Origin and Introduction of plants, Domestication of plants, Basis of plant domestication
Posted on : 02-01-2019 Posted by : Admin

Origin and introduction of plants

Human beings are heteroptops. They derive their nutrition from plants and animals. But man has evolved from herbivorous ancestors. About two million years ago, the early Palaeolithic man started using weapons for hunting.

Later he began eating fruits and roots of wild plants. Much later, man started cultivating plants and raising animals and started a settled life.

The earliest settlements have been found to be located in the river valleys and plains of northern India. In these areas, the soil was fertile; plenty of water was available so, it was easy to cultivate crops. As a result of successful and plentiful agriculture production, people became self-sufficient and built great civilizations.

Agriculture originated about 7000-13000 years ago, somewhere in the then well watered highlands of the Indus, Euphrates and Nile and Tigris rivers. Some other prehistoric sites of ancient agricultural activity are Tehuacan valley in modern Mexico and banks of Yellow river in modern China.

South East Asia was ideal for agriculture beginning because of its diverse vegetation to support a stable human population. In these areas, planting of vegetative parts like rhizomes, tubers or bulbs which is simpler than ploughing of seeds formed the basis of agriculture.

But, it was seed-planting that led to more profound changes in the life of man. All early civilizations whose diets were known to us were based on seed reproducing plants such as wheat, maize or rice.

The agriculture originated independently in several parts of the world. The first conscious act of civilization was based on finding seeds and twigs struck into the ground. When a plant is raised consciously it is called cultivation. First, those plants were brought into cultivation that grow rapidly and produce crop within a season which include the present day cereals.

Cereals were originally weeds which grew in mountain areas of Asia, Europe and Africa (Old world) and North and South America (New world)

Domestication of plants

The domestication of plants is the starting step in the direction of a full-fledged agricultural economy. A plant is termed as domestic when its natural characteristics are so much improved that it cannot grow and reproduce without human involvement.

Domestication is thought to be the result of the development of a symbiotic relationship between the plants and humans, called co-evolution, because plants and human behaviours evolve to suit one another.

Humans harvest a plant selectively based on specific characteristics like taste of the fruits, size of the flowers, colour of the flowers and fruits and so on. Humans use the seeds of these specific plants for further growth.

Plant name	Domesticated at	Domesticated in
Fig tree	Near East	9000 BC
Rice	East Asia	9000 BC
Barley	Near East	8500 BC
Einkorn wheat	Near East	8500 BC
Emmer wheat	Near East	8500 BC
Chick pea	Anatolia	8500 BC
Bottle gourd	Asia	8000 BC
Potato	Andes mountain	8000 BC
Squash	Central America	8000 BC
Maize	Central America	7000 BC
Broomcorn millet	East Asia	6000 BC
Bread wheat	Near East	6000 BC
Cassava	South America	6000 BC
Avacado	Central America	5000 BC
Cotton	Southwest Asia	5000 BC
Chilli Peppers	South America	4000 BC
Water melon	Near East	4000 BC
Olives	Near East	4000 BC
Cotton	Peru	4000 BC
Pomegranate	Iran	3500 BC
Hemp	East Asia	3500 BC
Cotton	Meso America	3000 BC
Cocoa	South America	3000 BC
Squash	North America	3000 BC
Sunflower	Central America	2600 BC
Sweet potato	Peru	2500 BC
March Elder	North America	2400 BC
Sorghum	Africa	2000 BC
Sunflower	North America	2000 BC
Pearl millet	Africa	1800 BC
Chocolate	Mexico	1600 BC
CHenopodium	North America	1500 BC
Egg Plant	Asia	1^st century BC
Vanilla	Central America	14^th century AD

Basis of plant domestication

Majority of the plants were cultivated first during historical times and hence have very poor evidence. The paleontological data is usually entirely unavailable for cultivated plants and archaeological data is very poor and fragmented.

In the beginning of nineteenth century the origin of most of the cultivated species was not known. No species was common to the tropical regions of the two hemispheres before cultivation.

Strawberry, chestnut and mushrooms were common to northern regions of the world. A great number of species originated in Europe, India, West Asia, Brazil, Colombia,

In short the original distribution of the cultivate species was very unequal. There was no proportion with the needs of the man and the number of plants cultivate.

Origin and Introduction of plants, Domestication of plants, Basis of plant domestication Posted on : 02-01-2019 Posted by : Admin