This perfectly explains how survival conditions effect the environment. It shows how organisms adapt and do anything because of their will to survive. I guess the planet Earth got lucky that this will to survive and scarcity of food later developed into the extremely successful organism called a plant, which provides the human race with food, oxygen, and many other important…
In the passage, “They Came Before Columbus”, the author, Ivan Van Sertima describes how a newly discovered plant provides “a whole complex of knowledge.” As Botanists, this type of information is important because knowing the uses of a new plant can possibly provide more uses for medicines to treat incurable diseases. Not only can a new plant provide medical uses, it can connect different cultures together. It proves that people are moving all around the Earth and bringing foreign objects with them that can be beneficial for all.…
To some people the fanwort is an intrusive weed but to others it is an attractive aquarium plant…
Michael Pollan’s film, The Botany of Desire, opened my eyes to the complicated relationship between people and plants. Pollan opened up with the following statement: “Flowers. Trees. Plants. We 've always thought that we controlled them. But what if, in fact, they have been shaping us?” (Pollan, PBS) I paused the film and took a few minutes to let this soak in. I was always under the impression that we were manipulating plants to our benefit only. I never thought that the plants were gaining something as well. The narrator explains, “The Botany of Desire examines this relationship by telling the stories of four plants that ensured their survival…
and this allowed them to have a more nomadic lifestyle. There were many plants that Europeans…
Our ancestors invented supplies to move around and also for protection another thing they did was how to farm and when was the right time to farm. This led our farmers to plant sugar canes to get sugar which it was first grown in New Guinea about 900 years ago. The first trade was when Guinea carried sugar cane stalks to India. The sugar caused a huge industry because it was a brand new product grown,it also made more labor for the people, and it made the capital make new laws for trading.…
Plants and animals are becoming known more and more for their vital human usage in many areas, such as…
In the report written by Richard Hakluyt for Queen Elizabeth, addressing the reasons to capitalize on North America, Mr. Hakluyt suggests that by installing the glory of the gospel, and England’s religion in North America they would provide a safe place for people around the world that flee in search for God’s word. In his document, “Discourse of Western Planting” the majority, if not all of his points are based on economic motivation except this one. As if he were running out of ideas, he slips this reason into his final points to urge the queen to invest in this opportunity. Although he says he wants to construct a haven for people to come to for religious purposes, if people were to come because of this, it certainly would not hurt the economy…
Europeans introduced many crops and weeds to other countries. Crops like the sugar cane became and essential crop for the rise of plantation economies.…
In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan counters the idea that humans fully control the crops they plant for their own use. Instead, Pollan uses a “plant’s-eye view of the world” to argue that plants have manipulated humans for evolutionary advantage as much as humans have manipulated plants. The book centers around four main plants that exploit our desires: The tulip gratifies our desire for beauty, the potato for control, the apple for sweetness, and cannabis for intoxication. Pollan shows how these plants evolved to satisfy humans’ desires; for example, the sweetness of the apple induced Americans to spread the species, allowing for the cultivation of apples in a whole new continent. Pollan explores the question: Who is really domesticating whom?…
reduced the time necessary to separate the seeds from the cotton and was one major…
more variety of crops being grown, the introduction of animals to other continents, an improvement in…
created a lot of wealth for those who grew them in the Old World. Economies…
In the Americas there were an abundance of new plants like beans, squash, peanuts, tomatoes, avocados, and pineapple and these are just a few common examples. The plants that made the biggest impact out of any of the crops were maize. Maize was able to be stored for practically forever before it went bad. It was such a robust plant that it was successfully transported back to Europe where it had quite the affect on the economy. Another very successful crop was potatoes which still are today. They become a part of everyone’s diet especially once it made it back to Europe because of how cheap they were.…
From a young age, Linnaeus showed a great interest in plants, and so received the title “the little botanist”. At university, he studied medicine, which was based around plants and herbs at the time, meaning that he had a good knowledge about plants.…