What Is Plant Domestication?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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Plant domestication is the process whereby wild plants have been evolved into crop plants through artificial selection .

What types of plants were domesticated?

The first domesticated plants in Mesopotamia were wheat, barley, lentils, and types of peas . People in other parts of the world, including eastern Asia, parts of Africa, and parts of North and South America, also domesticated plants.

What is an example of a domesticated plant?

Examples of domesticated plants and a region that domesticated them include wheat and barley in the Middle East , the potato in South America, and millet and rice in China. Plants that are grown for consumption are known as crops, while plants used for aesthetic purposes indoors are houseplants.

What are the most important domesticated plants?

Cereal crops were first domesticated around 11,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. The first domesticated crops were generally annuals with large seeds or fruits. These included pulses such as peas and grains such as wheat. ... In East Asia millet, rice, and soy were the most important crops.

What is the oldest domesticated plant?

The discovery dates domesticated figs to a period some 5,000 years earlier than previously thought, making the fruit trees the oldest known domesticated crop.

Is Rice a domesticated plant?

Rice is unique among wild plants for having been domesticated independently on three continents : Asia, Africa, and now South America, researchers have discovered. The New World variety, tamed about 4000 years ago, apparently was abandoned after Europeans arrived.

Are humans domesticated by plants?

The culprits were a handful of plant species, including wheat, rice and potatoes. These plants domesticated Homo sapiens , rather than vice versa. ... This ape had been living a fairly comfortable life hunting and gathering until about 10,000 years ago, but then began to invest more and more effort in cultivating wheat.

What is an example of domestication?

So, domestication is the process of adapting plants and animals to meet human needs, from protection, to food and commodities, to transportation, to companionship. ... Examples of domesticated animals and a region that domesticated them include cattle in Africa, goats in the Middle East, and llamas in South America .

What is domestication short answer?

Domestication is a change that happens in wild animals or plants, when they are kept by humans for a long time. The Latin term literally means “ to make it suitable for home “. ... In the Neolithic revolution, people domesticated sheep and goats, and later cattle and pigs. Domesticated plants are crops or ornamental plants.

What traits do you think are important for plant domestication by humans?

Common features of the domestication syndrome are larger fruit or grain, reduced branching, gigantism, the loss or reduction of seed dispersal , the loss of seed dormancy, changes in photoperiod sensitivity, and the loss or reduction of toxic compounds (18, 19).

Are bananas domesticated?

Cultivated bananas were domesticated from a small subset of wild species of bananas . ... Those with a genetic predisposition to parthenocarpy (the ability to produce a fruit in the absence of pollination) set the stage for the domestication of seedless edible bananas.

Can all plants be domesticated?

Thousands of distinct plant species have been domesticated throughout human history . Not all modern domesticated plant varieties can be found growing in the wild; many are actually hybrids of two or more naturally occurring species and therefore have no wild counterpart.

What is a domesticated housewife?

How do you define the “Domesticated Wife”? ... The “Domesticate Wife” has changed over the years as more women celebrate independence and shared responsibility in the household . These changes have allowed society to say ” You will always be single because of that or this is how you get and keep a man”.

What was the first fruit to be domesticated?

In the ruins of a prehistoric village near Jericho, in the West Bank, scientists have found remains of figs that they say appear to be the earliest known cultivated fruit crop — perhaps the first evidence anywhere of domesticated food production at the dawn of agriculture.

What was first crop?

Starting from around 9500 BC, the eight Neolithic founder crops – emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chickpeas , and flax – were cultivated in the Levant. Rye may have been cultivated earlier, but this claim remains controversial.

Who is first farmer?

Farming began c. 10,000 BC on land that became known as the FERTILE CRESCENT. Hunter-gatherers , who had traveled to the area in search of food, began to harvest (gather) wild grains they found growing there.

Diane Mitchell
Author
Diane Mitchell
Diane Mitchell is an animal lover and trainer with over 15 years of experience working with a variety of animals, including dogs, cats, birds, and horses. She has worked with leading animal welfare organizations. Diane is passionate about promoting responsible pet ownership and educating pet owners on the best practices for training and caring for their furry friends.