Food Plants

Forage Grasses

Alfalfa and Red Clover
– Legumes, not grasses

Kentucky Blue Grass

Timothy – Phleum pratense

Fescues – Festuca sp.

Big Bluestem – Andropogon gerardii

Little Bluestem – Andropogon scoparius

Blue Grama – Bouteloua gracilis

Switchgrass – Panicum virgatum

Legumes

Legumes
• Legumes are members of pea, bean family
(Fabaceae) and are very important sources of food due to their highly nutritious seeds
• Legume seeds are very high in protein due to the nitrogen fixing root nodules with which legumes can extract N
2 gas to make ammonium which they use when synthesizing protein

Protein content various foods

Soybeans

Soybean – Glycine max

Tofu – Bean Curd

Soy milk

Soy sauce

Edamame

Miso – soybean paste

Starchy Staples

Top agricultural products, by crop types
(million metric tons) 2004 data
Cereals
Vegetables and Melons
Roots and Tubers
Milk
Fruit
Meat
Oilcrops
Fish (2001 estimate)
Eggs
Pulses
Vegetable Fiber
Source:
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) [
2,263
866
715
619
503
259
133
130
63
60
30

Top agricultural products, by individual crops
(million metric tons) 2004 data
Sugar Cane
Maize
Wheat
Rice
Potatoes
Sugar Beet
Soybeans
Oil Palm Fruit
Barley
162
154
Tomato
Source:
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
120
1,324
721
627
605
328
249
204

Plant Storage Organs
Some examples of storage organs in plants: (a) tap root of carrot (Daucus carota);
(b) bulb of onion (Allium sp.); (c) corm of crocus (Crocus sp.);
(d) rhizome of iris (Iris sp.); (e) root tuber of dahlia (Dahlia sp.);
(f) stem tuber of potato (Solanum tuberosum).

Plant Storage Organs
•
Rhizomes
– are horizontal stems that are underground – reduced scale-like leaves are present on the surface of the rhizome and adventitious roots form on its underside – buds found at the nodes can give rise to new plants – ginger and iris
• Tubers – are enlarged storage tips of a rhizome – the white potato is a tuber – the eyes of a potato are actually buds located at its nodes and each bud can give rise to a new plant
•
Bulbs and Corms are modified stems found in monocots –
Bulbs are erect underground stems with both fleshy and papery leaves; food is stored in the fleshy leaves – Onions, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and lilies all have bulbs

Plant Storage Organs
•
Corms store food reserves in the stem, not the leaves – they are erect underground stems are covered only with dry papery leaves – corms can multiply by producing small corms – plants with corms are gladiolus, crocus and taro
• Tuberous roots are modified fibrous roots that have become fleshy and enlarged with food reserves – they can also function in asexual reproduction – tuberous begonias, dahlias and sweet potatoes
•
Taproots may also function as food storage organs – especially for biennial plants like carrots, rutabaga and turnips

Starchy Rhizome - Ginger

Tuber – White Potato

Tuber – Planting Seed Potato

Bulb – the Onion

Bulb – Tulip with Offsets (new bulbs)

Corm - Gladiolus

Tuberous Roots – Sweet Potato

Taproots – Carrots and Turnips

For Love of the Potato

New Foods to Europe
• Alfred Crosby has gathered data which suggests the introduction of maize and potatoes alone allowed the doubling of
Europe’s population in the period after
Columbus’ discovery of America
• Corn was important because of the very high yields possible from corn agriculture

New Foods to Europe
• Potatoes were important because, unlike corn, they provided a complete set of amino acids (corn lacks lysine) - potatoes were great for poor people in
Europe because they can be easily grown in areas of poor, depleted soil, they will grow well during a short growing season (typical of northern Europe) and they can even be left in the ground if necessary, so they are less sensitive to the timing of the harvest than competing poor-soil crops, such as rye, which must be harvested when the seeds are ripe or it will rot

The Potato Comes to Europe
• The potato came to Europe about 1565 - at first, most people in Europe, including the
Irish, used the potato as a back up for grain production, but by the end of the 17th century, it had become an important winter food; by the mid-eighteenth century it was a general field crop and provided the staple diet of small farmers during most of the year

Ukrainian Food
Potato Pancakes Borsch

Potato Vodka

Benefits of the Potato

Van Gogh – The Potato Eaters

Cartoon of Irish “Bogtrotters” circa 1840’s

Young potato plant with early stage of late blight

Dried potato leaf infected with late blight
–
Phytophthora infestans

Potato tubers with Late blight

Potato field infected with late blight –
Infection started in center of field

Severity of blight and famine

Irish family digging
Potatoes - 1847

Irish family potato dinner - 1846

Irish food riots - 1847

Irish food sent to England
– 1847 or 1848

Lessons learned?
“Whatever may be the misfortunes of Ireland, the potato is not implicated. It, on the contrary, has more than done its duty, in giving them bones and sinew cheap ...
There is no other crop equal to the potato in the power of sustaining life and health.”
- Bain 1848

