Ethnobotany & Melon Flashcards
What disciplines does ethnobotany involve?
- Anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, medicinal plants/biochemistry, material culture, botany/agriculture
- Basically plants and relationship to people
- Understanding the name people give plants
Where does our food come from?
- Most plants and animals eaten today did not exist 10,000ya
- Human selection altered from wild ancestors, domesticated
What did Dr. Ken Marr study for ethnobotany?
- Asian Melons
- Loofah/vegetable sponge, bitter melon, winter melon
What was the purpose of Dr. Marr’s study?
- How have humans changed/domesticated the melons
- Where were the domesticated (India, China/SE Asia?)
- What is the cultural importance
How do you determine the place of domestication for a crop?
- Locate wild population that most resembles domesticate
- Look at physical morphology
- Linguistic clues: simplest term often the oldest
What are some examples of symbology of plants?
- Roses for romance
- Holly at xmas
Why do plants make so many compounds?
- Because they can’t run away, so need defence
- Other sessile creatures like coral do the same
What is a downside to domestication for the plant?
- Differ so much from wild ancestors that plant can no longer propagate without human aide
What is a downside to domestication for the plant?
- Differ so much from wild ancestors that plant can no longer propagate without human aid
Where was Dr. Marr’s field work?
- Yunnan province China, Laos, Nepal
- Searched for wild populations
- Collected seed samples of many melons
- Collected oral histories/traditional knowledge from villagers (delicate operation)
Ka gua
- Bitter melon
Dong gua
Wax gourd
Si gua
loofah melon
Xiang gua
cantaloupe
Xi gua
watermelon
Huang gua
cucumber
She gua
snake gourd
Nan gua
squash
Hulu
Bottle gourd
- Not given ‘guan’ name
‘Gua’
- Chinese term given to any large round object that can be eaten
- Includes Jicama which is in pea family, not melon
What was Dr. Marr’s methodology after seed collection?
- Grow plants in ‘common garden’
- Compare wild to domesticate by taking and analyzing physical measurements from levels, flowers, fruits, seeds
- Perform genetic testing
Which melons more closely resembled wild, and there for most likely place of domestication?
- Melons from China and Laos
Laboratory genetic analysis
- 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
What were some traits found in domesticated melons?
- Bigger fruit
- Less bitterness
- Earlier flowering
What traits show some of the major ways in how humans have changed plants in domestication?
- 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
Why was bitterness as a trait left in some bitter melons?
- Used to treat diabetes, but not as an insulin substitute
Why do plants change colour as they mature?
- Initially green to camouflage until ready
- Change colour, brighter, to signal to animals to take fruit to disperse seeds elsewhere
Why is it important to study and preserve diversity?
- Wild varieties often resist damage and disease (which can be bred out in domestication)
