Geographical origin of various agricultural crops.
Geographical origin of various agricultural crops.
Cool chart but definitely a little focused on western diets. Understandable given the intended audience but some of these regions that donโt show many crops have a rich diversity of domesticated plants that are in danger of being lost. The Andes in particular was a huge hotspot for plant domestication prior to colonization. Lost crops of the Incas is an interesting book on the topic if you want to learn more. Some of them could be important for the future of agriculture I think.
Spare a thought for poor Australia. We're starving. Hawaii stole our Macadamias and they aren't giving them back.
While Macadamias are the only really well known native crop to come out of Australia (before being taken by Cook to Hawaii) there's recently been a push to rediscover a lot of the crops originally cultivated by the first people of Australia. These include Finger Limes, Bush Tomato, Kangaroo Apples, Lilly Pilly, Atherton Raspberries, Murnong and excitingly mamadyang ngalluk or "dancing grass".
Nearly missed this reply. Tag me next time. I, not as well as you, basically replied something similar.
You can add Bunya to the list? That's gaining a resurgence before Phytophthora gets them in their native range.
I think we talked about that one in another thread but itโs one of my favorite trees. Iโm trying to popularize them here in California but our ideas about liability are not entirely compatible with the hazard presented by the cones so itโs hard to find someone who will grow them. I harvested many last year and greatly enjoyed them.
Do they have issues with phytophthora? I have not seen that here though itโs not a common tree.