweed, goosefoot

New Guinea sugar cane - - yams, taro -

Conclusion

Questions???

Interesting information: Evolution of domesticated breeds

of wheat• Wild wheat was collected by people before the

development of domesticated wheat• Flint blades apparently used as sickles found

dating back to approximately 12 000 years• Wild wheat still found a abundance in Near East• There are 150 kinds of wheat• Doubling of chromosomes in ancient wild wheat

lead to modern domesticated wheat

Continuation

• Triticum is the genus name of wheat: in means “cereal” in latin

• 3 main kinds of wheat, they are differential by the number of chromosomes in each: 1) diploids – 14 chromosomes (AA) 2) tetraploids – 28 chromosomes (AABB) 3) hexaploids – 42 chromosomes (AABBDD)

Continuation

• 1) a) Triticum beoticum – wild einkorn b) Triticum monococum-domesticated einkorn little difference with wild einkorn, except larger grains, and grains does not fall off so easily – cultivated in southeastern and central Europe and in Near East, it has low yield

• 2) a) Triticum dicoccoides – wild emmer b) Triticum dicoccum – domesticated emmer, grown principally in Asia, formerly used as pastry wheat, now used as livestock feed, both have covered grains c) naked grain = Triticum durumacaroni wheat

Continuation

• 3) a) Triticum spelta – “spelta” = protected grain, principle grain of Europe b) Triticum aestivum – bread wheat, most commonly used wheat in the world, designated AABBDD

Einkorn wheat (AA)

Goatgrass (BB)

Emmer, macaroni, wheat, ect. (AABB) This is a hybrid of Einkorn wheat (AA) and Goatgrass (BB)

Goatgrass (DD)

Bread wheat (AABBDD) Emmer, macaroni, wheat, ect.(AABB) hybrid cross with Goatgrass (DD)

• Information on the creation of different hybrids of wheat from Evolution of domestication wheats. (From “Wheat” by Paul c. Mangeslsdorf. Copyright 1953 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved)