Jules Janick - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Jules Janick
HortScience, 1999
NewCROP (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop) is a crop resource online program that serves Indian... more NewCROP (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop) is a crop resource online program that serves Indiana, the United States, and the world. This crop information system provides useful resources to encourage and assist new rural-based industries and to enhance agricultural sustainability and competitiveness. The NewCROP site currently averages 150,000 hits per month. Indiana CropMAP is the first module in a proposed nationwide, site-specific, retrievable system that will serve the crop information needs of individual growers, marketers, processors, government agencies, cooperative extension personnel, and industry. For each county in Indiana, users can access the most recent US agriculture statistics, county extension offices, lists of crops that are currently grown, recommended alternate crops, and experimental crops. Detailed crop information, much of it specific to Indiana, can be accessed directly or through a crop search. The New Crop Compendium CD-ROM was produced by the Purdue Univ...
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Cultured immature sexual embryos of Theobroma cacao proliferated asexual embryos, but embryogenes... more Cultured immature sexual embryos of Theobroma cacao proliferated asexual embryos, but embryogenesis was not observed from leaf, pericarp, or ovule tissues. Cotyledons from immature, unpigmented embryos (2.5 to 10 mm long) were highly embryognie, while larger more mature, pigmented cotyledons initiated roots as their only form of organized development. Embryogenesis occurred in light and darkness when a basal medium was supplemented with coconut water and 1.5 mg/liter NAA. Proliferated embryos recultured in a liquid medium continued development.
HortTechnology, 1992
Introduction to the T he unprecedented growth in world food production from 1950 until the middle... more Introduction to the T he unprecedented growth in world food production from 1950 until the middle of the 1980s was accompanied by a B-fold increase in the use of mineral fertilizers. Although this fertilizer-yield relationship will be played out in many underdeveloped countries, there is no such certainty as far as the advanced agricultural countries are concerned. In the latter, crop responses to ever-increasing fertilizer rates will likely be lessspectacular, as one can deduce from crop yield curves found in many soil fertility textbooks. Therefore, continuousattempts to maximize crop yields by means of increasing fertilizer rates may prove wasteful or, at best, inefficient. One can already detect a leveling-off trend in fertilizer use in the United States, Western Europe, and other countries. Excessive fertilizer rates may not only be profligate, but, potentially, can also pollute watercourses with plant nutrients in general, and nitrates in particular. The public is increasingly concerned about the quality of drinking water. Potential for groundwater pollution appears particularly troublesome, because slow water movement in underground aquifers assures that contaminants may persist for long periodsof time. The danger of pollution seems to be especially high under irrigated agriculture. Horticultural crops commonly are fertilized heavily with N and other plant nutrients. At present the data appear too scarce to assess what role fertilization of horticultural crops may play in polluting water sources. Nevertheless, the ASHS Mineral Nutrition Working Group, in cooperation with the Ornamental/Landscape and Turf, Pomology, and Temperate Tree Nut Crops Working Groups, initiated a review of fertilizer management strategies aimed at maximizing fertilizer-use efficiency in horticultural crops while minimizing the potential for water pollution. Fruit orchards, vegetable fields, turf, and greenhouse-grown plants each constitute a unique situation and, thus, were treated separately on the pages that follow. I hope that these papers will provide a useful summary to those involved in the practical aspects of horticultural crops, the scientific community, and the students of agriculture in general and horticulture in particular. Also, these workshop proceedings may serve to stimulate research that will answer currently unanswered questions.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, 1991
Shoot regeneration in carnation (Dianthus catyophyllus L.) was influenced by genotype, explant so... more Shoot regeneration in carnation (Dianthus catyophyllus L.) was influenced by genotype, explant source, and plant growth regulator balance. Plants were regenerated from petals, calyxes, nodes, internodes, and leaves, but only petals, calyxes, and nodes were regenerative from all three cultivars examined (`Scania', `Improved White Sire', `Sandra'). Maximum proliferation was achieved with petals on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 0.05 μm TDZ and 0.5 μm NAA. Shoot initiation originated from cells near vascular regions and perhaps from epidermal cells in petals and via organogenic callus from other explants. There was no evidence of chimeral separation from petals or callus, but somaclonal variants (3.3%) were observed involving petal hue and plant dwarfness. Unstable color patterns were observed in tissue-cultured regenerants of `Scania' and `Improved White Sire' similar in type and frequency to propagules derived from cuttings; none were observed for ti...
Choice Reviews Online, 2009
Acorn: the fruit of oaks, a thick-walled nut with a woody cup-like base. Acropetally: developing ... more Acorn: the fruit of oaks, a thick-walled nut with a woody cup-like base. Acropetally: developing toward the apex. Aculeate: armed with prickles as distinct to thorns. Acuminate: elongated tapering gradually to a long, thin point. Acute: applied to tips and bases that end in a sharp point less than 90°. Adaptation: the evolutionary adjustments (genetic, structural, functional) that fit an individual or groups of individuals to their environment. Adaxial: the side or face next to the axis. Adnate: one organ united to another organ, e.g. ovary and calyx tube. Adventitious: a plant organ that arises from an unexpected position, e.g. shoots that arise directly from true roots as in raspberry. Adventitious buds: buds that form along a root or stem other than in the leaf axil, often after injury or pruning. Aerenchyma: parenchyma cells that are surrounded by open air-filled canals. Aerial roots: roots produced above ground, often used for climbing. Aggregated: joined together. Aggregate flower: a single flower or crowded into a dense flower cluster on a receptacle. Aggregate fruit: a fruit formed by the coherence or the connation of pistils that were distinct in the flower. Air layering (marcottage): multiplying a plant by inducing rooting on a root or shoot, often involving girdling and when the roots appear the stem is cut below the roots. The stem is enclosed in shooting media held in place by a sleeve closed at the two ends. Alate: winged as a stem or seed. Albus: white. Aliform: wing-shaped. Alternate: the arrangement of one leaf, bud or branch per node at opposite sides of the stem. Ambient: the prevailing environmental conditions especially temperature. Ament: spike of unisexual, apetalous flowers having scaly, usually deciduous, bracts; a catkin. Anastomosed: joined. Androecious [plants]: plants that bear staminate flowers only. Androecium: the collective stamens of a flower as a unit. Androgynophore: a stalk bearing both stamens and pistil above the point of perianth attachment. Andromonoecious [plants]: plants that bear both staminate and perfect (hermaphroditic) flowers. Anterior: on the front side, away from the axis, toward the subtending bract. Anther: pollen-bearing part of a stamen at the top of a filament (or may be sessile). Anthesis: the period when the flower opens, often used to refer to the bursting of the pollen sacs and pollen release. Anthocyanin: water-soluble red, blue or purple pigments. Apetalous: without petals. Apex (pl. apices): the tip or terminal end of a leaf or stem. Apical: at the apex or tip of an organ. Apical buds: buds that produce stems and are located at the tip of the stem. Apical meristem: meristem located at the tip of the stem. Apiculate: ending with a short, sharp, abrupt point. Apocarpous: carpels separate from each other. Apogamy: a type of apomixis involving the suppression of gametophyte formation so that seeds are formed directly from somatic (body) cells of the parent tissue. Apomixis: reproduction without fertilization or formation of gametes. An apomict usually is genetically identical with its source plant (ortet). Appressed: lying flat against another organ, but not fused to it. Approach graft or inarching: two independently growing, selfsustaining plants are grafted together; inarching is often used when replacing the root system and approach grafting when replacing the scion. Arbor: a tree, a plant with distinct stem and branches. Arboreal and arborescent: tree-like or pertaining to trees (> 6 m). Arcuate: arched, bent like a bow. Aril: a fleshy appendage of the seed, either on a seedcoat or arising from the base of a seed. Arillate: having an aril or arils. Articulate: having nodes or joints where separation may naturally occur leaving a clean scar. Asexual (vegetative) reproduction: reproduction without fertilization such as tubers, bulbs or rooted stems, or from sexual parts such as unfertilized eggs or other cells in the ovule. Attenuate: tapering gradually to a narrow end or base. Auricle: small fingers of tissue at the base of the leaf blade of a grass that extend partially around the stem. Awn: a stiff or flexible bristle, frequent in grasses. Axial: located in the axis. Axil: the angle formed between any two adjoining organs, such as stem and leaf. Axillary: in an axil. Axis: the main stem or central support of a plant. Bare root: a plant dug up with bare roots for transplanting. Bark: all tissues lying outward from the vascular cambium. Berry: fleshy or pulpy indehiscent fruit with one or more seeds embedded in the fleshy tissue of the pericarp; may be formed from either a superior or an inferior ovary. Glossary xi Bilateral symmetry: being divided into two equal, mirror-image parts. Bisexual: having both male and female present and functional in the same flower or inflorescence, hermaphroditic. Blade: the flattened lamina and expanded part of a leaf or parts of a compound leaf. Bourse: the terminal portion of the shoot or spur that bears flowers and fruit. Axillary buds (bourse buds) develop below the flowers/fruit and grow into bourse shoots. Brackish: somewhat salty. Bract: reduced leaf, subtending a flower or flower stalk, often small. Branchlet: small or secondary branch. Bridge graft: graft used to bridge over girdled areas of a tree. Bristle: hair-like structure. Bud: an immature or embryonic shoot, flower or inflorescence, frequently enclosed in scales. Budding: grafting by inserting a bud, into a slit or hole made in the bark of a stock plant. Bud graft: see Budding. Bulb: a leaf bud with fleshy scales. Caducous: parts of a plant that are shed or drop off early in development. Calcareous: applied to soils containing calcium carbonate. Callus: a small hard protrusion of undifferentiated (parenchyma) tissue formed at a wounded surface. Calyx: collective term for the outer separate or united sepals of a flower, the outer series of flower parts. Cambium: the growing or dividing single layer of cells located between the wood and bark. Camptodrome: leaf venation where the secondary veins bend forwards and anastomose before the end of the leaf. Capitular: having a globular head; collected in a head. Capsule: dry dehiscent fruit composed of two or more united carpels. Carinate: having a keel or a longitudinal medial line on the lower surface. Carpel: simple pistil or unit of a combined pistil. Carpellody: stamens develop abnormally into carpel-like fleshy structures. Cataphylls: scale-like leaves. Catkin: a scaly spike of usually unisexual and reduced flowers, not applied to the male or staminate strobilus of conifers. Cauliflorus: having flowers on the stem. Cauliforous: stalk-like. Chalaza: point of an ovule or seed where the integuments are united to the nucellus opposite the micropyle, to which the funiculus is attached. Chimera: plant or parts of a plant whose tissues are of or from genetically different layers. Ciliate: marginal or fringe of hairs along an edge. Clavate: club-shaped, gradually thickened towards the end. Clone: a group of individual plants asexually propagated from a single plant and, therefore, genetically identical. Clonal test: evaluation of an individual (ortet) or a clone (ramets) by comparing clones. Coleoptile: in monocotyledons, a sheath that covers the plumule. Coleorhiza: in monocotyledons, a sheath that covers the radicle. Columella: the persistent axis of certain capsules. Comose: hairy. Companion cells: phloem cell connected to a sieve-tube member by numerous plasmodesmata. Compatible: plant parts (scion and rootstock) capable of forming a permanent union when grafted. Complete flower: having all the components: pistils, stamens, petals and sepals. Compound: composed of several similar parts (leaflets), or a paniculate inflorescence (florets) each attached to a petiole-like structure (rachis) or directly to the top of the petiole. Compound leaf: divided into two or more blades (leaflets); palmately compound leaves have three or more leaflets arising from a common point, while pinnately compound leaves have leaflets arranged along a common axis. Cone: mass of ovule-bearing or pollen-bearing bracts or scales arranged spirally on a cylindrical or globose axis; common to most conifers. Conic: cone-shaped. Conifer: plants with cones and naked ovules; any of an order of trees and shrubs bearing true cones or with arillate seeds. Connate: parts of the same whorl grown together, as in sepals. Coppicing: trees that are cut down or pruned severely to the stump and re-growth produces multiple stems called poles. Cordate: heart-shaped in outline, such as a leaf with two rounded basal lobes. Coriaceous: having a stiff leathery texture. Corm: enlarged fleshy base of a stem, bulb-like but solid. Corolla: the second floral whorl of a complete flower, collective term for all free or united petals of a flower. Corymb or corymbose: flat-or round-topped flower cluster, outer pedicels are longer than inner pedicles with the outer flowers opening before the inner flowers. Costa: the extension of the petiole through the lamina of a palmate leaf. Costapalmate leaf: palm leaf in which the petiole extends into the leaf blade. Cotyledon: primary or rudimentary embryonic leaf of seed plants. Crenate: having margins with shallow, rounded teeth. Crenatures: notches or indentations. Cross-pollination: pollination by a genetically different plant. An outcross is a cross to an unrelated individual. Crownshaft: the tightly packed tubular leaf bases of some featherleaved palms sheath each other around the stem forming a conspicuous neck-like structure. Crustaceous: having a hard covering or crust. Cultivar: cultivated variety, synonymous with the term variety in the International Code of Nomenclature. Cultivars are always graced with a name and when written are usually capitalized and separated by single quotes or preceded by the word cultivar or abbreviation cv. A cultivar may be a clone or an F 1 hybrid or be seed-propagated, if uniform, but...
Janick/Horticultural Reviews V40, 2012
John Gerard (1545-1612) author of the most famous English Herball of 1597 and the playwright Will... more John Gerard (1545-1612) author of the most famous English Herball of 1597 and the playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were contemporaries in London. Their references to cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae) and nightshades (Solanaceae) encapsulate knowledge of these plants from both a scientific and a literary perspective in the English Renaissance. The Old World genera of the Cucurbitaceae (Byronia, Citrullus, Cucumis, Ecballium, Lagenaria, Momordica, and Solanaceae (Hyoscyamus, Mandragora, Physalis, Solanum) had a rich history in both medicine and food production in Antiquity and Medieval times in the Old World. The introduction of new crop species (Capsicum, Datura, Nicotiana, and Solanum) into Europe and Asia after the European encounter with the New World had a profound impact on world agriculture. References to cucurbits and nightshades in the 1597 Herball of John Gerard and the plays of Shakespeare a reflect scientific and public awareness of these species in the English Renassance. tradition is based on quotations found in Shakespeare's plays. This paper in part of our ongoing investigations on the crop history of the Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae.
Annals of botany, 2007
A critical analysis was made of cucurbit descriptions in Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, Colu... more A critical analysis was made of cucurbit descriptions in Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, Columella's De Re Rustica and Pliny's Historia Naturalis, works on medicine, agriculture and natural science of the 1st century ce, as well as the Mishna and Tosefta, compilations of rabbinic law derived from the same time period together with cucurbit images dating from antiquity including paintings, mosaics and sculpture. The goal was to identify taxonomically the Mediterranean cucurbits at the time of the Roman Empire. By ancient times, long-fruited forms of Cucumis melo (melon) and Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd) were selected, cultivated and used as vegetables around the Mediterranean and, in addition, bottle-shaped fruits of L. siceraria were employed as vessels. Citrullus lanatus (watermelons) and round-fruited forms of Cucumis melo (melons) were also consumed, but less commonly. A number of cucurbit species, including Bryonia alba, B. dioica, Citrullus colocynthis and Ecba...
HortScience
Morocco is an ancient kingdom and an emerging nation occupying a strategic bridge between northwe... more Morocco is an ancient kingdom and an emerging nation occupying a strategic bridge between northwest Africa and Europe. The most westerly nation of the Maghrib (the western Islamic world of North Africa that includes present-day Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and western Libya), Morocco borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Europe’s Iberian peninsula by the narrow straits of Gibraltar (Fig. 1). Geographically, Morocco is African, but there are close links to the Middle East and the Islamic world as well as to Europe via France and Spain.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
No consistent trend towards increased inbreeding has existed within the U.S. Department of Agricu... more No consistent trend towards increased inbreeding has existed within the U.S. Department of Agriculture pear breeding program over 17 years of crosses based on the mean inbreeding coefficient and the percentage of non-inbred progenies. Selections did not tend to be more or less inbred than the population of all seedings. There was consistent, but small, trend towards a reduction in seedling vigor with increased levels of inbreeding as measured by 5th year stem diameter. A significant positive, but small, association between increased inbreeding and improved flavor, grit, and texture were observed, even after correction for the effects of parental values for these characters. Limited inbreeding does not adversely affect improvement of fruit quality and appears to be of some benefit in facilitating selection of favorable alleles.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Leaf, stem, and tendril explants of Passiflora suberosa flowered in vitro on a basal medium conta... more Leaf, stem, and tendril explants of Passiflora suberosa flowered in vitro on a basal medium containing Murashige and Skoog salts plus 3% sucrose, glycine, and vitamins. The most effective flowering treatment was achieved with stem explants from the shoot apex cultured with 0.1 mg/liter 6-benzylamino purine (BA) in light. Flowering occurred in as few as 21 days. Shoot formation required only a 1-day exposure to BA but flowering required a 3-day exposure. Explants of leaves and stems obtained from below node 5 remained vegetative. Combined culture of basal and apical leaf discs did not alter flowering ability. Leaf discs recultured from in vitro flowering shoots formed only vegetative shoots, suggesting exhaustion of a flower-inducing substance in culture. Explants from juvenile plants formed only vegetative shoots.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, 1970
Five tomato vine types (indeterminate, jointless, determinate, miniature, and dwarf) were grown i... more Five tomato vine types (indeterminate, jointless, determinate, miniature, and dwarf) were grown in "equidistant" (on the square) arrangements at 5 population levels (
HortScience, 2003
subject to change. The process is cumulative and science is alive only when it grows. When any so... more subject to change. The process is cumulative and science is alive only when it grows. When any society claims to know the complete truth such that further question is heresy, science dies. Horticultural knowledge accumulation has always been in a state of tension between the mundane empiricism of the gardening arts discovered by generations of growers in contrast to information generated by scientists, often academics, sometimes indifferent to the uses of their discoveries and often obsessed by the irrelevant. In the 1900s, horticultural science was considered an oxymoron. One hundred years later, we are a Society that rejects this taunt and have demonstrated that horticultural science is a truly humanistic plant science, concerned with all information relevant to the interaction of humans and the plants that serve them. Our goal is the betterment of humankind. Throughout this paper, we will discuss a number of significant advancements in science that have been made by horticulturists or by plant scientists using horticultural plants and later applied to agriculture and other fields. For example, Gregor Mendel s groundbreaking discovery of the principles of heredity in a monastery garden led to what might be considered the most important scientific revolution in modern times: the flow of genetic information from generation to generation. Photoperiodic effects on plant growth, first reported by W.W. Garner and H.A. Allard on a number of horticultural crops in 1920, set the stage for understanding the relationship between crop production, light, and temperature. Fieldlevel photosynthetic rates were first measured by A.J. Heinicke and N.F. Childers in the 1930s using an apple-tree model. These concepts were later applied to many agricultural and ecological situations to evaluate carbon dioxide fixation and photosynthetic rates. L.R. Jones and J.C. Walker developed the concept of genetic control of plant disease resistance in their work with cabbage, leading to widespread efforts to use breeding techniques to obtain host plant resistance. H.A. Jones and A.F. Clarke discovered the cytoplasmic-genic system of hybrid seed production in onion, which revolutionized in F1 hybrid crop development. Particleacceleration technology, in which DNA is blasted into plant tissue in order to produce transgenic plant cells, was invented by the horticulturist John Sanford in 1987. Few scientific fields have captured the imagination as has horticulture, perhaps because of its centrality to the development of human culture. Biblical and other religious texts are filled with horticultural metaphors, such as the placement of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden near the Tree of Knowledge, the olive branch as a symbol for peace, and Noah s cultivation of a vineyard as his first act after the flood. We speak of a renaissance in events as a flowering and the end of innocence as a deflowering. The education of our youth involves, appropriately, a garden of children, or kindergarten. We cultivate relationships and speak of our hard work bearing fruit, certain people as late bloomers, or others as wall flowers, or worse, gone-to-seed. Moving to a different location marks us as transplants, but staying put means we are putting down roots. Many of our best thinkers have communicated complex concepts with such horticultural metaphors. Charles Darwin used the branching tree in describing the process of evolution in nature. In his vision, the branches represent phylogenetic patterns of lineage, and the dropped branches and twigs represent extinction. This tree metaphor for what Darwin called descent with modification has completely permeated biological science and popular culture. Horticulture and its practices are woven into our consciousness and have become part of the fabric of our language and thought. Nineteenth Century Horticulture The horticultural information and lore that was available in the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century was prodigious, although its application seems primitive by today s standards. Practically all
Acta Horticulturae, 2007
Horticulture is an ancient pursuit. Beginning some 10,000 years ago, our brilliant forebears disc... more Horticulture is an ancient pursuit. Beginning some 10,000 years ago, our brilliant forebears discovered the horticultural craft secrets that are the basis of our profession. They initiated a revolution that changed forever the destiny of humans from scavenging, collecting, and hunting to agriculture. We all are the heirs and beneficiaries of this legacy from the past. Our roots derive from prehistoric gatherers, Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Korean farmers, Hellenic root diggers, medieval peasants, and gardeners everywhere who devised practical solutions to problems of plant growing for food, ornament, medicine, fiber, and shelter. The accumulated successes and improvements passed orally from parent to child, from artisan to apprentice, and became embedded in human consciousness via legend, craft secrets, and folk wisdom. It was stored in tales, almanacs, herbals, and histories and has become part of our common culture. More than practices and skills were involved as improved germplasm was selected and preserved via seed and graft from harvest to harvest and generation to generation. Practically all of our cultivated crops were selected and improved by prehistoric farmers. An array of technological approaches from primitive tools fashioned during the Bronze and Iron Ages through the development of the horticultural arts-irrigation, propagation, cultivation, pruning and training, drying, and fermentation-were devised to accommodate the needs and desires of humankind. The sum total of these technologies makes up the traditional lore of horticulture. It represents a monumental achievement of our forebears, unknown and unsung. Horticultural technology has been continuous over the millennia but in the last 100 years dramatic changes have occurred that have transformed horticulture from a craft to a science, and these changes will be displayed in the present Congress. However, all these advances are based solidly on the foundation of ancient techniques. HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE Horticulture: The First 10,000 Years Horticulture is truly an ancient pursuit. Some 10,000 years ago, our brilliant forebears discovered the horticultural craft secrets that are the basis of our profession. They initiated a revolution that changed forever the destiny of humans from scavenging, collection, and hunting to agriculture. We all are the heirs and beneficiaries of this legacy from the past. Our roots derive from prehistoric herders and collectors, Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Korean farmers, Hellenic root diggers, medieval peasants, and gardeners everywhere to obtain practical solutions to problems of plant growing and the use of these plant materials as food, medicine, fiber, and shelter. The accumulated successes and improvements passed orally from parent to child, from artisan to apprentice, and became embedded in human consciousness via legend, craft secrets, and folk wisdom. It was stored in tales, almanacs, herbals, and histories and has become part of our common culture. More than practices and skills were involved as improved germplasm was selected and preserved via seed and graft from harvest to harvest and generation to generation. Tremendous shifts in horticultural techniques, from primitive tools fashioned during the Bronze and Iron Ages through the development of the
Acta Horticulturae, 2002
Egyptian civilization dates back to the dawn of civilization and remnants exist in a continuous 6... more Egyptian civilization dates back to the dawn of civilization and remnants exist in a continuous 6000 year-old record. The artistic genius engendered by Egyptian civilization, the superb condition of many burial chambers, and the dry climate have made it possible to reconstruct a history of agricultural technology. Ancient Egypt is shown to be the source of much of the agricultural technology of the Western world. INTRODUCTION The story of Egypt leads us to the dawn of history. Paleolithic-Neolithic artifacts (flint hand-axes, arrowheads, hammers) along the Nile date back 12,000 years. Nubian, Ethiopian, and Libyan populations fusing with Semitic and West Asian immigrants formed a people and created the Egypt of history (Durant, 1954). A continuous 6000 year record exists (Table 1) with a unique and productive agriculture at its base. From 4000 to 3000 BCE these mingled peoples of the Nile valley formed a government, constructed the first pyramids, and established a highly advanced agricultural technology. The ancient names for Egypt underscore the relation between the land, the people, and its agriculture (Khattab, 2000). These include Ta-meri, the beloved land cultivated by the hoe, Ta Akht, the land of flood and fertile soil, Kmt, the black soil, Tamhi, the land of the flax plant, Nht, the land of the sycomore fig tree, and Misr, the safe and civilized country. The name, Egypt, was derived from the name of the Earth God, Ge, or from Agpt, referring to the land covered with flood waters. Knowledge of the history of Egyptian agriculture and horticulture can be gleaned from the archeological record supported by surviving written Egyptian documents, temple inscriptions, as well as commentaries from antiquity including those of the Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BCE), the philosopher Theophrastus (372-288 BCE), and the books of Genesis and Exodus in the Hebrew bible. The supporting technology can be vividly reconstructed from the artistic record, painted and carved in tombs and temples dating onward from 3000 BCE. Agricultural activities were favorite themes of artists who drew or sculpted lively scenes of daily life that adorn the tombs of the pharaohs. Illustrations of these artifacts and artistic works found in two key references, Food, Gift of Osiris (Darby et al., 1974) and Volume I of A History of Technology (Singer et al., 1954) have been used for this paper supplemented by other sources, as well as some personal photographs by the author. The development of Egyptian agriculture did not occur in a vacuum. Egypt was an aggressive culture and, at one time, Egypt ruled from present day Libya in the West, Syria in the Northeast, and Ethiopia and Somalia and, perhaps, portions of sub-Saharan Africa in the south. Egypt continuously incorporated technology as well as new crops from the Fertile Crescent (present day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq) as well as Africa. In addition
Bulletin of University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca: Horticulture, Sep 28, 2010
Works of art from prehistory to the present constitute an alternate source of information on hort... more Works of art from prehistory to the present constitute an alternate source of information on horticultural crops. Plant iconography becomes a valuable resource for investigations horticultural technological practices; crop history including evolution under domestication, crop dispersal, lost and new traits; and genetic and taxonomic information. Crop images are also one of the unequivocal tools for assessing the historical presence of botanical taxa in a particular region and are an especially valuable resource for determining morphological changes of crops from antiquity to the present. Early written descriptions are often ambiguous and the confusion of plant names in ancient documents makes the image essential to determine the precise species involved plus providing information on the presence of morphological characters that may be unclear from the text. A plethora of ancient plant images exists, but they are widely scattered among libraries and museums, and are often difficult to locate and to access. However, the digitization of information by some of the major world libraries has greatly facilitated the search for ancient illustrations, although they still remain expensive to publish.
Horticulture: Plants for People and Places, Volume 3, 2014
Horticulture and its related sciences have produced a rich diversity of literature ranging from h... more Horticulture and its related sciences have produced a rich diversity of literature ranging from highly specialised scientific journals and scholarly books to detailed manuals for producers, from technical and popular books on gardening and cooking to encyclopaedias on highly specialised topics, and from newspaper and magazine articles to entries on the World Wide Web. These publications span a period of over 200 years. Included are food crops such as fruit, nuts, vegetables, and condiments; ornamentals and landscaping plants including trees, shrubs, and cut flower and bedding crops; turf grasses; medicinal plants and the use of plants for human wellbeing and therapy. This chapter presents selected examples of how horticulture has contributed to scholarship and literature. It also includes examples of how horticulture has been recorded in classical literature and become an integral part of many everyday sayings.
Plant Breeding Reviews, 2010
HortScience, 1999
NewCROP (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop) is a crop resource online program that serves Indian... more NewCROP (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop) is a crop resource online program that serves Indiana, the United States, and the world. This crop information system provides useful resources to encourage and assist new rural-based industries and to enhance agricultural sustainability and competitiveness. The NewCROP site currently averages 150,000 hits per month. Indiana CropMAP is the first module in a proposed nationwide, site-specific, retrievable system that will serve the crop information needs of individual growers, marketers, processors, government agencies, cooperative extension personnel, and industry. For each county in Indiana, users can access the most recent US agriculture statistics, county extension offices, lists of crops that are currently grown, recommended alternate crops, and experimental crops. Detailed crop information, much of it specific to Indiana, can be accessed directly or through a crop search. The New Crop Compendium CD-ROM was produced by the Purdue Univ...
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Cultured immature sexual embryos of Theobroma cacao proliferated asexual embryos, but embryogenes... more Cultured immature sexual embryos of Theobroma cacao proliferated asexual embryos, but embryogenesis was not observed from leaf, pericarp, or ovule tissues. Cotyledons from immature, unpigmented embryos (2.5 to 10 mm long) were highly embryognie, while larger more mature, pigmented cotyledons initiated roots as their only form of organized development. Embryogenesis occurred in light and darkness when a basal medium was supplemented with coconut water and 1.5 mg/liter NAA. Proliferated embryos recultured in a liquid medium continued development.
HortTechnology, 1992
Introduction to the T he unprecedented growth in world food production from 1950 until the middle... more Introduction to the T he unprecedented growth in world food production from 1950 until the middle of the 1980s was accompanied by a B-fold increase in the use of mineral fertilizers. Although this fertilizer-yield relationship will be played out in many underdeveloped countries, there is no such certainty as far as the advanced agricultural countries are concerned. In the latter, crop responses to ever-increasing fertilizer rates will likely be lessspectacular, as one can deduce from crop yield curves found in many soil fertility textbooks. Therefore, continuousattempts to maximize crop yields by means of increasing fertilizer rates may prove wasteful or, at best, inefficient. One can already detect a leveling-off trend in fertilizer use in the United States, Western Europe, and other countries. Excessive fertilizer rates may not only be profligate, but, potentially, can also pollute watercourses with plant nutrients in general, and nitrates in particular. The public is increasingly concerned about the quality of drinking water. Potential for groundwater pollution appears particularly troublesome, because slow water movement in underground aquifers assures that contaminants may persist for long periodsof time. The danger of pollution seems to be especially high under irrigated agriculture. Horticultural crops commonly are fertilized heavily with N and other plant nutrients. At present the data appear too scarce to assess what role fertilization of horticultural crops may play in polluting water sources. Nevertheless, the ASHS Mineral Nutrition Working Group, in cooperation with the Ornamental/Landscape and Turf, Pomology, and Temperate Tree Nut Crops Working Groups, initiated a review of fertilizer management strategies aimed at maximizing fertilizer-use efficiency in horticultural crops while minimizing the potential for water pollution. Fruit orchards, vegetable fields, turf, and greenhouse-grown plants each constitute a unique situation and, thus, were treated separately on the pages that follow. I hope that these papers will provide a useful summary to those involved in the practical aspects of horticultural crops, the scientific community, and the students of agriculture in general and horticulture in particular. Also, these workshop proceedings may serve to stimulate research that will answer currently unanswered questions.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, 1991
Shoot regeneration in carnation (Dianthus catyophyllus L.) was influenced by genotype, explant so... more Shoot regeneration in carnation (Dianthus catyophyllus L.) was influenced by genotype, explant source, and plant growth regulator balance. Plants were regenerated from petals, calyxes, nodes, internodes, and leaves, but only petals, calyxes, and nodes were regenerative from all three cultivars examined (`Scania', `Improved White Sire', `Sandra'). Maximum proliferation was achieved with petals on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 0.05 μm TDZ and 0.5 μm NAA. Shoot initiation originated from cells near vascular regions and perhaps from epidermal cells in petals and via organogenic callus from other explants. There was no evidence of chimeral separation from petals or callus, but somaclonal variants (3.3%) were observed involving petal hue and plant dwarfness. Unstable color patterns were observed in tissue-cultured regenerants of `Scania' and `Improved White Sire' similar in type and frequency to propagules derived from cuttings; none were observed for ti...
Choice Reviews Online, 2009
Acorn: the fruit of oaks, a thick-walled nut with a woody cup-like base. Acropetally: developing ... more Acorn: the fruit of oaks, a thick-walled nut with a woody cup-like base. Acropetally: developing toward the apex. Aculeate: armed with prickles as distinct to thorns. Acuminate: elongated tapering gradually to a long, thin point. Acute: applied to tips and bases that end in a sharp point less than 90°. Adaptation: the evolutionary adjustments (genetic, structural, functional) that fit an individual or groups of individuals to their environment. Adaxial: the side or face next to the axis. Adnate: one organ united to another organ, e.g. ovary and calyx tube. Adventitious: a plant organ that arises from an unexpected position, e.g. shoots that arise directly from true roots as in raspberry. Adventitious buds: buds that form along a root or stem other than in the leaf axil, often after injury or pruning. Aerenchyma: parenchyma cells that are surrounded by open air-filled canals. Aerial roots: roots produced above ground, often used for climbing. Aggregated: joined together. Aggregate flower: a single flower or crowded into a dense flower cluster on a receptacle. Aggregate fruit: a fruit formed by the coherence or the connation of pistils that were distinct in the flower. Air layering (marcottage): multiplying a plant by inducing rooting on a root or shoot, often involving girdling and when the roots appear the stem is cut below the roots. The stem is enclosed in shooting media held in place by a sleeve closed at the two ends. Alate: winged as a stem or seed. Albus: white. Aliform: wing-shaped. Alternate: the arrangement of one leaf, bud or branch per node at opposite sides of the stem. Ambient: the prevailing environmental conditions especially temperature. Ament: spike of unisexual, apetalous flowers having scaly, usually deciduous, bracts; a catkin. Anastomosed: joined. Androecious [plants]: plants that bear staminate flowers only. Androecium: the collective stamens of a flower as a unit. Androgynophore: a stalk bearing both stamens and pistil above the point of perianth attachment. Andromonoecious [plants]: plants that bear both staminate and perfect (hermaphroditic) flowers. Anterior: on the front side, away from the axis, toward the subtending bract. Anther: pollen-bearing part of a stamen at the top of a filament (or may be sessile). Anthesis: the period when the flower opens, often used to refer to the bursting of the pollen sacs and pollen release. Anthocyanin: water-soluble red, blue or purple pigments. Apetalous: without petals. Apex (pl. apices): the tip or terminal end of a leaf or stem. Apical: at the apex or tip of an organ. Apical buds: buds that produce stems and are located at the tip of the stem. Apical meristem: meristem located at the tip of the stem. Apiculate: ending with a short, sharp, abrupt point. Apocarpous: carpels separate from each other. Apogamy: a type