The history of the cultivation of wild plants by man briefly. Cultivation of ancient plants. Subdivided according to the nature of use into
At the dawn of mankind, people had to be content only with what the surrounding nature gave. Our ancestors harvested fruits different trees, berries, grains of wild cereals and seeds of leguminous plants, dug out tubers and bulbs. The transition from gathering to plant cultivation was a long one. Archaeologists believe that agriculture has existed for at least 10 thousand years, and attempts to cultivate plants began at least 40-50 thousand years ago. Even then, protecting wild-growing useful plants, women weeded out the grass around them, loosened the soil.
Agriculture and crop production originated in ancient times. An ancient Egyptian fresco depicts harvesting wheat - harvesting, knitting and transporting sheaves, stacking them in stacks and threshing.
Plants were introduced into culture in different ways. wild seeds fruit trees and berry bushes fell into the soil near a person’s dwelling and germinated here. grains cereal plants people often slept near dwellings on the ground containing a lot of decomposed garbage. Plants from such seeds developed much better than in the steppe or in the forest. This could lead our ancestors to the idea of growing them near their homes, instead of looking in the forests and steppes.
Primitive collected plants that surrounded him: on the mainland of Eurasia - some species, in Africa - others, in America - still others. Therefore, on different continents, many various kinds. Most cultures come from Europe, Asia and Africa. Of the 640 most important cultivated plants the globe more than 530 come from these parts of the world, with about 400 South Asia. Approximately 50 cultivated species have appeared in Africa, North and South America are the birthplace of more than 100 of them. There were no cultivated plants in Australia before the arrival of Europeans.
The doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants was created by the outstanding Soviet scientist N. I. Vavilov. He established 7 main centers of their origin: 5 - in the Old World and 2 - in the New.
The most ancient of modern grain cereals are wheat, barley, millet, rice and corn. Cultivated wheat species originate from at least three wild cereals growing in Asia Minor, Southern Europe and North Africa. Wheat culture existed already in the Neolithic era. During excavations of Neolithic settlements in Europe, grains of wheat, seeds of peas, lentils and beans were found. Rice is native to India and Indochina. Many wild forms of this plant have been found there. Relatively late, around the beginning of our era, rye appeared in Transcaucasia or Asia Minor, and a little earlier - oats. Homeland of corn and potatoes - South and Central America. We owe to Peru and Mexico the appearance of cultivated species of tomatoes, capsicum, pumpkin, and beans. Central America gave the culture of tobacco, and North - sunflower. vegetable crops- cabbage, turnip, radish, beets, carrots, onions - were known in ancient times and come from the Mediterranean.
in tropical countries South America yam (sweet potatoes), pineapple and peanuts were cultivated. Indochina gave oranges, lemons and others citrus plants. Coffee comes from Ethiopia - its wild ancestor still grows there. Tea is introduced into the culture in the mountainous regions of Burma. Cocoa was known in Mexico even before Europeans arrived there. Cocoa beans even played the role of money there.
In very distant times, man began to cultivate spinning plants. In Europe, flax was introduced into the culture, in China - hemp, in America and Asia - cotton.
Later, with the development of navigation, especially in the era of the Great geographical discoveries, began the migration of cultivated plants from one continent to another. So, corn, pumpkin, beans, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers and tobacco migrated to Europe from America.
From year to year, from century to century, farmers, improving the methods of cultivating crops, simultaneously improved the plants themselves, selecting for sowing the seeds of the most productive of them or those with some especially valuable property.
The gradual improvement of cultivated plants was not a matter of one generation - it continued for millennia. Agricultural tribes gradually settled on the Earth, and cultivated plants spread along with them. With the appearance and spread of cultivated plants on Earth, the living conditions of people have changed. The emergence and development of agriculture has led to a huge shift in the history of human society.
