Man, at a certain stage of his development, began to adjust nature for himself. He began to domesticate wild animals that could benefit him. Cultivated trees, shrubs, herbs and cereals appeared in the same way. In this article, we will look at the history of the appearance and characteristics of cultivated plants, in particular trees.
Cultivated plants - what is it?
Cultivated are those plants that are grown by man for any specific purpose. This may be the receipt of food, raw materials for industries, medicines or animal feed. Such plants are also called agricultural crops. Among them, cultivated trees are highlighted, which will be discussed in this article.
All cultivated plants are divided into several groups. In particular, stand out:
- cereal crop plants;
- legumes;
- sugar-bearing;
- starchy;
- oilseeds;
- fruit (cultivated trees belong to this group);
- vegetables and gourds;
- tonic and narcotic.
The study of the characteristics and origin of cultivated plants was carried out by such scientists as N. I. Vavilov, E. V. Wolf, G. I. Tanfiliev, V. L. Komarov and others.
A bit of history
One way or another, wild plants are the ancestors of cultivated plants. With the help of breeding activities, scientists were able to achieve higher yields from them, and thanks to acclimatization, they began to grow and bear fruit in new, unusual conditions for themselves.
VII millennium BC - this is the time when cultural crop production began to develop. It was then that the first cultivated plants began to appear - trees, shrubs and cereals.
If we touch on the issue of geography, it turns out that the processes of human cultivation of flora took place in parallel in completely different, distant from each other, areas. At the same time, the highlands and mountain systems of the tropical and subtropical belt - the Atlas Mountains, the Caucasus, the Andes, the Armenian and Abyssinian Highlands, etc.
Why them? The fact is that these territories have several obvious advantages:
- protection of slopes from cold winds;
- variety of natural and climatic features (due to altitudinal zonation);
- plenty of warmth and sunshine;
- availability of permanent water sources.
Famous scientist N. I. Vavilov in the 20-30s of the twentieth century identified 7 centers of origin of cultivated plants: East Asian, South Asian, South-West Asian, Mediterranean,Central American, South American and Ethiopian.
Cultural trees and their characteristics
Cultivated trees, one way or another, evolved from wild trees. However, they may differ significantly from them. At the same time, some of the trees have changed their appearance so much that it is already very difficult to determine from whom they came.
The main distinguishing feature is that cultivated tree species do not have their own natural distribution ranges.
The cultural tree is a single and integral living system, which consists of two closely related and interacting parts:
- aerial (trunk and crown);
- underground (root system).
Cultivated trees: examples
All cultivated trees can be divided into two large groups:
- Decorative - used for landscaping and to create parks, gardens, squares (these are willows, acacias, thuja, chestnuts, ash, plane trees, etc.).
- Fruit - grown for fruits and food production (these are apple trees, pears, peaches, cherries, plums, quinces, apricots and others).
Apple tree - a genus of trees from the Rose family, which is distinguished by its delicious sweet and sour fruits of a rounded shape. To date, there are about 10 thousand varieties of this tree! Most of them belong to the type of home apple tree. It is believed that the homeland of the cultivated apple tree is the foothills of the Alatau, onterritory of modern Kyrgyzstan. From there, she migrated to Europe, where Ancient Greece became the center of her breeding. It is known that in Kievan Rus, under Yaroslav the Wise, an apple orchard was already planted.
Cherry is a tree from the Rosaceae family, with sweet fruits, which is widely cultivated. It is a more thermophilic plant than cherry. Scientists believe that Europeans knew about cherries as early as the eighth millennium BC.
Peach (Persian plum) is a tree from the Rosaceae family, whose delicious fruits are widely used for the production of fruit preserves and peach oil. In particular, this fruit is very popular in the United States. This tree is believed to be native to northern China. On the territory of Europe, the first peach garden was founded in the 1st century in Italy.
In conclusion…
Cultural trees are of great benefit to man. They not only give us many valuable and tasty fruits, but also delight our eyes in parks and squares. It is difficult to imagine life without cultivated trees and plants. At the same time, scientists and breeders continue to develop new varieties of them.
