Cultivation, history, origin, and distribution of cultivated plants

Distribution of useful plants started slowly. However, wheat, Triticum aestivum, and barley, Hordeum vulgare, did arrive in England from West Asia before the Christian era. Peas and beans reached Switzerland from the Mediterranean at an early stage also. Later on it were the Romans who took many plants to the outskirts of their empire, while the Arabs distributed many species in Southern Europe. But it was only after the discovery of America, and during the time of the following voyages of discovery, that the distribution of plants came well under way.

Many crops reached Europe through Spain and spread from there across Europe. Two crops especially have brought about immense changes in the European diet. After it reached Europe, maize soon became the staple food in Spain and Portugal, while the potato became the food of the poor in Ireland. The introduction of plants in Asia took more time. This continent was much less in need for new crops because of its own wealth of species. Nevertheless, as early as 1574 maize found its way to this part of the world, followed by the pineapple in 1583, the papaya in 1600, and the sweet potato in 1616. The cassava came as late as 1786, and the potato arrived at the very end of the 18th century.

Initially, Africa south of the Sahara, did not know many food crops. The banana was imported from Madagascar just after Christ, and it took a thousand years before the Persians brought the mango and the aubergine. With the beginning of the slave trade new crops like maize, cassava, sweet potatoes and peanuts arrived. In West Africa the Portuguese introduced the coconut and rice.

The prehistoric American Indians lived on a diet of maize, supplemented with cassava, sweet potatoes, peanuts and pulses. The Spaniards introduced the banana and the sugar cane here. Later, rice and citrus fruits were added, and finally the slave trade introduced yams and new species of beans.

Later in history European colonists were responsible for another wave of distribution. They took plants from Europe to the new colonies, with big changes as a result. The soybean, now an important crop in American agriculture, was introduced in the 19th century. In Australia all food crops were imported after 1788, when the first colonists arrived.

Botanical gardens played an important role in the history of plant distribution as well. Here the introduction of trade crops in the colonies took place. In these gardens, in particular the Indian Botanic Garden in Calcutta (Botanical Gardens 1); the Royal Botanic Gardens at Peradeniya (Botanical Gardens 2) in Sri Lanka; the Kebun Raya at Bogor, Java (Botanical gardens 3); and the Botanic Gardens in Singapore (Botanical gardens 4), the necessary seeds for large scale cultivation were grown. Later these gardens developed into important research centres. At the same time, plantations needed labour, and this necessity was met by recruiting labourers from India and China. In this way the distribution of useful plants resulted in large economic interests and world trade on one hand, and to a mixture of cultures on the other.