At the dawn of mankind, people had to be content only with what the surrounding nature gave. Our ancestors collected the fruits of different trees, berries, grains of wild cereals and seeds of leguminous plants, dug out tubers and bulbs. The transition from gathering to plant cultivation was a long one. Archaeologists believe that agriculture has existed for at least 10 thousand years, and attempts to cultivate plants began at least 40-50 thousand years ago. Even then, protecting wild-growing useful plants, women weeded out the grass around them, loosened the soil.
Plants were introduced into culture in different ways. Seeds of wild fruit trees and berry bushes fell into the soil near a person's dwelling and germinated here. People often spilled the grains of cereal plants near their homes on the ground containing a lot of decomposed garbage. Plants from such seeds developed much better than in the steppe or in the forest. This could lead our ancestors to the idea of growing them near their homes, instead of looking in the forests and steppes.
Primitive man collected plants that surrounded him: on the mainland of Eurasia - some species, in Africa - others, in America - still others. Therefore, many different species were cultivated on different continents. Most cultures come from Europe, Asia and Africa. Of the 640 most important cultivated plants of the globe, more than 530 come from these parts of the world, with about 400 from South Asia. Approximately 50 cultivated species have appeared in Africa, North and South America is the birthplace of more than 100 of them. There were no cultivated plants in Australia before the arrival of Europeans.
The doctrine of the centers of origin of cultivated plants was created by the outstanding Soviet scientist N. I. Vavilov. He established 7 main centers of their origin: 5 in the Old World and 2 in the New.
The most ancient of modern grain cereals are wheat, barley, millet, rice and corn. Cultivated wheat species originate from at least three wild cereals growing in Asia Minor, Southern Europe and North Africa. Wheat culture existed already in the Neolithic era. During excavations of Neolithic settlements in Europe, grains of wheat, seeds of peas, lentils and beans were found. Rice is native to India and Indochina. Many wild forms of this plant have been found there. Relatively late, around the beginning of our era, rye appeared in Transcaucasia or Asia Minor, and a little earlier - oats. Homeland of corn and potatoes - South and Central America. We owe to Peru and Mexico the appearance of cultivated species of tomatoes, capsicum, pumpkin, and beans. Central America gave the culture of tobacco, and North - sunflower. Vegetable crops - cabbage, turnip, radish, beets, carrots, onions - were known in ancient times and come from the Mediterranean.
In the tropical countries of South America, sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes), pineapple and peanuts were cultivated. Indochina gave oranges, lemons and other citrus plants. Coffee comes from Ethiopia - its wild ancestor still grows there. Tea is introduced into the culture in the mountainous regions of Burma. Cocoa was known in Mexico even before Europeans arrived there. Cocoa beans even played the role of money there.
In very distant times, man began to cultivate spinning plants. In Europe, flax was introduced into the culture, in China - hemp, in America and Asia - cotton.
Later, with the development of navigation, especially in the era of the great geographical discoveries, the migration of cultivated plants from one continent to another began. So, corn, pumpkin, beans, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers and tobacco migrated to Europe from America.
From year to year, from century to century, farmers, improving the methods of cultivating crops, simultaneously improved the plants themselves, selecting for sowing the seeds of the most productive of them or those with some especially valuable property.
The gradual improvement of cultivated plants was not a matter of one generation - it continued for millennia. Agricultural tribes gradually settled on the Earth, and cultivated plants spread along with them. With the appearance and spread of cultivated plants on Earth, the living conditions of people have changed. The emergence and development of agriculture has led to a huge shift in the history of human society.
>>Origin of cultivated plants
1 - garden strawberry; 2 - cabbage; 3 - pumpkin; 4 - gooseberry
§ 73. Origin of cultivated plants
Cultivated plants have evolved from wild species. Primitive man found plants co edible seeds, fruits, roots. He collected wild plants. Later he began to grow them near his home. A man noticed that if you loosen the ground near the plants, destroy weeds, water the plants, they grow better, and their fruits, seeds, root crops become larger and tasty.