of apomixis involving the suppression of gametophyte formation so that seeds are formed directly from somatic (body) cells of the parent tissue. Apomixis: reproduction without fertilization or formation of gametes. An apomict usually is genetically identical with its source plant (ortet). Appressed: lying flat against another organ, but not fused to it. Approach graft or inarching: two independently growing, selfsustaining plants are grafted together; inarching is often used when replacing the root system and approach grafting when replacing the scion. Arbor: a tree, a plant with distinct stem and branches. Arboreal and arborescent: tree-like or pertaining to trees (> 6 m). Arcuate: arched, bent like a bow. Aril: a fleshy appendage of the seed, either on a seedcoat or arising from the base of a seed. Arillate: having an aril or arils. Articulate: having nodes or joints where separation may naturally occur leaving a clean scar. Asexual (vegetative) reproduction: reproduction without fertilization such as tubers, bulbs or rooted stems, or from sexual parts such as unfertilized eggs or other cells in the ovule. Attenuate: tapering gradually to a narrow end or base. Auricle: small fingers of tissue at the base of the leaf blade of a grass that extend partially around the stem. Awn: a stiff or flexible bristle, frequent in grasses. Axial: located in the axis. Axil: the angle formed between any two adjoining organs, such as stem and leaf. Axillary: in an axil. Axis: the main stem or central support of a plant. Bare root: a plant dug up with bare roots for transplanting. Bark: all tissues lying outward from the vascular cambium. Berry: fleshy or pulpy indehiscent fruit with one or more seeds embedded in the fleshy tissue of the pericarp; may be formed from either a superior or an inferior ovary. Glossary xi Bilateral symmetry: being divided into two equal, mirror-image parts. Bisexual: having both male and female present and functional in the same flower or inflorescence, hermaphroditic. Blade: the flattened lamina and expanded part of a leaf or parts of a compound leaf. Bourse: the terminal portion of the shoot or spur that bears flowers and fruit. Axillary buds (bourse buds) develop below the flowers/fruit and grow into bourse shoots. Brackish: somewhat salty. Bract: reduced leaf, subtending a flower or flower stalk, often small. Branchlet: small or secondary branch. Bridge graft: graft used to bridge over girdled areas of a tree. Bristle: hair-like structure. Bud: an immature or embryonic shoot, flower or inflorescence, frequently enclosed in scales. Budding: grafting by inserting a bud, into a slit or hole made in the bark of a stock plant. Bud graft: see Budding. Bulb: a leaf bud with fleshy scales. Caducous: parts of a plant that are shed or drop off early in development. Calcareous: applied to soils containing calcium carbonate. Callus: a small hard protrusion of undifferentiated (parenchyma) tissue formed at a wounded surface. Calyx: collective term for the outer separate or united sepals of a flower, the outer series of flower parts. Cambium: the growing or dividing single layer of cells located between the wood and bark. Camptodrome: leaf venation where the secondary veins bend forwards and anastomose before the end of the leaf. Capitular: having a globular head; collected in a head. Capsule: dry dehiscent fruit composed of two or more united carpels. Carinate: having a keel or a longitudinal medial line on the lower surface. Carpel: simple pistil or unit of a combined pistil. Carpellody: stamens develop abnormally into carpel-like fleshy structures. Cataphylls: scale-like leaves. Catkin: a scaly spike of usually unisexual and reduced flowers, not applied to the male or staminate strobilus of conifers. Cauliflorus: having flowers on the stem. Cauliforous: stalk-like. Chalaza: point of an ovule or seed where the integuments are united to the nucellus opposite the micropyle, to which the funiculus is attached. Chimera: plant or parts of a plant whose tissues are of or from genetically different layers. Ciliate: marginal or fringe of hairs along an edge. Clavate: club-shaped, gradually thickened towards the end. Clone: a group of individual plants asexually propagated from a single plant and, therefore, genetically identical. Clonal test: evaluation of an individual (ortet) or a clone (ramets) by comparing clones. Coleoptile: in monocotyledons, a sheath that covers the plumule. Coleorhiza: in monocotyledons, a sheath that covers the radicle. Columella: the persistent axis of certain capsules. Comose: hairy. Companion cells: phloem cell connected to a sieve-tube member by numerous plasmodesmata. Compatible: plant parts (scion and rootstock) capable of forming a permanent union when grafted. Complete flower: having all the components: pistils, stamens, petals and sepals. Compound: composed of several similar parts (leaflets), or a paniculate inflorescence (florets) each attached to a petiole-like structure (rachis) or directly to the top of the petiole. Compound leaf: divided into two or more blades (leaflets); palmately compound leaves have three or more leaflets arising from a common point, while pinnately compound leaves have leaflets arranged along a common axis. Cone: mass of ovule-bearing or pollen-bearing bracts or scales arranged spirally on a cylindrical or globose axis; common to most conifers. Conic: cone-shaped. Conifer: plants with cones and naked ovules; any of an order of trees and shrubs bearing true cones or with arillate seeds. Connate: parts of the same whorl grown together, as in sepals. Coppicing: trees that are cut down or pruned severely to the stump and re-growth produces multiple stems called poles. Cordate: heart-shaped in outline, such as a leaf with two rounded basal lobes. Coriaceous: having a stiff leathery texture. Corm: enlarged fleshy base of a stem, bulb-like but solid. Corolla: the second floral whorl of a complete flower, collective term for all free or united petals of a flower. Corymb or corymbose: flat-or round-topped flower cluster, outer pedicels are longer than inner pedicles with the outer flowers opening before the inner flowers. Costa: the extension of the petiole through the lamina of a palmate leaf. Costapalmate leaf: palm leaf in which the petiole extends into the leaf blade. Cotyledon: primary or rudimentary embryonic leaf of seed plants. Crenate: having margins with shallow, rounded teeth. Crenatures: notches or indentations. Cross-pollination: pollination by a genetically different plant. An outcross is a cross to an unrelated individual. Crownshaft: the tightly packed tubular leaf bases of some featherleaved palms sheath each other around the stem forming a conspicuous neck-like structure. Crustaceous: having a hard covering or crust. Cultivar: cultivated variety, synonymous with the term variety in the International Code of Nomenclature. Cultivars are always graced with a name and when written are usually capitalized and separated by single quotes or preceded by the word cultivar or abbreviation cv. A cultivar may be a clone or an F 1 hybrid or be seed-propagated, if uniform, but...
Janick/Horticultural Reviews V40, 2012
John Gerard (1545-1612) author of the most famous English Herball of 1597 and the playwright Will... more John Gerard (1545-1612) author of the most famous English Herball of 1597 and the playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were contemporaries in London. Their references to cucurbits (Cucurbitaceae) and nightshades (Solanaceae) encapsulate knowledge of these plants from both a scientific and a literary perspective in the English Renaissance. The Old World genera of the Cucurbitaceae (Byronia, Citrullus, Cucumis, Ecballium, Lagenaria, Momordica, and Solanaceae (Hyoscyamus, Mandragora, Physalis, Solanum) had a rich history in both medicine and food production in Antiquity and Medieval times in the Old World. The introduction of new crop species (Capsicum, Datura, Nicotiana, and Solanum) into Europe and Asia after the European encounter with the New World had a profound impact on world agriculture. References to cucurbits and nightshades in the 1597 Herball of John Gerard and the plays of Shakespeare a reflect scientific and public awareness of these species in the English Renassance. tradition is based on quotations found in Shakespeare's plays. This paper in part of our ongoing investigations on the crop history of the Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae.
