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Extinct Agricultural Crops
Agricultural heritage is the traditional methods of farming, crops, and cultural practices that have developed over thousands of years. These traditions are important because they have shaped diets, economies, and societal identities. Many crops that were once vital to human nutrition and culture have become extinct over time, or have not been maintained in cultivation. This decline has been driven by modern farming practices, climate change, and shifts in consumer preferences. Preserving agricultural heritage is essential for maintaining food diversity, supporting cultural traditions, and promoting food security in the face of global challenges. Historical examples of lost crops Eastern North America's lost crops Before maize (corn) became the dominant crop, Native Americans in Eastern North America cultivated a variety of native crops for sustenance. This group of plants, known as the Eastern Agricultural Complex, included species such as erect knotweed ('' Polygonum erectum' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Agricultural Complex
The Eastern Agricultural Complex in the woodlands of eastern North America was one of about 10 independent centers of plant domestication in the pre-historic world. Incipient agriculture dates back to about 5300 BCE. By about 1800 BCE the Native Americans of the woodlands were cultivating several species of food plants, thus beginning a transition from a hunter-gatherer economy to agriculture. After 200 BCE when maize from Mexico was introduced to the Eastern Woodlands, the Native Americans of the eastern United States and adjacent Canada slowly changed from growing local indigenous plants to a maize-based agricultural economy. The cultivation of local indigenous plants other than squash and sunflower declined and was eventually abandoned. The formerly domesticated plants returned to their wild forms. The first four plants known to have been domesticated at the Riverton Site in Illinois in 1800 BCE were goosefoot (''Chenopodium berlandieri''), sunflower (''Helianthus annuus var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triticum Dicoccum
Emmer is a hybrid species of wheat, producing edible seeds that have been used as food since ancient times. The domesticated types are ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''dicoccum'' and ''T. t. ''conv.'' durum''. The wild plant is called ''T. t.'' subsp. ''dicoccoides''. The seeds have an awned covering, the sharp spikes helping the seeds to become buried in the ground. The principal difference between the wild and the domestic forms is that the ripened seed head of the wild plant shatters and scatters the seed onto the ground, while in the domesticated emmer, the seed head remains intact, thus making it easier for people to harvest the grain. Along with einkorn, emmer was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. It was widely cultivated in the ancient world, but is now a relict crop in mountainous regions of Europe and Asia. Emmer is one of the three grains called farro in Italy. Etymology Emmer is first attested in 1908 in English as a loanword from German , va ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wikipedia Student Program
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001, Wikipedia has been hosted since 2003 by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American nonprofit organization funded mainly by donations from readers. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history. Initially available only in English, Wikipedia exists in over 340 languages. The English Wikipedia, with over million articles, remains the largest of the editions, which together comprise more than articles and attract more than 1.5 billion unique device visits and 13 million edits per month (about 5edits per second on average) . , over 25% of Wikipedia's traffic comes from the United States, while Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and Russia each account for around 5%. Wikipedia has been praised for enabling the democra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monoculture
In agriculture, monoculture is the practice of growing one crop species in a field at a time. Monocultures increase ease and efficiency in planting, managing, and harvesting crops short-term, often with the help of machinery. However, monocultures are more susceptible to diseases or Pest (organism), pest outbreaks long-term due to localized reductions in biodiversity and nutrient depletion. Crop diversity can be added both in time, as with a crop rotation or sequence, or in space, with a polyculture or intercropping. Monocultures appear in contexts outside of agriculture and food production. Grass lawns are a common form of residential monocultures. Several monocultures, including single-species forest plantations, have become increasingly abundant throughout the tropics following market globalization, impacting local communities. Genetic monocultures refer to crops that have little to no genetic variation. This is achieved using cultivars, made through processes of propagation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Industrial Agriculture
Industrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of crops and animals and animal products like eggs or milk. The methods of industrial agriculture include innovation in agricultural machinery and farming methods, genetic technology, techniques for achieving economies of scale in production, the creation of new markets for consumption, the application of patent protection to genetic information, and global trade. These methods are widespread in developed nations and increasingly prevalent worldwide. Most of the meat, dairy, eggs, fruits and vegetables available in supermarkets are produced in this way. Historical development and future prospects Industrial agriculture arose hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution in general. The identification of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus (referred to by the acronym NPK) as critical factors in plant growth led to the manufacture of synthetic fertilizers, making possible more inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chenopodium Quinoa
Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are high in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins and dietary minerals especially potassium and magnesium in amounts greater than in many grains. Quinoa is not a grass but rather a pseudocereal botanically related to spinach and amaranth (''Amaranthus'' spp.), and originated in the Andean region of northwestern South America. It was first used to feed livestock 5,2007,000 years ago, and for human consumption 3,0004,000 years ago in the Lake Titicaca basin of Peru and Bolivia. The plant thrives at high elevations and produces seeds that are rich in protein. Almost all production in the Andean region is done by small farms and associations. Its cultivation has spread to more than 70 countries, including Kenya, India, the United States, and European countries. As a result of increased consump ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amaranthus
