Atlantis Online
March 28, 2024, 05:02:17 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Plato's Atlantis: Fact, Fiction or Prophecy?
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=CarolAnn_Bailey-Lloyd
http://www.underwaterarchaeology.com/atlantis-2.htm
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links Staff List Calendar Login Register  

Plants That Changed The World

Pages: 1 [2] 3   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: Plants That Changed The World  (Read 2239 times)
0 Members and 69 Guests are viewing this topic.
Bianca
Superhero Member
******
Posts: 41646



« Reply #15 on: November 07, 2008, 08:14:04 am »



               

               Tubers in hand
               (wild crop relative of
               Ullucus tuberosas).

               Photo by
               Steven R. King.






                                The Variety of Propagated Tubers and Their Possible Loss






Domesticated Andean plants first appeared in roughly 5500 B.C. Through the centuries, the Andean farmers selected and bred their plants to create an incredible diversity of properties. Today, the wild relatives of ulluco and anu are fairly uniform in form and appearance (phenotype). In contrast we have seen how the domesticated species are marvelously varied in their characteristics. Of the four tubers described, only maca reproduces sexually in either the wild or cultivated forms. If ulluco, oca, and anu have not reproduced sexually in the recent past, then how can modern domesticated species be so variable?

It seems that enterprising native agriculturists were able to take advantage of mutations that occurred over time in the plant tissue itself (genotype). Since the crops reproduced vegetatively, farmers could select, year after year, for plants which possessed the characteristics they desired. Tubers, for example, should be superior in yield, cooking and processing, taste, and storage. Color and form are also important in the Andean culture and the beautiful tubers, like the extraordinary Andean textiles, reflect this appreciation of pattern and color.

Unfortunately, a number of these native, highly selected, well adapted, and nutritious food crops are in danger of being lost. In Colombia, native Huambiano farmers no longer cultivate oca, because they believe potatoes are more desirable for the market; they only cultivate anu in their house gardens. Agronomist
Dr. Mario Tapia notes that the highland Indians perceive as "modern" such introduced, nutritionally inferior foods as white rice, abandoning cultivation of their own ecologically well adapted and nutritious grains and tubers. In the process, they lose the valuable cultivars that selection has created over centuries.

Until recently local agronomic agencies did not consider the native cultivars worth improving.
« Last Edit: November 07, 2008, 08:26:32 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
Pages: 1 [2] 3   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum
Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy