Breeding miracles: wild-growing ancestors of cultivated plants. Presentation for the class hour "the most interesting facts about plants" Interesting facts about plants for children

Huge variety cultivated plants thanks to which we now have a lot of delicious and useful products food, modern people are taken for granted. Meanwhile, if we were in the Stone Age, we would not find there either large and juicy apples, or sweet yellow bananas, or huge ears of corn. And many wild plants that are the ancestors of modern cultivated ones, we probably would not even recognize. This post is about how cultivated plants have changed over the past hundreds and thousands of years due to selection methods and our ancestors.

1) Apple tree

This plant has been known to people since ancient times. There are several types of wild apple, common in Europe and Asia. At the same time, according to genetic studies, the ancestors of modern cultivars are two species: the Sievers apple tree and the wild forest apple tree.

Sievers apple tree

wild forest apple tree

Both of these species have small fruits (2 to 5 cm in size) and not the most pleasant taste. Sievers apples are bitter in taste, and the fruits of the wild forest apple tree are very sour. However, crossbreeding and selection of these species has led to the emergence of modern cultivars.

It is believed that the inhabitants of Central Asia, who lived to the west of the Tien Shan mountain, were the first to purposefully grow apple trees, and this happened more than 2000 years ago. After the conquests of Alexander the Great, apple trees came to Greece, and from there they spread throughout Europe. The Greeks and Romans worked hard to develop new juicy and sweet varieties of apples.

In Russia, apples have long been almost the only fruit. Apple trees appeared in the monastery gardens as early as the 11th century, and in the 18th century, the Russian breeder Bolotov described about 600 varieties of apples.

2) Wheat, corn and other cereals

Grains have been known to people for a very long time, and it was with the cultivation of wheat, barley and other cereals more than 10 thousand years ago that neolithic revolution. The homeland of wheat and barley is the Middle East, their cultivation probably began in the territory of modern Iraq and Turkey.

wild barley

Wild-growing species differed markedly from modern cultivated ones. They had smaller grains and a smaller number of them in the ear. But the main drawback was that the ripe grains immediately fell to the ground, so it was very difficult to collect them. Only with time were bred varieties that were convenient to harvest - to harvest whole ears together with grains, and then thresh them.

American Indians began to grow corn more than 5,000 years ago. The exact ancestor of modern corn has not been established, but the closest wild plants- teosinte - looks like this:

Not only does it have few grains and they are small, but these grains still have a rather hard shell.

3) Bananas

We know the banana as a soft and sweet fruit. yellow color. But the wild ancestors of bananas were very different. They were small, green and hard fruits, in addition filled with seeds.

wild bananas

However, people have found something useful in this fruit. Several thousand years ago, people began to grow bananas in South-East Asia and then they gradually spread around the world.

The selection of bananas took quite long time. Even the Spanish conquerors, who brought bananas to America 500 years ago, considered them to be food for slaves and animals. At this time, bananas were still inedible raw and had to be boiled or fried. It was not until the end of the 19th century that modern varieties of bananas were bred, which quickly became one of the favorite foods among residents of the United States and Europe.

4) Carrot

Wild carrots have long been grown in vast areas of Eurasia. People used the roots of this plant for food, but in wild carrots they are bitter and tough, so this vegetable was not popular. Carrots were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, but were forgotten during the Middle Ages.

wild carrot

The carrot returned to Europe from the East. It is believed that the place where modern varieties of carrots come from is the territory of modern Afghanistan, it was here that, around the 10th century, carrots began to be grown on purpose. In the 12th and 13th centuries, carrots again came to Europe. At this time the carrots were different colors from white to purple. Only in the 16-17 centuries in Holland were the familiar to us orange varieties carrots with thick sweet roots.

5) Watermelons

Watermelons are native to South West Africa. The wild ancestors of modern watermelons still grow in the Kalahari Desert.

Wild watermelons in the desert

The fruits of wild watermelons are small - no larger than 10 cm in size and bitter in taste. Even 4000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians discovered them and began to grow them, however, not for eating, but for obtaining oil from seeds. The ancient Romans began to pickle watermelons and make jam from it.

Gradually, watermelons began to be grown in different countries. They became larger and sweeter, but back in the 17th century. watermelons were quite different from modern ones:

Watermelons in a painting by an Italian artist of the 17th century.

A significant contribution to the selection of watermelons was made by Russia, where the watermelon got back in the 13th century. After the fall of Astrakhan, the Caspian steppes became one of the main centers for the cultivation of watermelons, where large, sweet and drought-resistant varieties were bred.

6) Peaches

As the name implies, peaches came to Russia and Europe from Persia. However, the birthplace of peaches is China, and here these fruits began to be grown as early as 4000 years ago.

this is what the wild ancestors of peach looked like

Scientists tend to believe that modern peaches are the result of hybridization of several species, however, the wild ancestors of the peach were very small with a large stone and salty taste, and their size was only 2-3 cm. The modern peach is about 60 times (by weight) larger than its own. wild predecessors.

7) Cucumbers

Cucumbers began to be grown in India a very long time ago, about 4-6 thousand years ago. The ancient Greeks and Romans cultivated cucumbers in in large numbers and considered them a very healthy product. The details of cucumber breeding are unknown, but wild cucumbers still grow in large numbers in India.

wild cucumbers

Wild cucumbers are small, bitter and very prickly. locals use their thickets to decorate fences and walls.

8) Cabbage

Cabbage is one of the few cultivated plants that does not come from some distant places, but from the territory of Europe.

wild cabbage

Also, wild cabbage is quite edible and has a taste reminiscent of common cultivars. white cabbage. True, the leaves of this cabbage are tougher and, of course, do not form heads.

Cabbage began to be grown in Southern Europe over 4 thousand years ago. The ancient Greeks and Romans were very fond of cabbage and believed that it cures many diseases. From ancient times, cabbage was also grown by the Slavs, in whom it was one of the main vegetable crops.

What is the result? Sometimes there is an opinion that selection and artificial selection- something reminiscent of the methods of modern genetic engineering. Not really. Our ancestors, while breeding cultivated varieties, did not interfere with the genotype and crossed only closely related species. So rather the opposite - the above examples are examples of success traditional methods selection, showing what can be achieved without the use of GMOs.

It turns out that after someone touches the leaves of this plant, they fold, and then straighten again!

This happens due to the fact that, with external irritation, chemical substances, including potassium ions, which act on the cells of the leaves, as a result of which there is an outflow of water. The internal pressure in the cells drops and the petiole with the petals on the leaves curl up.

2) From what word did the name "cabbage" come from?

Translated from the ancient Roman word "kaput" means: "head". Even the ancient Egyptians served cabbage at the end of dinner as a sweet dish.

Cabbage juice is known to improve digestion. This plant contains a lot of antiscorbutic vitamin C.

3) One hectare of forest produces more than 6 tons of wood every year.
4) The name "agave" comes from the word agauos, which means "amazing".

Mexico was named after this plant. In translation, this means "place of agave" (from the word of the ancient Aztecs who inhabited Mexico, "metl" - "agave").

It turns out that cacti are edible and have very tender, pleasant-tasting flesh. The only drawback of this delicacy is the thorns, which are very difficult to remove.

However, Luther Burbank managed to develop a cactus that does not have thorns, and besides, it grows quickly. This is prickly pear. The fruits of this cactus are smooth and fragrant, the taste of which is a good competition to oranges.

The pulp of the prickly pear cactus is used to make marshmallows, the so-called "tuna cheese", and the juice is used to make wine, syrup and molasses.

Unripe prickly pear fruits are boiled with meat, and mature ones are dried and then delicious muffins with honey flavor are made from them.

Different cacti have different taste and flesh color. To taste, the cactus can resemble raspberries and pears, melons and strawberries, gooseberries and oranges, and the color of the pulp has various shades of yellow and orange, green and pink, purple and even black.

One stalk of a cactus holds up to fifty fruits, and about twenty tons of valuable crops are harvested from one hectare.

From the apical buds date palm by fermentation get "palm cheese"

The core of a young date palm is an exquisite but expensive delicacy, because its extraction leads to the death of the tree.

At the site of a cut inflorescence or stem of a date palm, up to three liters of juice per day are released. And if the cut is renewed, then the juice can be collected for at least three months, which will average 270 liters. The juice was once used to make sugar or lakbi wine.

The juice of fresh dates is used to make date honey or wine.

Date pits can completely replace coffee if they are roasted and ground.

Arabs feed their animals, and even dogs, with dates.

The harvest of dates from one palm tree is from 100 to 250 kilograms.

The harvested dates are laid out on the ground to dry, and then buried in sand for storage. Dates can lie in the pitch for two years.

Pressed dates are called the bread of the desert" - "adzhue", and they take with them on the road.

The coconut nut is somewhat similar to the muzzle of a monkey, and the monkey in Portuguese is “coco”.

Potatoes used to be bred as a flower and cultivated in flowerbeds in front of palaces.

The carrot has been known as an edible root vegetable for four thousand years.

In China and Japan, carrots up to a meter long are cultivated.
AT ancient world parsley meant sadness, and it was woven into wreaths as a symbol of grief.
Onions become ruddy when fried due to the sugar contained in their juice.
If you chew on a piece of onion for three minutes, it will kill all the bacteria in your mouth.
Young sunflower inflorescences were once eaten in England with vegetable oil and vinegar.
The bifurcated tendrils on the branches of the grape make rotational movements, making a complete revolution in two hours. And the very top of a young branch of grapes, according to the observations of Charles Darwin, makes a revolution in four hours.

