1. Origin of Domesticated Plants Wheat

2. Most domesticated food plants have been selected for: large plant parts soft edible tissue thick flesh with intense color fruits attached to tough stems

3. How much domestication? About 5000 species have been grown for human food – less than 1% of all plant species thought to exist Today about 150 species are commercially grown for food (not including spices) About 50 very productive species supply almost all of our caloric needs

4. Benefits of Domestication 10,000 years ago, before agriculture began, the world’s total human population was about 5 million. There was one person for every 25 square kilometers. Today we have more than 7 billion people, with a density of just over 25 people per square kilometer

5. As agriculture developed humans selected for: 1. Plants that provide enough calories to meet our basic energy needs. This usually comes from cereal grain or root carbohydrates. 2. We also selected for a balanced nutritional intake - this tends to develop in any system where the cultivator eats and depends upon on what he/she grows.

6. Dog Domesticated circa 20,000 YA – shown in Egyptian painting – 4500 BCE

7. Neolithic European Thatch Houses

8. Vavilov centers – centers of plant diversity and areas of origin for agriculture

9. Plants from Near East – Fertile Crescent Barley - Hordeum vulgare Wheat - Triticum spp. Lentils - Lens culinaris Peas - Pisum sativum chickpeas or garbanzos - Cicer arietinum Olives - Olea europaea Dates - Phoenix dactylifera Grapes - Vitis vinifera - Wine began to be made from the grapes and beer from the grains Flax - Linum usitatissimum – food and fiber

10. Barley

11. Lentils

12. Chickpeas

13. Date Palm

14. Flax

15. Malus sieversii – wild apple from Kazakhstan

16. Malus sieversii - Flowers

17. Malus sieversii - Fruits

18. Plants from China, Far East Millet grains - several species Rice - Oryza sativa Soybeans - Glycine max Mango - Mangifera indica Various kinds of citrus fruits - Citrus sp. Taro - Colocasia esculenta Bananas - Musa x paradisiaca

19. Rice

20. Mango

21. Taro

22. Plants from Africa Sorghum - Sorghum sp. Millet grains - several species (these developed independently of China) Okra - Hibiscus esculentus Yams - Dioscrorea sp. Cotton - Gossypium sp. Coffee - Coffea arabica

23. Sorghum and Millet

24. Okra

25. Yams

26. Coffee

27. Plants from Mexico Corn (Maize) - Zea mays kidney beans - Phaseolus vulgaris lima beans - P. lunatus Peanuts - Arachis hypogaea cotton (developed independently from Africa) chili peppers - Capiscum sp. Tomatoes - Lycopersicon sp. Tobacco - Nicotiana tabacum Cacao - Theobroma cacao Pineapple - Ananas comosus Pumpkins, squashes - Cucurbita sp. Avocados - Persea americana

28. Kidney Beans

29. Peanut

30. Chili Peppers – Capiscum sp.

31. Pumpkins and Squashes

32. Plants from Peru Potato -Solanum tuberosum and many related species Quinoa - Chenopodium quinoa Amaranth – Amaranthus (3 species) tomatoes and peanuts may have really originated in Peru and then been taken to Mexico

33. Potato

34. Quinoa

35. First ethnobotanical rule of food production In indigenous agriculture where the crops are consumed and not sold, there evolves and is maintained a reasonable level of nutritional adequacy

36. Second ethnobotanical rule of food production In indigenous agriculture where the crops are grown mainly or only for sale, there develops an expanding surplus of food. The overall objective of such agricultural systems is to replace a pre-existing (natural) plant community with a cultivator-made community

37. It then follows that: If the potentially unstable increase in food production and human population is to be maintained, it must be consistent with three aims: 1. To operate at a maximum profit (labor/yield). 2. To minimize year-to-year instability in production. 3. To operate so as to prevent long-term degradation of the production capacity of the agricultural system.

38. Mexican Corn Growing

39. Mexican Corn Varieties

40. Darwin on Artificial Selection “Although man did not cause variability and cannot even prevent it, he can select, preserve, and accumulate the variations given to him by the hand of nature almost in any way which he chooses; and thus can certainly produce a great result… Selection by man may be followed either methodically and intentionally, or unconsciously and unintentionally… We can further understand how it is that domestic races of plants often exhibit an abnormal character, as compared to natural species, for they have been modified not for their own benefit, but for that of man.”

41. Western Yarrow

43. Street in Cuzco, Peru with advertisement for California seeds

44. Plant Germ Plasm The first category of germ plasm includes the native or indigenous varieties of cultivated crop plants used elsewhere in commercial agricultural production. At present many of the major crop plants have a limited genetic base, as these have been developed through a series of selections that emphasize yield often at the expense of insect or disease resistance, environmental tolerance, multiple use, etc.

45. Seed Savers, Decorah, Iowa

47. Stowe, England – Apple Festival

50. Spread of Southern Corn Leaf Blight

51. Southern Corn Leaf Blight

52. Close up of Southern Corn Leaf Blight

53. Southern Corn Leaf Blight – damage to ear

54. Sweet Potato

55. Healthy Sweet Potatoes – Ipomoea batatas

56. Sweet potatoes with black rot

57. Sweet potatoes with soft rot

58. Sweet potatoes with russet crack

59. Sweet potato attacked by nematodes

60. Sweet potato with stem rot Healthy sweet potato

61. Plant Germ Plasm The second category of germ plasm material includes the identification and collection of wild relatives of the more commonly cultivated plants.

62. Wild Tomato Species From Peru Domestic High Altitude Another S. sisymbrifolium

63. Plant Germ Plasm The third category includes plants not yet in the economic system and not related to domesticated plants. These may have properties of great value to us, but these can be very difficult to identify.

64. Seed and germplasm storage facility – Kew Seed Bank

65. Breadfruit

66. Diane Ragone Checking Breadfruit Collection in Hawaii