Sauer - 1993 - Historical geography of crop plants, a select rost

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Bromeliaceae — Bromeliad Family............................................................195 Ananas — Pineapple............................................................................ 196 Musaceae — Banana Family.........................................................................198 Musa -— Banana, Plantain, Manila Hemp..................................... 198 Orchidaceae — Orchid Family.....................................................................203 Vanilla — Vanilla .......................................................... 203 Poaceae (Gramineae) — Grass Fam ily..................................................... 205 Oryza — R ice.........................................................................................206 Zizania — Northern W ildrice........................................................... 212 Hordeum — Barley.............................................................................. 214 Triticum — Wheat.................................................................................217 Secale — R y e......................................................................................... 222 Triticosecale — Triticales.................................................................. 223 Pennisetum — Millet, Kikuyu, Elephant Grass ......................................................................................224 Sorghum — Sorghum...........................................................................226 Zea — Maize, Indian Corn................................................................ 228 Saccharum — Sugar Cane................................................................. 236 GYMNOSPERMS — CONIFERS AND A LLIES .....................................251 CONIFERS AND A L L IE S .......................................................................................253 Pinaceae — Pine Fam ily.............................................................. 253 Pinus — Pines................................................................ 253 Pseudotsuga — Douglas F ir ..............................................................262 Taxodiaceae — Redwood Fam ily...............................................................264 Cryptomeria — Sugi............................................................................264 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS.................................................................267 G LO SSA R Y..................................................................................................................275 R EFER EN C ES............................................................................................................. 277 INDE5^.............................................................................................................................297
206 Historical Geography of Crop Plants: A Select Roster artifacts. They also produce large quantities of edible grain but only at intervals of many years, so the grain is taken as a bonus (or a curse, if it brings forth an irruption of rats) and is not relied upon as a regular crop. Although some bamboos are planted sporadically, reproduction of the populations is not generally dependent on human aid. The various tribes of herbaceous grasses are of far greater importance. Harlan (1982) wrote that mankind is sustained more by the grasses than by plants of any other family. About Ѵз of the calories and half of the protein in human nutrition come from cereal grains. Also, grasses are paramount in feeding the livestock that supply most of our meat and dairy products. By definition, cereal grains are the caryopses of grasses, i.e., single-seeded fruits in which the ovary wall and the seed coat are fused around the embryo and endosperm. People and other animals may eat the caryopses whole, but the main nutrition comes from the endosperm. Endosperm is a triploid tissue, inheriting two chromosome sets from the mother plant and one from the pollen pai’ent. In that respect, grass seeds are like angiosperm seeds in general. The special value of the grasses as seed crops depends on how quickly, abundantly, and easily the crop can be grown. This is largely due to special ecological adaptations inherited from the wild ancestors. The progenitors of our staple cereal crops all evolved as eeological pioneers in naturally open habitats. They were preadapted to grow in the full sun and mineral soil of tilled fields. Although the great majority of wild grass species are perennials, as a rule the ancestors of domesticated cereals are annuals, which complete their life cycles in a single growing season. They allocate a remarkably large share of their photosynthate to seed production instead of vegetative growth, a crucial legacy for the staple grain crops. Noncereal grass crops, e.g., sugar cane and pasture grasses, are also descended from pioneer species of streambanks or other naturally open habitats, but they ai'e perennials capable of vigorous vegetative reproduction. The pasture grasses inherit adaptations for survival under grazing and trampling by hoofed animals that probably coevolved with large ungulates in the Tertiary. ORYZA — RICE (Bender 1975; Burkill 1935; Chang 1976, 1989; Harlan 1975; Morinaga 1960; Patiño 1969; Rutger and Brandon 1981; Simoons 1990; Vishnu-Mittre 1977; Watson 1983) The genus of domesticated rice includes about 20 wild species, natives of h’opical and subtropical regions all around the world. The species are not well adapted for long-range dispersal, and the migrational histories behind these huge disjunctions are obscure. Wild Oryza species generally grow as emergent aquatics in seasonally or permanently flooded sites. Like other marsh and swamp plants, they require special mechanisms to supply air to root systems growing in anaerobic sod. The leaf epidermis of Oryza is nonwettable, so a continuous film of air extends
Page 1 and 2: 'S bo о s и H istorical G eograph
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