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 crosspollination, 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,
Other Grasses
Pulses
Fibre
Roots,
Tubers
Melons
Fertile Crescent
emmer wheat,
einkorn wheat,
pea, lentil,
chickpea
flax
-
muskmelon
China
barley foxtail millet
broom corn millet, rice
soybean, adzuki
bean, mung bean
hemp
-[muskmelon]
Mesoamerica
corn
tepary bean
scarlet runner bean
common bean
[G.hirsutum]
yucca, agave
cotton
jicama
(C.pepo,etc.)
squashes
Andes, Amazonia quinoa [corn]
common bean
peanut
lima bean
(G barbadense)
cotton
sweet potato
potato, oca
manioc,
(C. maxima, etc.)
Squashes
West Africa and
Sahel
orghum.
pearl millet
african rice
cowpea, ground nut
cotton
(G. herbaceum)
African yams
watermelon
bottleqourd
India
wheat, barley, rice,
sorghum, millets]
green gram
hyacinth bean
black gram
flax
cotton
(G.arboreum)
-
cucumber
Ethiopia
teff, finger millet,
[wheat, barley]
[pea, lentil]
[flax]
-
-
Eastern United
States
maygrass,
ittle barley,
knotweed, goosefoot
-
-
Jerusalem
artichoke
squash
(C.pepo)
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)