Annals of botany, 2007
A critical analysis was made of cucurbit descriptions in Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, Colu... more A critical analysis was made of cucurbit descriptions in Dioscorides' De Materia Medica, Columella's De Re Rustica and Pliny's Historia Naturalis, works on medicine, agriculture and natural science of the 1st century ce, as well as the Mishna and Tosefta, compilations of rabbinic law derived from the same time period together with cucurbit images dating from antiquity including paintings, mosaics and sculpture. The goal was to identify taxonomically the Mediterranean cucurbits at the time of the Roman Empire. By ancient times, long-fruited forms of Cucumis melo (melon) and Lagenaria siceraria (bottle gourd) were selected, cultivated and used as vegetables around the Mediterranean and, in addition, bottle-shaped fruits of L. siceraria were employed as vessels. Citrullus lanatus (watermelons) and round-fruited forms of Cucumis melo (melons) were also consumed, but less commonly. A number of cucurbit species, including Bryonia alba, B. dioica, Citrullus colocynthis and Ecba...
HortScience
Morocco is an ancient kingdom and an emerging nation occupying a strategic bridge between northwe... more Morocco is an ancient kingdom and an emerging nation occupying a strategic bridge between northwest Africa and Europe. The most westerly nation of the Maghrib (the western Islamic world of North Africa that includes present-day Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and western Libya), Morocco borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, separated from Europe’s Iberian peninsula by the narrow straits of Gibraltar (Fig. 1). Geographically, Morocco is African, but there are close links to the Middle East and the Islamic world as well as to Europe via France and Spain.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
No consistent trend towards increased inbreeding has existed within the U.S. Department of Agricu... more No consistent trend towards increased inbreeding has existed within the U.S. Department of Agriculture pear breeding program over 17 years of crosses based on the mean inbreeding coefficient and the percentage of non-inbred progenies. Selections did not tend to be more or less inbred than the population of all seedings. There was consistent, but small, trend towards a reduction in seedling vigor with increased levels of inbreeding as measured by 5th year stem diameter. A significant positive, but small, association between increased inbreeding and improved flavor, grit, and texture were observed, even after correction for the effects of parental values for these characters. Limited inbreeding does not adversely affect improvement of fruit quality and appears to be of some benefit in facilitating selection of favorable alleles.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Leaf, stem, and tendril explants of Passiflora suberosa flowered in vitro on a basal medium conta... more Leaf, stem, and tendril explants of Passiflora suberosa flowered in vitro on a basal medium containing Murashige and Skoog salts plus 3% sucrose, glycine, and vitamins. The most effective flowering treatment was achieved with stem explants from the shoot apex cultured with 0.1 mg/liter 6-benzylamino purine (BA) in light. Flowering occurred in as few as 21 days. Shoot formation required only a 1-day exposure to BA but flowering required a 3-day exposure. Explants of leaves and stems obtained from below node 5 remained vegetative. Combined culture of basal and apical leaf discs did not alter flowering ability. Leaf discs recultured from in vitro flowering shoots formed only vegetative shoots, suggesting exhaustion of a flower-inducing substance in culture. Explants from juvenile plants formed only vegetative shoots.
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science, 1970
Five tomato vine types (indeterminate, jointless, determinate, miniature, and dwarf) were grown i... more Five tomato vine types (indeterminate, jointless, determinate, miniature, and dwarf) were grown in "equidistant" (on the square) arrangements at 5 population levels (
HortScience, 2003
subject to change. The process is cumulative and science is alive only when it grows. When any so... more subject to change. The process is cumulative and science is alive only when it grows. When any society claims to know the complete truth such that further question is heresy, science dies. Horticultural knowledge accumulation has always been in a state of tension between the mundane empiricism of the gardening arts discovered by generations of growers in contrast to information generated by scientists, often academics, sometimes indifferent to the uses of their discoveries and often obsessed by the irrelevant. In the 1900s, horticultural science was considered an oxymoron. One hundred years later, we are a Society that rejects this taunt and have demonstrated that horticultural science is a truly humanistic plant science, concerned with all information relevant to the interaction of humans and the plants that serve them. Our goal is the betterment of humankind. Throughout this paper, we will discuss a number of significant advancements in science that have been made by horticulturists or by plant scientists using horticultural plants and later applied to agriculture and other fields. For example, Gregor Mendel s groundbreaking discovery of the principles of heredity in a monastery garden led to what might be considered the most important scientific revolution in modern times: the flow of genetic information from generation to generation. Photoperiodic effects on plant growth, first reported by W.W. Garner and H.A. Allard on a number of horticultural crops in 1920, set the stage for understanding the relationship between crop production, light, and temperature. Fieldlevel photosynthetic rates were first measured by A.J. Heinicke and N.F. Childers in the 1930s using an apple-tree model. These concepts were later applied to many agricultural and ecological situations to evaluate carbon dioxide fixation and photosynthetic rates. L.R. Jones and J.C. Walker developed the concept of genetic control of plant disease resistance in their work with cabbage, leading to widespread efforts to use breeding techniques to obtain host plant resistance. H.A. Jones and A.F. Clarke discovered the cytoplasmic-genic system of hybrid seed production in onion, which revolutionized in F1 hybrid crop development. Particleacceleration technology, in which DNA is blasted into plant tissue in order to produce transgenic plant cells, was invented by the horticulturist John Sanford in 1987. Few scientific fields have captured the imagination as has horticulture, perhaps because of its centrality to the development of human culture. Biblical and other religious texts are filled with horticultural metaphors, such as the placement of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden near the Tree of Knowledge, the olive branch as a symbol for peace, and Noah s cultivation of a vineyard as his first act after the flood. We speak of a renaissance in events as a flowering and the end of innocence as a deflowering. The education of our youth involves, appropriately, a garden of children, or kindergarten. We cultivate relationships and speak of our hard work bearing fruit, certain people as late bloomers, or others as wall flowers, or worse, gone-to-seed. Moving to a different location marks us as transplants, but staying put means we are putting down roots. Many of our best thinkers have communicated complex concepts with such horticultural metaphors. Charles Darwin used the branching tree in describing the process of evolution in nature. In his vision, the branches represent phylogenetic patterns of lineage, and the dropped branches and twigs represent extinction. This tree metaphor for what Darwin called descent with modification has completely permeated biological science and popular culture. Horticulture and its practices are woven into our consciousness and have become part of the fabric of our language and thought. Nineteenth Century Horticulture The horticultural information and lore that was available in the U.S. at the beginning of the 20th century was prodigious, although its application seems primitive by today s standards. Practically all
Acta Horticulturae, 2007
