Like many people, plants like to travel, conquering not only thousands of kilometers of space, but hundreds of time years. The wide distribution of plants that multiplied in new conditions for them and became habitual and necessary products on the dining table, was facilitated by the geographical discoveries of the past. Corn, tomato, potatoes, peppers, tobacco, sunflowers, and beans were brought to Europe after the discovery of America.
Familiar plants - guests from distant lands?
Once considered an overseas curiosity and a rare expensive treat, potatoes - a resident of the South American Andes mountains - were brought into Europe by the Spaniards in the 16th century on caravels loaded with gold and silver. The Russians first met him at the end of the 17th century and were first grown as a decorative culture; noble ladies even decorated themselves with its flowers.
In Russia, the traveler plant potato was considered a very rare dish on the royal table; in 1741, only 500 grams were served at a gala dinner for the entire court. They didn’t know how to grow potatoes and consumed poisonous berries, not tubers. Only in the second half of the 19th century they began to use it in the quality we are used to, the product took pride of place on each person’s dining table.
Tomato (tomato) - a native of Peru (it is there that you can still meet it in the wild with fruits the size of a cherry and weighing no more than 5 grams), translated from Italian means "golden apple". Europe got acquainted with a tomato brought from South America at the end of the 18th century; in Russia this plant as a food crop appeared in the middle of the 19th century. For a long time, Americans considered the tomato to be poisonous, even trying to poison George Washington, the first president, with its fruits.
Is the sunflower also a traveler?
A sunflower, a plant familiar to us, is a guest from faraway Mexico, whose inhabitants considered it a sacred flower that embodies the Sun and is worthy of admiration.
Having fallen from America to Europe in the 16th century, the plant-traveler became an adornment of the Royal Garden in Madrid. Then the French elite fell in love with him: the king of France Louis the Fourteenth ordered to plant the fields located near Versailles with a sunflower. Peter the Great also fell under the charm of a solar plant when he saw it in Holland. The young king sent a bag of sunflower seeds to his homeland, where he was grown in the Kremlin Garden, as an overseas miracle. With an easy supply of cunning Russians, sunflower seeds began to be used as goodies, and aromatic and tasty oil from the same seeds made sunflower indispensable and widespread.
The cucumber traveler plant, a thermophilic culture and a product familiar to us, also turns out to be a visiting visitor whose historical homeland is considered to be Southeast Asia and India. The remains of cucumbers, placed as food for the dead, were found in the oldest Egyptian tombs, and in Indian temples you can see carved drawings of this vegetable. In 10-11 century, cucumber came to Russia from Byzantium and is now grown throughout its territory, both in open ground and in greenhouses.
Plantain travels the planet on the sole
Of the grassy plants that are widely used in Russia, I would like to highlight plantain. Its medicinal properties are known even to a child; A leaf attached to the wound stops the blood and soothes the pain. Why is plantain called a plant-traveler?
Because this culture is spread over most of the planet and is revered in many countries since ancient times. Italians, Greeks, Persians and Arabs highly praised this plant for its healing properties. Plantain is able to protect against evil forces, relieve headaches, help with mosquito and bee stings, and reduce inflammation in the body. For Americans, this plant-traveler is also called the “white man’s footprint”, since it was with the “white man” that this plant appeared on their continent. Moreover, it is unlikely that the settlers transported it around the world on purpose, probably the seeds of the plant were accidentally mixed with other seeds or imported on the soles of shoes and other items. This fact proves the amazing vitality of such a magical plant. In Russia, plantain got its name for the place of growth: it is most often found on roads.
Visiting weed plants
An odorous chamomile was brought from America to Europe, which appeared in large numbers on the slopes of railway embankments in the 70s of the 19th century, from where it migrated into the mainland, where it spread everywhere. This traveler plant could get to Europe along with purchased grain, which, apparently, was not thoroughly cleaned of weed seeds. They woke up through the cracks of the cars and dispersed.
Some plants-travelers (water hyacinth and Canadian Elodea) have become a real misfortune for most regions. Elodea at the bottom of the reservoirs forms real green meadows, which creates tangible obstacles to shipping and fishing. For its unpretentiousness and high adaptation to any conditions, it was called "water infection" or "water plague."
Now all water bodies of Asia and Europe are covered with this plant.
Canadian water hyacinth is not inferior to elodea - the worst weed of all reservoirs and rivers, which covers the water surface with a dense carpet. Imported from America as an ornamental plant, it quickly spread to the waters of Indonesia, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Asia and Africa.
European gifts to America
Not only America has enriched Europe with popular cultures. European and Asian countries were also not indebted, introducing Americans to rice, wheat, barley, sugarcane, beets and other crops. Many plants-travelers have a close relationship with a person, entering the so-called synanthropic group (from the Greek. "Syn" - together, "anthropos" - a person). It was the connection with man that caused their wide distribution, as a result of which many became cosmopolitan and occupy most of the land. Such plants include white quinoa, dandelion, shepherd’s bag, annual bluegrass.