A cultivated plant is what people grow specially to subsequently convert it into a food product, livestock feed, medicine, industrial raw materials and much more. In general, it brings many benefits to man.
Cultivation
Currently, there are a huge number of cultivated plants that people received by domesticating and cultivating wild plants. You can list them for a very long time. Cultivation includes genetic engineering, hybridization, and selection. All of these methods are very common today. People have learned to develop improved and edible cultivated plants, which cannot be said about their wild "relatives". They vary in many ways.
Features of cultivated and wild plants
Cultivated and wild plants are two completely different concepts. Do not confuse them. In most cases, wild-growing precursors of cultivated plants are not suitable for food and cooking. People risk eating them only in case of hunger, complete lack of food. However, in fairness it is worth noting that some wild plants have healing properties and benefit the body, which is unusual for their cultural "descendants." This is very important to know.
The famous book of Vavilov
The publication "Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants," authored by Vavilov, thoroughly describes the conversion of wild plants into cultivated ones. Isn't it interesting to see how this process went? In the same book you can see drawings depicting cultivated plants. For general development, it is recommended to reflect on how they look like wild plants or how they differ from them. Many cultivated plants were born in laboratories, where scientists brought them. And over time, their list is growing, new names are added to it, because selection and genetic engineering are rapidly developing.
Scientists provide the population with an increasing number of cultivated plants suitable for food. These include many hybrids of existing species.
Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants
These are geographical areas where their varieties are found in large numbers. At first, Vavilov described eight such areas. However, in later writings he spoke of seven zones. Everyone needs to know at least a little about them.
- Tropical South Asian region. Which countries belong here? Tropical India, South China, Indochina, the island part of Southeast Asia. This center is notable for its impressive abundance of cultivated plants (approximately 1/3 of all currently discovered species). Here you can find a huge number of vegetables and fruits, as well as sugarcane.
- East Asian region. What states does it include? East and Central China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea. Soybean grows here, there are many vegetables and fruits, some varieties of millet. This area is also very prolific - 20% of cultivated plants are concentrated in this zone. Impressive, isn't it? And what are cultivated plants? These, as we found out earlier, are those that people grow for specific purposes.
- Southwest Asian region. What is it about? First of all, about Asia Minor and Afghanistan, Iran, Northwest India. Some types of wheat, a large number of cereals, grapes, rye, legumes, and fruits appeared here. In this area, 14% of the cultural flora known in the world grows.
- Mediterranean area. These are states dispersed along the shores of the same sea. This area, where the most influential ancient civilizations were located, produces about 11% of the varieties of cultural flora. They include olives, many vegetables (for example, cabbage) and a large number of plants intended for food (monochromatic lentils, clover). This is a very generous territory that feeds us. A cultivated plant is the wealth of the earth.
- Abyssinian region. This is a rather small territory of the African mainland with very unusual cultivated plants. Most likely, this is an old center of original farming. Here sorghum, chickpea (oilseed), one variety of bananas, some interesting types of barley, as well as wheat, grow.
- Central American region. This includes southern Mexico. This region is rich in corn, cocoa, beans, long-fiber cotton, some pumpkin. About 90 varieties of cultivated flora grow here. This is quite a lot. Do not forget that a cultivated plant is our food, which means we must treat the flora with care.
- South American (Andean) region. From the name it is clear what refers to this center. It includes some areas of the Andean mountains located along the South American west coast. There appeared a large number of tuberous plants (for example, potatoes), many medicinal plants (quinine tree, cocaine bush , etc.). The local flora is diverse. It is good that our land is so generous, because a cultivated plant is something without which we could not live.
Conclusion
Now you know what cultivated plants are, and you will never confuse them with wild plants. You also know some of their names. This information must be remembered, it will be useful throughout life.