Horticulture is an ancient pursuit. Beginning some 10,000 years ago, our brilliant forebears disc... more Horticulture is an ancient pursuit. Beginning some 10,000 years ago, our brilliant forebears discovered the horticultural craft secrets that are the basis of our profession. They initiated a revolution that changed forever the destiny of humans from scavenging, collecting, and hunting to agriculture. We all are the heirs and beneficiaries of this legacy from the past. Our roots derive from prehistoric gatherers, Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Korean farmers, Hellenic root diggers, medieval peasants, and gardeners everywhere who devised practical solutions to problems of plant growing for food, ornament, medicine, fiber, and shelter. The accumulated successes and improvements passed orally from parent to child, from artisan to apprentice, and became embedded in human consciousness via legend, craft secrets, and folk wisdom. It was stored in tales, almanacs, herbals, and histories and has become part of our common culture. More than practices and skills were involved as improved germplasm was selected and preserved via seed and graft from harvest to harvest and generation to generation. Practically all of our cultivated crops were selected and improved by prehistoric farmers. An array of technological approaches from primitive tools fashioned during the Bronze and Iron Ages through the development of the horticultural arts-irrigation, propagation, cultivation, pruning and training, drying, and fermentation-were devised to accommodate the needs and desires of humankind. The sum total of these technologies makes up the traditional lore of horticulture. It represents a monumental achievement of our forebears, unknown and unsung. Horticultural technology has been continuous over the millennia but in the last 100 years dramatic changes have occurred that have transformed horticulture from a craft to a science, and these changes will be displayed in the present Congress. However, all these advances are based solidly on the foundation of ancient techniques. HISTORY OF HORTICULTURE Horticulture: The First 10,000 Years Horticulture is truly an ancient pursuit. Some 10,000 years ago, our brilliant forebears discovered the horticultural craft secrets that are the basis of our profession. They initiated a revolution that changed forever the destiny of humans from scavenging, collection, and hunting to agriculture. We all are the heirs and beneficiaries of this legacy from the past. Our roots derive from prehistoric herders and collectors, Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, and Korean farmers, Hellenic root diggers, medieval peasants, and gardeners everywhere to obtain practical solutions to problems of plant growing and the use of these plant materials as food, medicine, fiber, and shelter. The accumulated successes and improvements passed orally from parent to child, from artisan to apprentice, and became embedded in human consciousness via legend, craft secrets, and folk wisdom. It was stored in tales, almanacs, herbals, and histories and has become part of our common culture. More than practices and skills were involved as improved germplasm was selected and preserved via seed and graft from harvest to harvest and generation to generation. Tremendous shifts in horticultural techniques, from primitive tools fashioned during the Bronze and Iron Ages through the development of the
Acta Horticulturae, 2002
Egyptian civilization dates back to the dawn of civilization and remnants exist in a continuous 6... more Egyptian civilization dates back to the dawn of civilization and remnants exist in a continuous 6000 year-old record. The artistic genius engendered by Egyptian civilization, the superb condition of many burial chambers, and the dry climate have made it possible to reconstruct a history of agricultural technology. Ancient Egypt is shown to be the source of much of the agricultural technology of the Western world. INTRODUCTION The story of Egypt leads us to the dawn of history. Paleolithic-Neolithic artifacts (flint hand-axes, arrowheads, hammers) along the Nile date back 12,000 years. Nubian, Ethiopian, and Libyan populations fusing with Semitic and West Asian immigrants formed a people and created the Egypt of history (Durant, 1954). A continuous 6000 year record exists (Table 1) with a unique and productive agriculture at its base. From 4000 to 3000 BCE these mingled peoples of the Nile valley formed a government, constructed the first pyramids, and established a highly advanced agricultural technology. The ancient names for Egypt underscore the relation between the land, the people, and its agriculture (Khattab, 2000). These include Ta-meri, the beloved land cultivated by the hoe, Ta Akht, the land of flood and fertile soil, Kmt, the black soil, Tamhi, the land of the flax plant, Nht, the land of the sycomore fig tree, and Misr, the safe and civilized country. The name, Egypt, was derived from the name of the Earth God, Ge, or from Agpt, referring to the land covered with flood waters. Knowledge of the history of Egyptian agriculture and horticulture can be gleaned from the archeological record supported by surviving written Egyptian documents, temple inscriptions, as well as commentaries from antiquity including those of the Greek historian Herodotus (484-425 BCE), the philosopher Theophrastus (372-288 BCE), and the books of Genesis and Exodus in the Hebrew bible. The supporting technology can be vividly reconstructed from the artistic record, painted and carved in tombs and temples dating onward from 3000 BCE. Agricultural activities were favorite themes of artists who drew or sculpted lively scenes of daily life that adorn the tombs of the pharaohs. Illustrations of these artifacts and artistic works found in two key references, Food, Gift of Osiris (Darby et al., 1974) and Volume I of A History of Technology (Singer et al., 1954) have been used for this paper supplemented by other sources, as well as some personal photographs by the author. The development of Egyptian agriculture did not occur in a vacuum. Egypt was an aggressive culture and, at one time, Egypt ruled from present day Libya in the West, Syria in the Northeast, and Ethiopia and Somalia and, perhaps, portions of sub-Saharan Africa in the south. Egypt continuously incorporated technology as well as new crops from the Fertile Crescent (present day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq) as well as Africa. In addition
Bulletin of University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca: Horticulture, Sep 28, 2010
Works of art from prehistory to the present constitute an alternate source of information on hort... more Works of art from prehistory to the present constitute an alternate source of information on horticultural crops. Plant iconography becomes a valuable resource for investigations horticultural technological practices; crop history including evolution under domestication, crop dispersal, lost and new traits; and genetic and taxonomic information. Crop images are also one of the unequivocal tools for assessing the historical presence of botanical taxa in a particular region and are an especially valuable resource for determining morphological changes of crops from antiquity to the present. Early written descriptions are often ambiguous and the confusion of plant names in ancient documents makes the image essential to determine the precise species involved plus providing information on the presence of morphological characters that may be unclear from the text. A plethora of ancient plant images exists, but they are widely scattered among libraries and museums, and are often difficult to locate and to access. However, the digitization of information by some of the major world libraries has greatly facilitated the search for ancient illustrations, although they still remain expensive to publish.
Horticulture: Plants for People and Places, Volume 3, 2014
Horticulture and its related sciences have produced a rich diversity of literature ranging from h... more Horticulture and its related sciences have produced a rich diversity of literature ranging from highly specialised scientific journals and scholarly books to detailed manuals for producers, from technical and popular books on gardening and cooking to encyclopaedias on highly specialised topics, and from newspaper and magazine articles to entries on the World Wide Web. These publications span a period of over 200 years. Included are food crops such as fruit, nuts, vegetables, and condiments; ornamentals and landscaping plants including trees, shrubs, and cut flower and bedding crops; turf grasses; medicinal plants and the use of plants for human wellbeing and therapy. This chapter presents selected examples of how horticulture has contributed to scholarship and literature. It also includes examples of how horticulture has been recorded in classical literature and become an integral part of many everyday sayings.
Plant Breeding Reviews, 2010