You will not believe! Two leaves satisfy hunger.
In India, a plant grows under the local name "trick the stomach." After eating 1-2 leaves of the Kalir-kanda plant, a person feels full for a whole week, although the leaves do not contain valuable nutrients. The property of the plant to create the illusion of satiety is used in the manufacture of tablets and infusions from the leaves, which are successfully used by overweight people.

What can be sweeter than sugar?
The leaves of the Paraguayan stevia shrub are more than 300 times sweeter than sugar, while the leaves of the Mexican sugar grass are 1,000 times sweeter. The red berries of the plant "Toumatokus dannelii" from the African savannah are 2,000 times sweeter than sugar, and the red berries of "Dioscorephyllum cumminisia" from the forests of Nigeria and other West African countries are 3,000 times sweeter. In West Africa, the sweetest plant grows - the bush "ketemf", containing the substance toumatin, which is 100,000 times sweeter than sugar!

Fight for survival
Three year old scientific work biologists of the University of Turin showed that some of the plants - lima beans, corn and others, can "realize" the threat to life. Catering for the saliva of the caterpillar that enters the body of the plant, it begins to release a volatile substance similar to the scent of lavender to attract wasps. Wasps protect plants in this way: they sting caterpillars and lay their eggs in their body, which leads to the death of caterpillars.

Unknown dahlia
In 1784, dahlia tubers, never seen before, were brought from Mexico to Spain. Spanish king ordered to zealously protect the secret of the existence of an overseas flower, until in 1805 the German naturalist Alexander Humboldt brought from South America the tubers of a Mexican plant “unknown” in Europe for 20 years!

Pines sterilize the air
One hectare of pine forest per day is capable of releasing about 5 kg of volatile phytocides into the atmosphere, destroying numerous microorganisms from the air. So in the forests with growing young coniferous trees, regardless geographical latitude and the proximity of settlements, in comparison with other green areas, the air is practically sterile, contains only about 200 - 300 bacteria per 1 cubic meter.

Not for every mind
In terms of vitamin C content, walnuts are 8 times higher than black currants and 50 times higher than citrus fruits. The B vitamins contained in them contribute to the decomposition of pyruvic acid, which accumulates in the muscles and causes fatigue. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the priests of Ancient Babylon forbade ordinary people there is walnuts, because it was believed that they have a beneficial effect on mental activity, and this is useless to commoners.

The smallest flower in the world
Do you know which plant has the most small flower in the world? At the duckweed! For a long time it was believed that this was an algae, but then flowers were found in duckweed. But it is still unknown how the number of these plants in the reservoir doubles in a day - in a few days the duckweed covers the entire surface of the reservoir.

Xerophyta - drought plant
The hairy xerophyta Xerophyta viscosa was named Xerophyta by Antoine Laurent de Jussier (1748-1836), which means "drought plant". This rare herbaceous perennial lives on the stony soils of the Natal province in South Africa, on the peaks of the Drakensberg Mountains, has filamentous curved leaves 60 cm long, and flowers 5-6 cm in diameter appear on the plant from November to April. Often this plant is referred to by the alien name of Vellozia viscosa, but Vellozia is a completely different species. Xerophyta is able to live without water in extreme temperature conditions for a very long time. University of Cape Town researchers are using xerophyte genes to code for drought-tolerant weeds sanguinalis Digitaria and Thaliana Arbidopsis, and will subsequently use xerophyte genes for crop plants to improve stress tolerance.

Chilean nightshade can kill instantly
A plant of the nightshade family of the genus Vestia, consisting of only one species - vestia fruitful Vestia foetida lives only on the coast of the islands of Chile and New Zealand. This evergreen shrub reaches a height of 1.5 meters, and from April to June, the branches of the message are covered with pale yellow tubular flowers 3-4 centimeters long, similar to fuchsia flowers. If the message sheet is rubbed, it publishes bad smell. The genus was named after a professor from Graz, L.C. De West (1776-1840). 20 grams of seeds of this plant costs about 120 euros. In goats that accidentally ate fetal news in the pasture, this nightshade causes liver necrosis with a fatal outcome.

We constantly meet with plants in Everyday life: when we get to work, take a walk with the child or wander around the world. And also almost every house has its own cultivated plant.

On planet Earth there are more than ten thousand plants with poison. People have long learned to use these opportunities for hunting and protection from opponents. Books often mention curare poison, which was used by people living in South America. They coated weapons with substances found in such plants. And in Central Africa, the natives used poison from the seeds of strophanthus. Such a poison can instantly destroy even the largest prey.

As a rule, such plants can be found in countries with a tropical climate. In the woodlands of the United States and in the Antilles, a tree called marcinella grows. It emits toxic fumes that are dangerous to us. If you are not near such a tree for a long time, then you can get very poisoned.