Sweet potato tuberous roots

Origin of Sweet Potato
• Sweet Potato –
Ipomoea batatas
– was first domesticated in Peru about 5 or 6 thousand years ago – its culture spread through out
South and Central America and the
Caribbean region
• The Arawak People called it batata which became corrupted into the word potato
• It was brought to Europe by Columbus around 1500

Sweet Potato – Ipomoea batatas

Sweet Potato
• Sweet potato is a tuberous root cultivated by vegetative propagation (cuttings)
• It was a staple food throughout the
Americas and also across the Polynesian islands – big question is how did it get to
Polynesia – by people or by accident?

Plans for a balsa wood raft – used along coast of
South America
-drawn by F.E.
Paris in 1841

Thor Heyerdahl’s balsa wood raft –
1947 in action and model

Possible Inca route to Pacific Islands and Kon-Tiki route

Polynesians to South America?
• It is more likely that Polynesians crossed the
Pacific and obtained sweet potatoes directly from the South Americans
• In most parts of the South Pacific, sweet potatoes are called kumara, very similar to the Peruvian word of cumara
• However, in Hawaii, the sweet potato is called
‘uala, more similar to the Columbian word kuala perhaps a couple of groups were in contact with
South America

Polynesian Ships in Tahiti

Sweet Potato Agriculture
• Sweet Potato is rich in carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals – some of the carbohydrates are in the form of sugars rather than starch, hence the sweet taste
• About 50% more calories than white potato, but slightly less protein
• Two main varieties – a drier, starchier yellowfleshed variety and a moister, sweeter, deeper orange variety
• China dominates sweet potato cultivation, but also important in Japan and several African countries; increasing production in US

Sweet Potato Cultivation

Manihot or Cassava –
Manihot esculenta

Cassava
• Cassava (
Manihot esculenta ), also called yucca or manioc, is a woody shrub of the
Euphorbiaceae family
• It is cultivated as an annual crop in many parts of the tropical world because it has a starchy tuberous root that is a major source of carbohydrates

Cassava
• The cassava root is long and tapered, with a firm homogeneous flesh encased in a detachable rind, about 1 mm thick, rough and brown on the outside.
• Cassava roots are very rich in starch, and contain significant amounts of calcium
(50 mg/100g), phosphorus (40 mg/100g) and vitamin C (25 mg/100g). However, they are poor in protein and other nutrients.

Cassava Roots

Cassava Agriculture
• Wild populations of
M. esculenta subspecies flabellifolia , shown to be the progenitor of domesticated cassava, are centered in west-central Brazil where it was likely first domesticated no more than 10,000 years ago
• With its high food potential, it had become a staple food of the native populations of northern South America, southern
Mesoamerica, and the Caribbean by the time of the
Spanish conquest, and its cultivation was continued by the colonial Portuguese and Spanish. Forms of the modern domesticated species can be found growing in the wild in the south of Brazil.
• There are several wild Manihot species

Moche Ceramic Cassava – 100 AD

Cassava Consumption
• Cassava is classified as "sweet" or "bitter" depending on the level of cyanogenic compounds; improper preparation of bitter cassava causes a disease called konzo.
• Cassava can be cooked in various ways. The soft-boiled root has a delicate flavor and can replace boiled potatoes in many uses: as an accompaniment for meat dishes, or made into soups, purees, stews, etc. Deep fried (after boiling or steaming), it can replace fried potatoes, with a distinctive flavor. Tapioca and foufou are made from the starchy cassava root flour.

Tapioca

Global Cassava Production

Taro – Colocasia esculenta

Taro – Colocasia esculenta
• Taro is believed to have originated in Southeast
Asia and spread west and east thousands of years ago – may have been cultivated very early by people in SE Asia – eventually reached tropical
Africa and from there was brought to the West
Indies and South America by slaves – today it is cultivated in the tropics where it thrives in wet, saturated soil conditions – propagated by planting corms

Taro cultivation
• The corm is steamed, crushed and made into a dough, then allowed to ferment by microbes – the paste is then eaten with the fingers or rolled into small balls – this is the method for making poi – staple Hawaiian food
• Corms can also be prepared like potatoes – steamed, baked, roasted, or boiled
• Corm is about 25% carbohydrate (about 3% sugar), 2% protein and very little fat
• Good source of calcium due to presence of calcium oxalate crystals – will cause intense burning if eaten raw so must be cooked to break down the crystals

Taro harvest - Hawaii

Taro corms

More Taro

Poi