''Amaranthus'' is a cosmopolitan group of more than 50 species which make up the genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants collectively known as amaranths. Some names include " prostrate pigweed" and " love lies bleeding". Some amaranth species are cultivated as leaf vegetables, pseudocereals, and ornamental plants. Catkin-like cymes of densely-packed flowers grow in summer or fall. Amaranth varies in flower, leaf, and stem color with a range of striking pigments from the spectrum of maroon to crimson and can grow longitudinally from tall with a cylindrical, succulent, fibrous stem that is hollow with grooves and bracteoles when mature. There are approximately 75 species in the genus, 10 of which are dioecious and native to North America, and the remaining 65 are monoecious species that are endemic to every continent (except Antarctica) from tropical lowlands to the Himalayas. Members of this genus share many characteristics and uses with members of the closely related g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Triticum Monococcum
Einkorn wheat (from German ''Einkorn'', literally "single grain") can refer to either a wild species of wheat (''Triticum'') or a domesticated form of wheat. The wild form is ''T. boeoticum'' (syn. ''T. m.'' subsp. ''boeoticum''), and the domesticated form is ''T. monococcum'' (syn. ''T. m.'' subsp. ''monococcum''). Einkorn is a diploid species (2''n'' = 14 chromosomes) of hulled wheat, with tough glumes (husks) that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger. The domestic form is known as in French, in German, "einkorn" or "littlespelt" in English, in Italian and in Spanish. The name refers to the fact that each spikelet contains only one grain. Einkorn wheat was one of the first plants to be domesticated and cultivated. The earliest clear evidence of the domestication of einkorn dates from 10,600 to 9,900 years before present (8650 BCE to 7950 BCE) from Çayönü and Cafer H� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ullucus Tuberosus
''Ullucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Basellaceae, with one species, ''Ullucus tuberosus'', a plant grown primarily as a root vegetable, secondarily as a leaf vegetable. The name ''ulluco'' is derived from the Quechua word , but depending on the region, it has many different names. These include ''illaco'' (in Aymara), ''melloco'' (in Ecuador), ''chungua'' or ''ruba'' (in Colombia), ''olluco'' or ''papa'' ''lisa'' (in Bolivia and Peru), or ''ulluma'' (in Argentina).Busch, J. and Savage, G.P. (2000). Nutritional composition of ulluco (Ullucus tuberosus) tubers. Proceedings on the Nutrition Society of New Zealand, 25 pp. 55-65.Arbizu, C., Huamán, Z. and Golmirzaie, A. (1997). ‘Other Andean Roots and Tubers’ in Fuccillo, D., Sears, L. and Stapleton, P. (1st ed.) Biodiversity in Trust: Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources in CGIAR Centres. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press pp.39-56. Ulluco is one of the most widely grown and economically importan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polygonum Erectum
''Polygonum erectum'', commonly called erect knotweed, is a North American species of herbaceous plant in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae). It is found primarily in the northeastern and north-central parts of the United States, but with scattered populations in other parts of the US and also in Canada. Its natural habitat is in bottomland forests and riparian areas. It is tolerant of ecological degradation, and can also be found in disturbed open areas such as pastures and lawns. It was once cultivated for food by Native Americans as part of the group of crops known as the Eastern Agricultural Complex. Description ''Polygonum erectum'' is an erect annual growing tall with many to few, non-wiry branches. The leaves have distinct veins and entire edges or have jagged cut edges. The pedicels are shorter or equal the length of the calyx and typically longer than the ocreae. The closed flowers have a calyx that is typically long, green in color and 5-lobed. Flowers in clusters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropaeolum Tuberosum
''Tropaeolum tuberosum'' (mashua, see below for other names) is a species of flowering plant in the family Tropaeolaceae, grown in the Andes, particularly in Peru and Bolivia, and to a lesser extent in Ecuador as well as in some areas of Colombia, for its edible tubers, which are eaten cooked or roasted as a vegetable. It is a minor food source, especially for native Amerindian populations. Mashua is a herbaceous perennial climber growing to in height. It is related to garden nasturtiums, and is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental for its brightly coloured tubular flowers. The leaves are peltate, roundly five-lobed with a petiole that twines weakly but is not truly a tendril. The root is tuberous. Alternative names This plant is commonly called mashua in Peru and Ecuador, but other names include: In Boyacá, Colombia, it is also named nabu Agronomy The plant thrives even in marginal soils and competes well with weeds. It is well-adapted to high-altitude subsistence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxalis Tuberosa
''Oxalis tuberosa'' is a perennial herbaceous plant that overwinters as underground stem tubers. These tubers are known as uqa in Quechua, oca in Spanish, yams in New Zealand and several other alternative names. The plant was brought into cultivation in the central and southern Andes for its tubers, which are used as a root vegetable. The plant is not known in the wild, but populations of wild '' Oxalis'' species that bear smaller tubers are known from four areas of the central Andean region. Oca was introduced to Europe in 1830 as a competitor to the potato, and to New Zealand as early as 1860. In New Zealand, oca has become a popular table vegetable and is called yams (although not a true yam). It is available in various colors, including yellow, orange, pink, apricot, and traditional red. Cultural significance Grown primarily by Quechua and Aymara farmers, oca has been a staple of rural Andean diets for centuries. Of all Andean root and tuber crops, oca is currently seco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