Most cultivated plants have ancient history, but some began to be cultivated more recently. So, wheat cultivated since the 7th millennium BC. e., potato, tomatoes 156 , sunflower - from the 16th century, and sugar beet - from early XIX in. Cultivation of wild plants continues in our time. Scientists study valuable wild plants, select the best ones and develop agricultural techniques for growing them. From generation to generation, the experience of growing plants was passed on. The man kept taking best plants, with the most valuable qualities for him.
Many cultivated plants have changed so much that they have become completely different from their wild relatives, and it is often very difficult to determine the origin of a cultivated plant. 143 .
With the accumulation of agronomic knowledge, human impact on the plant has increased. Appeared various varieties cultivated plants. A variety is a homogeneous group of plants with certain characteristics and properties. In field crops, vegetable growing, the vast majority of plants propagate by seeds. At the same time, the characteristics and properties of the variety are preserved.
In fruit growing, a variety is a vegetatively propagated plant with more or less pronounced features (crown shape, size, shape, color and taste of fruits, etc.) and properties (yield, durability, winter hardiness, drought resistance, resistance to pests and diseases, etc. .). fruit plant, grown from seeds, does not repeat the properties of the mother plant. Long-term reproduction of the variety (many of them have been grown for centuries) in various conditions can lead to the accumulation of new features and properties. There are forms of the same variety. If the signs and properties of plants are very different from the original, maternal ones, then such plants are isolated into independent varieties.
New ways and methods for obtaining plant varieties are being developed by science selection(from the Latin word "selectio" - choice, selection) Breeders are engaged in breeding new varieties with the properties necessary for humans: high yield, immunity to diseases, adaptability to certain growing conditions.
Thanks to the work of our breeders, it was possible to significantly increase the yield of many crops. For example, wheat varieties bred in different years P. P. Lukyanenko (Bezostaya 1, Aurora, Caucasus), V. N. Craft (Mironovskaya 808, Mironovskaya Yubileinaya, Ilyichevka, etc.), with a yield under production conditions of 50-70 centners per hectare, is occupied in our country and abroad million hectares. Sunflower varieties bred by V.S. Pustovoit contain up to 57% oil in seeds. High Yielding Varieties Maize yields up to 150 kg/ha of grain on irrigated lands.
In order to obtain high and stable yields that will not depend on the vagaries of the weather, it is necessary to intensify the work on selection and the introduction of new varieties of agricultural plants. Plants of these varieties must meet the requirements of modern Agriculture: be resistant to adverse conditions, have high grain quality and high yield. So, for example, the yield of winter wheat should not be lower than 80-90 c/ha, spring wheat - 4-5-60 c/ha.
Research institutes and centers for plant breeding have been set up in various regions of our country.
All new varieties undergo state testing. The best varieties, which have successfully passed the test in this area and have shown an advantage over the varieties bred here, are recommended for cultivation, that is, they are zoned. Today, more than 5,000 zoned varieties are grown on the fields of collective farms and state farms, in gardens and plantations. Among the introduced into production are more than 500 varieties of grain crops, more than 100 varieties of potatoes, more than 30 varieties of sunflower, more than 750 varieties of vegetables and more than 15,000 fruit crops. 150-200 new varieties are released annually. Varieties whose qualities ceased to satisfy production are excluded from zoning.
1. What is the role of man in the creation of cultivated plants?
2. What are the oldest cultivated plants?
3. How they were bred different varieties cultivated plants?
4. What is selection? What is a grade?
Visit the nearest state farm, collective farm or experimental station; Get to know the varieties of cultivated plants grown in your area.
Korchagina V.A., Biology: Plants, bacteria, fungi, lichens: Proc. for 6 cells. avg. school - 24th ed. - M.: Enlightenment, 2003. - 256 p.: ill.
