Ethnobotany & Melon

Question 1

What disciplines does ethnobotany involve?

Answer 1

• Anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, medicinal plants/biochemistry, material culture, botany/agriculture
• Basically plants and relationship to people
• Understanding the name people give plants

Question 2

Where does our food come from?

Answer 2

• Most plants and animals eaten today did not exist 10,000ya

- Human selection altered from wild ancestors, domesticated

Question 3

What did Dr. Ken Marr study for ethnobotany?

Answer 3

• Asian Melons

- Loofah/vegetable sponge, bitter melon, winter melon

Question 4

What was the purpose of Dr. Marr’s study?

Answer 4

• How have humans changed/domesticated the melons
• Where were the domesticated (India, China/SE Asia?)
• What is the cultural importance

Question 5

How do you determine the place of domestication for a crop?

Answer 5

• Locate wild population that most resembles domesticate
• Look at physical morphology
• Linguistic clues: simplest term often the oldest

Question 6

What are some examples of symbology of plants?

Answer 6

• Roses for romance

- Holly at xmas

Question 7

Why do plants make so many compounds?

Answer 7

• Because they can’t run away, so need defence

- Other sessile creatures like coral do the same

Question 8

What is a downside to domestication for the plant?

Answer 8

• Differ so much from wild ancestors that plant can no longer propagate without human aide

Question 9

What is a downside to domestication for the plant?

Answer 9

• Differ so much from wild ancestors that plant can no longer propagate without human aid

Question 10

Where was Dr. Marr’s field work?

Answer 10

• Yunnan province China, Laos, Nepal
• Searched for wild populations
• Collected seed samples of many melons
• Collected oral histories/traditional knowledge from villagers (delicate operation)

Question 11

Ka gua

Answer 11

• Bitter melon

Question 12

Dong gua

Answer 12

Wax gourd

Question 13

Si gua

Answer 13

loofah melon

Question 14

Xiang gua

Answer 14

cantaloupe

Question 15

Xi gua

Answer 15

watermelon

Question 16

Huang gua

Answer 16

cucumber

Question 17

She gua

Answer 17

snake gourd

Question 18

Nan gua

Answer 18

squash

Question 19

Hulu

Answer 19

Bottle gourd

- Not given ‘guan’ name

Question 20

‘Gua’

Answer 20

• Chinese term given to any large round object that can be eaten
• Includes Jicama which is in pea family, not melon

Question 21

What was Dr. Marr’s methodology after seed collection?

Answer 21

• Grow plants in ‘common garden’
• Compare wild to domesticate by taking and analyzing physical measurements from levels, flowers, fruits, seeds
• Perform genetic testing

Question 22

Which melons more closely resembled wild, and there for most likely place of domestication?

Answer 22

• Melons from China and Laos

Question 23

Laboratory genetic analysis

Answer 23

• Compare genetic markers of plant tissues
• Use electric currents to separate markers and look for presence of allozymes (variants of same enzyme)
• Variants would show diversity
• Also do DNA analysis

Question 24

What were some traits found in domesticated melons?

Answer 24

• Bigger fruit
• Less bitterness
• Earlier flowering

Question 25

What traits show some of the major ways in how humans have changed plants in domestication?

Answer 25

• Increase in size of part harvested
• Loss of toxicity
• Uniform timing of maturation
• Loss of dispersal (especially grains)
• Dependence upon humans to create growing environment

Question 26

Why was bitterness as a trait left in some bitter melons?

Answer 26

• Used to treat diabetes, but not as an insulin substitute

Question 27

Why do plants change colour as they mature?

Answer 27

• Initially green to camouflage until ready

- Change colour, brighter, to signal to animals to take fruit to disperse seeds elsewhere

Question 28

Why is it important to study and preserve diversity?

Answer 28

• Wild varieties often resist damage and disease (which can be bred out in domestication)