|
Pre-Columbian Agriculture In The Amazon Basin
Pre-Columbian agriculture in the Amazon basin refers to the farming practices developed by the Indigenous peoples, indigenous communities of the Amazon rainforest before the European colonization of the Americas, European conquest. Contrary to the common misconception of the Pre-Columbian era, pre-Columbian rainforest as a pristine wilderness untouched by human influence, agricultural communities in the Amazon Basin actively shaped and managed their environment prior to the arrival of Europe, European colonists. Eyewitness accounts by early List of explorers, Spanish and Portuguese maritime exploration, Portuguese explorers describe populous cities and flourishing agriculture. Population estimates for the pre-Columbian Amazon basin, Amazon Basin range from a few million people to up to 10 million. After the population collapse following the European European colonization of the Americas, conquest, these communities were largely forgotten. Recent scientific research has helped to reco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuries. The introduction of the pineapple plant to Europe in the 17th century made it a significant cultural icon of luxury. Since the 1820s, pineapple has been commercially grown in greenhouses and many tropical plantations. Pineapples grow as a small shrub; the individual flowers of the unpollinated plant fuse to form a multiple fruit. The plant normally propagates from the Offset (botany), offset produced at the top of the fruit or from a side shoot, and typically matures within a year. Description The pineapple is a herbaceous perennial, which grows to tall on average, although sometimes it can be taller. The plant has a short, stocky stem with tough, waxy leaves. When creating its fruit, it usually produces up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions as an annual crop for its edible starchy tuberous root. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are processed to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes. The Brazilian , and the related ''garri'' of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying it (and roasting in the case of both and ''garri''). Cassava is the third-largest source of carbohydrates in food in the tropics, after rice and maize, making it an important staple food, staple; more than 500 million pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plant Species
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring ( indigenous) native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora as in the terms ''gut flora'' or ''skin flora'' for purposes of specificity. Etymology The word "flora" comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, and fertility in Roman mythology. The technical term "flora" is then derived from a metonymy of this goddess at the end of the sixteenth century. It was first used in poetry to denote the natural vegetation of an area, but soon also assumed the meaning of a work cataloguing such vegetation. Moreover, "Flora" was used to refer to the flowers of an artificial garden in the seventeenth century. The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and flora (the taxonomic composition of a community) wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smallholding
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology, Family farm, involvement of family in labor and economic impact. There are an estimated 500 million smallholder farms in developing countries of the world alone, supporting almost two billion people. Smallholdings are usually farms supporting a single family with a mixture of cash crops and subsistence farming. As a country becomes more affluent, smallholdings may not be self-sufficient. Still, they may be valued for providing supplemental sustenance, recreation, and general rural lifestyle appreciation (often as hobby farms). As the Sustainable food system, sustainable food and local food movements grow in affluent countries, some of these smallholdings are gaining increased economic viability in the developed world as well. Small-sca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrowroot
Arrowroot is a starch obtained from the rhizomes (rootstock) of several tropical plants, traditionally ''Maranta arundinacea'', but also Florida arrowroot from ''Zamia integrifolia'', and tapioca from cassava (''Manihot esculenta''), which is often labeled arrowroot. Polynesian arrowroot or pia (''Tacca leontopetaloides''), from Palawan-Philippines arrowroot ("uraro/araro"), Guyana arrowroot (''Dioscorea alata''), Japanese arrowroot (''Pueraria lobata''), also called kudzu, and purple arrowroot ''Canna indica'', are used in similar ways. In Odisha, India, it is called ପାଳୁଅ (paḷua). History Archaeological studies in the Americas show evidence of arrowroot cultivation as early as 7,000 years ago. The name may come from ''aru-aru'' (meal of meals) in the language of the Caribbean Arawak peoples, Arawak people, for whom the plant was a staple. It has also been suggested that the name comes from arrowroot's use in treating Arrow_poison, poison-arrow wounds, as it draws o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goeppertia Allouia