It turned out that there is an unusual mushroom on the ground. It tastes like plain chicken. It grows in large clusters and has a hat twenty centimeters wide. In some parts of the earth this mushroom is a delicacy.

Next on the list is cerotonia. It always produces seeds that cannot be distinguished from each other. A very long time ago, people who specialized in precious items used these seeds as weights to determine the mass of the item. . Now this unit of measurement is called a carat..

There are quite a few unusual trees in our world. This is the rainbow eucalyptus, which is located on the island of Mindanao. It has a very beautiful iridescent bark. This happens because the bark gradually disappears in strips, and a new one, of a different color, appears instead. The color changes depending on the age of the tree.

The most unusual trees

The largest flower on the planet

Since ancient times, man has learned to domesticate animals, grow cultivated plants, hunt, and understand poisonous bushes, flowers, and trees. At present, thanks to the acquired skills, the improvement of technologies, we produce various dishes, products, souvenirs, goods. In many ways, raw materials are plants from all continents of the planet. Habitual coffee is made from cocoa beans - from cane, wine - from variety of varieties grapes. But not all the veils of secrets are revealed by nature. What else do we not know about the foods we eat? Here are some Interesting Facts about cultivated plants.

Fruit

Oranges in the Renaissance had a sky-high price, only people could afford to buy them. The high fee was due to the fact that the fruit was considered effective against the plague.

Fresh apples, if lowered to the surface of the water, will not drown, since they contain 25% air.

Many are very surprised that a lemon contains more than a strawberry.

Also, due to the presence of acid, lemons can be used as a battery / conductor. It is necessary to solder several wires on an ordinary light bulb - copper and zinc, and then insert it into a lemon. In this case, the lamp will light up.

The magic fruit has fruits that affect our taste buds. Even after a small piece, the perception of everything sour disappears for several hours. But if you try to eat a lemon, it will turn out to be sweet.

Papaya has such a juice that it can act on any pollution as the strongest solvent. He will also be able to remove fingerprints from their pads.

Berries

In some areas, strawberries are positioned as nuts. And in Japan, it is still customary to give the other half of the berry to a guy, and when he eats it, he will definitely fall in love with this girl. Strawberries are the only berry whose seeds are located outside and not inside the fruit.

Banana is a very strong and tall grass, its fruits are berries, not fruits, as many believe. An extraordinary application for them was invented in India. Banana skins are used to lower ships into the water. To do this, the descent surface must be smeared with crushed bananas. For one medium ship account for 20 thousand bananas.

Japanese breeders have bred many varieties of watermelons of different colors and shapes (square, pear-shaped, heart-shaped; black, with yellow flesh). In 1951, they managed to grow seedless watermelons, as many do not like to pick out the seeds. The problem was that due to the lack of seeds it was impossible to continue to cultivate this species.

In the old days, blueberries were boiled in milk to obtain a gray dye.

Cereals

Corn cannot grow without human help. It does not reproduce by self-sowing and cannot run wild at all. If a ripe corn head is not removed by a person’s hands, then they will simply rot, falling to the ground, and will not give offspring. The number of rows of grains on any cob must be even. Usually this figure ranges from 8 to 22 rows, and in each head there are about a thousand seeds. A rare food element found in corn is gold.

In ancient times, instead of modern lie detectors, rice was used to catch deceit. The Chinese made people take a whole handful of rice in their mouths and then spit it out. If it remained dry (which indicated that the suspect's mouth was dry), then the person was found guilty.

In some parts of Italy, dried grains from buckwheat husk just like seeds.

Legumes

Some Mexican shrubs of the genus are endowed with jumping beans. The thing is that one of the moth species lays its larvae inside the seeds. After the larva hatches from the egg, it eats the inside of the bean and forms an empty space in it, then attaching itself to the bean itself. large quantity silk threads. If you start to apply heat to the bean (for example, sunlight or the warmth of your hands), then it will bounce. This is due to the pulling of the larvae by the strings. In this way, the larvae try to avoid a heat source that can lead to their death.

Peanut belongs to legumes and not nuts. Its extract is also used to make dynamite.

Peas are considered a shipbreaker because of one amazing chance. Once he was the culprit of the accident of the steamer called "Dnepr" (this happened near the Bosphorus). The steamer had a hole from the reefs and through it the water filled all the holds with dry peas. He began to swell and, in the end, blew up the ship from the inside.

It should not be forgotten that man interferes with natural selection, allows situations when animals and plants have to reduce or completely change their habitat, adapt to new conditions. Selection has both pluses and minuses. The negative factor is that cultivated plants do not always have the right to fight and survive themselves, since their needs change from human care. But on the other hand, using this method, you can discover new species, varieties, improve the survival and resistance of plants to pests and the environment. The main thing is to know the measure and exist in harmony with nature.