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Lesson content lesson summary support frame lesson presentation accelerative methods interactive technologies Practice tasks and exercises self-examination workshops, trainings, cases, quests homework discussion questions rhetorical questions from students Illustrations audio, video clips and multimedia photographs, pictures graphics, tables, schemes humor, anecdotes, jokes, comics parables, sayings, crossword puzzles, quotes Add-ons abstracts articles chips for inquisitive cheat sheets textbooks basic and additional glossary of terms other Improving textbooks and lessonscorrecting errors in the textbook updating a fragment in the textbook elements of innovation in the lesson replacing obsolete knowledge with new ones Only for teachers perfect lessons calendar plan for the year guidelines discussion programs Integrated LessonsCultivation of plants means the transformation wild plants into cultivated cereals. Already during the gathering, wild plants began to change during pruning, irrigation, fertilization, etc., as well as their protection from other tribes and consolidation as property. ancient man I have long noticed that, unlike others, they are edible plants. Wild wheat, it turns out, can be eaten just like that.
Soviet scientist N.I. Vavilov at one time developed and substantiated a method by which it was possible to determine the centers of origin vegetable crops. According to his research, it turned out that the vast majority of known cultivated plants originate from only eight foci. All of them are concentrated mainly in the mountainous tropical and subtropical regions - these are the Andes, the Himalayas, the mountainous regions of Africa and mediterranean countries, mountain China. In essence, only a narrow strip of land on the globe played a major role in the history of world agriculture, the scientist concludes6.
In the area of the "fertile crescent" (Fig. 26), cereals with large grains grew. It was wild wheat. It multiplies when mature ears open and grains fall out of them. A long and stiff awn helps them fly away from the mother plant with the help of the wind and, after falling to the ground, firmly fix themselves in the soil. This method of reproduction, natural in nature, created inconvenience for the ancient collector. He either had to gather unripe ears or lost a lot of grains
when harvesting. Probably, it was these shortcomings that caused the cultivation of wheat.
The first plants that people began to sow were wheat and barley. Cultivated plants have changed so much compared to wild ones that the bred varieties could no longer grow without human intervention. Experiments of a researcher in the field of agriculture D.R. Harlan showed that wild wheat was so densely grown that the family of an ancient gatherer in three weeks of work could collect more grain than she needed for a whole year.
And today, wild wheat grows in abundance on the hilly slopes of the Middle East. A person, working on Neolithic technology, without much effort can gather a kilogram of wheat. Wild wheat matures quickly and can be harvested every three weeks. A family of experienced foragers could collect enough wheat (about 1 ton) in these three weeks to eat for a whole year. However, having harvested the wheat, it had to be stored somewhere. They built barns. They had to be guarded and stayed close to this food source for a long time. So there was another incentive to a settled way of life.
When crops were harvested in dwellings, some of the grains were probably lost, and some of them fell into fertile soil, since settlements were usually located near water bodies and away from mountainous areas where wild wheat mainly grew. Plants that ascended next year, belonged, as a rule, to the species that could not scatter grains. In addition, they grew closer to the village, so they were collected in the first place. The constant repetition of this spontaneous selection led to the fact that in the end the largest and most productive wheat fields were near the settlements. Thus, a decisive step was taken towards the cultivation of the land.
Sometimes hunters and gatherers courted useful plants- weeded, pruned, guarded young shoots. Digging up edible tubers and roots, they thinned out dense thickets and dug up the ground. Hunters and Gatherers southeast Asians even knew how to transplant wild tubers, Australian aborigines sometimes planted seeds of trees and shrubs, grains of cereals. This concerned not only edible plants, but also those that gave shade or marked the boundaries of communal areas.
The first plants that were cultivated about 8.8 thousand years ago in China were rice and millet. Millet - high coarse herbaceous plant, which is still growing in northern China. The homeland of its wild ancestor was treeless areas in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, where loess soils are common. Already at the beginning of the III millennium BC. in the villages of northern China, millet was grown everywhere. These settlements were quite large (sometimes up to 600 people lived in them). Many grain storages discovered during excavations testify to high level agriculture. Millet, which feeds on a third of the world's population, is used as bird feed in the United States.