''Goeppertia allouia'' (syn. ''Calathea allouia''), known as lerén or lairén in Spanish, and also known in English as Guinea arrowroot, and sweet corn root, is a plant in the arrowroot family, native to northern South America and the Caribbean. The name "allouia" is derived from the Carib name for the plant. Lerén is a minor food crop in the American tropics, but was one of the earliest plants domesticated by pre-historic Amerindians in South America. Distribution ''Goeppertia allouia'' is native to Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. It is reportedly naturalized in Jamaica. Lerén has been introduced as a minor root crop in tropical regions around the world. Description Lerén is a perennial plant, approximately in height. It produces egg-shaped tuberous roots to long at the end of fibrous roots. The leaves are large, up to long and wide. Indigenous people of the Americas have used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madeira River
The Madeira River ( ) is a major waterway in South America. It is estimated to be in length, while the Madeira-Mamoré is estimated near or in length depending on the measuring party and their methods. The Madeira is the biggest tributary of the Amazon, accounting for about 15% of the water in the basin. A map from Emanuel Bowen in 1747, held by the David Rumsey Map Collection, refers to the Madeira by the pre-colonial, indigenous name Cuyari. The River of Cuyari, called by the Portuguese Madeira or the Wood River, is formed by two great rivers, which join near its mouth. It was by this River, that the Nation of Topinambes passed into the River Amazon. Climate The mean inter-annual precipitations on the great basins vary from , the entire upper Madeira basin receiving . The greatest extremes of rainfall are between . Even just below the confluence that forms it, the Madeira is one of the largest rivers by discharge of the world, with a mean inter-annual discharge of , i.e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Purus River
The Purus River (Portuguese: ''Rio Purus''; Spanish: ''Río Purús'') is a tributary of the Amazon River in South America. Its drainage basin is , and the mean annual discharge is . The river shares its name with the Alto Purús National Park and the Purús Province (and its conformed Purús District), one of the four provinces of Peru in the Ucayali Region. Geography The Purus River rises in Peru. It defines the boundary between Peru and Brazil in the centre of the state of Acre, then runs for a short distance along the boundary of the Santa Rosa do Purus National Forest, a sustainable use conservation unit created in 2001 after it is joined by the Santa Rosa River. The Purus then flows north east through Manoel Urbano It runs through a continuous forest at the bottom of the great depression, lying between the Madeira River, which skirts the edge of the Brazilian sandstone plateau, and the Ucayali River, which hugs the base of the Andes. In the state of Amazonas the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazil Nut
The Brazil nut (''Bertholletia excelsa'') is a South American tree in the family Lecythidaceae, and it is also the name of the tree's commercially harvested edible seeds. It is one of the largest and longest-lived trees in the Amazon rainforest. The fruit and its nutshell – containing the edible Brazil nut – are relatively large and weigh as much as in total. As food, Brazil nuts are notable for diverse content of micronutrients, especially a high amount of selenium. The wood of the Brazil nut tree is prized for its quality in carpentry, flooring, and heavy construction. Common names In Portuguese-speaking countries, like Brazil, they are variously called "" - Folder EmbrapaCOSTA, J. R. (et al.Uma das espécies nativas mais valiosas da floresta amazônica de terra firme é a castanha-do-brasil ou castanha-da-amazônia (''Bertholletia excelsa'') - Acta Amazônica vol. 39(4) 2009: 843 - 850 (meaning "cashew from Brazil" in Portuguese), "" (meaning "cashew from Pará" in Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clearing (geography)
The clearing of woods and forests is the process by which vegetation, such as trees and bushes, together with their roots are permanently removed. The main aim of this process is to clear areas of forest, woodland or scrub in order to use the soil for another purpose, such as pasture land, arable farming, human settlement or the construction of roads or railways. Many of the world's most prominent forests have suffered significant levels of clearing in recent years, including the Amazon. In the 2 years following the presidential election of Jair Bolsonaro, clearing in eastern Brazil increased by 27%. Indonesia has the highest rate of clearing and deforestation, with 15 million acres lost between 2000 and 2012. This was primarily due to the increase in demand for palm oil. Description One definition of forest clearing is given in the Austrian federal law that governs the forestry industry which defines it as "the use of forest land for purposes other than forestry". [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