Rice - the most important agricultural crop in China - has been grown since the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Its wild variety grew in the subtropical regions of South China. The domestication of rice probably occurred in South India or Southeast Asia. More evidence found early processing soils in Southeast Asia. Seeds found in Thailand cultivars beans and peas grown in the VIII millennium BC. Rice was cultivated here probably several thousand years earlier than in China.
In America - Mexico and Peru - among the first plants, man cultivated corn and potatoes. In Mexico, with its diverse climatic conditions and soil types, the prerequisites for this were especially good. As a result, several species of edible wild plants have emerged. However, in Mexico, they grew over vast areas, so, unlike the Middle East, the transition to a settled way of life here occurred somewhat later. The first developed civilizations in this region were formed almost 2 thousand years later than in Mesopotamia (by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC). In Central America, corn was the most important component of food. The first finds associated with this plant date back to the period of 5.2-3.4 thousand years BC. Even earlier, pumpkins and beans were grown. Evidence of the existence of agriculture in the Neolithic era in America has been found in caves near the Gulf of Mexico south of the Rio Grande (about the 7th millennium BC).
The highland regions of Peru, rich in water and animals, were probably inhabited as early as the 15th millennium BC. The most ancient finds that testify to the cultivation of plants date back earlier than 5600 BC. Special climatic conditions coastal areas of the Pacific Ocean did not create favorable conditions for the development of agriculture. Only pumpkin grew well here. In this area, plants have been systematically grown only since the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, when crop cultivation technology penetrated the Pacific coast from the interior of the continent.
So, in almost all parts of the Old World, wheat, barley, oats, lentils and peas began to be cultivated; in America, pumpkin, avocado, beans (beans) and corn were cultivated; in East Asia - almonds, beans, cucumbers, peas, wheat and millet, which until the II millennium BC. was more important than rice in China. Due to the fact that there was enough food, the hunters took less risks and died, they no longer killed their newborns (which is inevitable for the survival of nomadic hunters). As a result, the population has increased significantly. Often there were so many people in a certain area that they could not feed themselves, so separate groups went in search of new places.
Today, cereals provide the protein and calories people need. In the world diet, their percentage contribution now looks like this: wheat - 28%, corn and maize - 27%, rice - 25%, barley - 10%, other cereals - 10%1.
Cultivated plants have become so firmly established in human life that few people think about where the history of their cultivation began. Eating vegetables and fruits for food, a person does not wonder how their wild relatives look and how great the variety of cultivated plants is.
Almost all cultivated plants known today have their own historical roots, which determine the centers of their appearance and gradual transformation.
The origin of cultivated plants is attributed to 50,000-60,000 years BC. e. Until this period, the gathering of plants was the way of survival of the tribe, which was the responsibility of women. Historical evidence that people began to select large and healthy grains and fruits to grow them near their homes are ancient utensils, pots with supplies in burials and their drawings.
To date, of the most popular 640 species of cultivated plants, about 400 of them are known to have come from South Asia, 50 from Africa, more than 100 from South and North America, and the rest from Europe.
Interesting Facts about a cultivated plant, such as wheat, it is said that cereals were the first species that people began to consciously grow near their homes. This statement is confirmed by the oldest mortars and pestles found at the sites of cave people settlements.
Plant cultivation centers
In the 20th century, scientists were able to more fully determine where they came from modern views cultivated plants. Even N. I. Vavilov divided the geography of crop production into 7 zones:
Wild relatives of all these plants can still be found. The interesting facts about the cultivated plant do not end there.
Selection in ancient people
You can hardly call cavemen or later types of human development breeders, but they had some skills in selecting and growing plants.
Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that agriculture and a settled way of life as a way of survival became applicable 10,000 years ago. It is this period that is considered the beginning of the cultivation of plants. In fact, cultivated plants (examples of which archaeologists find at the sites of ancient sites) began to grow long before that.
Scientists suggest that the collected wild grains, stone berries and other plant species grew near the sites of ancient people when they spilled grain or threw away the bones along with the leftovers. It was customary for women of the tribe to pull out weeds near such "plantations", which has survived to this day.
Gradually, a person began to select the roots, grains and seeds of the most delicious and largest fruits and purposefully plant them near their homes. Thus, agriculture was born, which gave impetus to a new level of human development.
Variety of cultivated plants today
In our time, breeding has become a science that works not only on the yield of cultivated plants, but also on their palatability and increased survival. Almost all types of vegetables, fruits and cereals that he eats modern man, - hybrid, that is, artificially bred.
Interesting facts about a cultivated plant, which has undergone not just selection, but crossbreeding with other species, is that a completely new organism is obtained that has no analogues in nature.
Crossbreeds, artificially bred in laboratories, are a one-time seed, but thanks to them, the number of tasty, high-yielding cultivated plants has increased hundreds of times.
Today, hybridity has touched both crops and fruits, and vegetables that are well known to us, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and many others.
Cultivated cucumbers
The cultivated cucumber plant is so familiar on our table, both fresh and canned, that we don’t ask ourselves the question “where did it come from.”
It turns out that the path of the cucumber to our table was rather big, since India and China are its homeland. As early as 6,000 years ago, this vegetable was cultivated, although its ancient relatives still grow in Indian forests like creepers, twisting around tree trunks, and they are also used to plant fences and hedges.
On the frescoes in Ancient Egypt, and then in Ancient Greece, this vegetable was depicted on the tables of rich people and for a long time was available only to high-ranking persons.
The Greeks brought cucumbers to Europe, and their distribution became rapid due to their taste and the ability to pickle for the future for the winter. Today, this vegetable is available to everyone and everywhere. Every gardener considers it his duty to grow good harvest cucumbers, for which they are used as his varietal species, as well as hybrid ones.
Cultivation of indoor plants
People valued plants not only for their ability to be eaten, but also for medicinal properties as well as beauty. Interesting facts about the cultivated plant, which from the wild has become the standard of beauty and tenderness, concern the rose.
The rose has become a symbolic flower for many peoples since ancient times. So, according to Indian legends, Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty, was born in a rosebud. She was dedicated to poems by poets in various countries and at all times, and its homeland was tropical Southeast Asia. It was from there that the cultivated plant rose moved to Ancient Greece, where it was called the flower of Aphrodite. In ancient Rome, they even set up greenhouses for roses so that they bloomed all year round.
Today, hundreds of varieties of this plant are known, bred by breeders for flower growers around the world.
Modern roses are grown in open ground, in pots on windowsills, in greenhouses and winter greenhouses. They make delicious and healthy jam, and rose oil is considered one of the most expensive, since 500 kg of petals are used to obtain one kilogram.
cultural fruits
Just like cereals and vegetables, fruits became the object of cultivation among ancient people. Beneficial features berry and fruit plants, as well as the ability to store them in dried or soaked form, made them permanent objects of pantries. The most famous of the fruits are apples, which are wild relatives.
x are found in the layers of the Cretaceous period, and dates. Today many fruit trees, which were considered foreign even 200-300 years ago, grow habitually in gardens on personal plots.
The future of cultivated plants
Breeders around the world are still working in their laboratories to create new plant crops that can take root in unusual conditions for them and produce unprecedented yields.
Thanks to their efforts, cultivated plants better tolerate climate change, the depletion of the soil layer of the Earth and at the same time give good yields.
Many cultivated plants began to produce two harvests per year or per season, as they received hybrid hardening. This gives hope that in the future there will be fresh vegetables and fruits, whose homeland has long ceased to be individual countries, but the whole world has become.
