1.
Ancient Egypt
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Ancient Egypt was a civilization of ancient Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one of six civilizations to arise independently, Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer. In the aftermath of Alexander the Greats death, one of his generals, Ptolemy Soter and this Greek Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province. The success of ancient Egyptian civilization came partly from its ability to adapt to the conditions of the Nile River valley for agriculture, the predictable flooding and controlled irrigation of the fertile valley produced surplus crops, which supported a more dense population, and social development and culture. Its art and architecture were widely copied, and its antiquities carried off to far corners of the world and its monumental ruins have inspired the imaginations of travelers and writers for centuries. The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history, nomadic modern human hunter-gatherers began living in the Nile valley through the end of the Middle Pleistocene some 120,000 years ago. By the late Paleolithic period, the climate of Northern Africa became increasingly hot and dry. In Predynastic and Early Dynastic times, the Egyptian climate was less arid than it is today. Large regions of Egypt were covered in treed savanna and traversed by herds of grazing ungulates, foliage and fauna were far more prolific in all environs and the Nile region supported large populations of waterfowl. Hunting would have been common for Egyptians, and this is also the period when many animals were first domesticated. The largest of these cultures in upper Egypt was the Badari, which probably originated in the Western Desert, it was known for its high quality ceramics, stone tools. The Badari was followed by the Amratian and Gerzeh cultures, which brought a number of technological improvements, as early as the Naqada I Period, predynastic Egyptians imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. In Naqada II times, early evidence exists of contact with the Near East, particularly Canaan, establishing a power center at Hierakonpolis, and later at Abydos, Naqada III leaders expanded their control of Egypt northwards along the Nile. They also traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the desert to the west. Royal Nubian burials at Qustul produced artifacts bearing the oldest-known examples of Egyptian dynastic symbols, such as the crown of Egypt. They also developed a ceramic glaze known as faience, which was used well into the Roman Period to decorate cups, amulets, and figurines. During the last predynastic phase, the Naqada culture began using written symbols that eventually were developed into a system of hieroglyphs for writing the ancient Egyptian language. The Early Dynastic Period was approximately contemporary to the early Sumerian-Akkadian civilisation of Mesopotamia, the third-century BC Egyptian priest Manetho grouped the long line of pharaohs from Menes to his own time into 30 dynasties, a system still used today
2.
Nile
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The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It is generally regarded as the longest river in the world, in particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt and Sudan. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile is considered to be the headwaters and primary stream of the Nile itself, the Blue Nile, however, is the source of most of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa and it flows north through Tanzania, Lake Victoria, Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast, the two rivers meet just north of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Sudanese desert to Egypt, then ends in a large delta, Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms have depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan, in the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥpī or Iteru, meaning river. In Coptic, the words piaro or phiaro meaning the river come from the ancient name. The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the Latin Nilus and the Ancient Greek Νεῖλος, beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. One possible etymology derives it from a Semitic Nahal, meaning river, the standard English names White Nile and Blue Nile, to refer to the rivers source, derive from Arabic names formerly applied only to the Sudanese stretches which meet at Khartoum. Above Khartoum, the Nile is also known as the White Nile, at Khartoum the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia, both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers, the source of the Nile is sometimes considered to be Lake Victoria, but the lake has feeder rivers of considerable size. It is either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. Gish Abay is reportedly the place where the water of the first drops of the Blue Nile develop. The Nile leaves Lake Nyanza at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda and it flows north for some 130 kilometers, to Lake Kyoga. For the remaining part it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the very northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta
3.
History of agriculture
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The history of agriculture records the domestication of plants and animals and the development and dissemination of techniques for raising them productively. Agriculture began independently in different parts of the globe, and included a range of taxa. At least eleven separate regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, Wild grains were collected and eaten from at least 20,000 BC. From around 9,500 BC, the eight Neolithic founder crops, emmer and einkorn wheat, hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax were cultivated in the Levant. Rice was domesticated in China between 11,500 and 6,200 BC, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans, pigs were domesticated in Mesopotamia around 13,000 BC, followed by sheep between 11,000 and 9,000 BC. Cattle were domesticated from the aurochs in the areas of modern Turkey. Sugarcane and some vegetables were domesticated in New Guinea around 7,000 BC. Sorghum was domesticated in the Sahel region of Africa by 5,000 BC, in the Andes of South America, the potato was domesticated between 8,000 and 5,000 BC, along with beans, coca, llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. Bananas were cultivated and hybridized in the period in Papua New Guinea. In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was domesticated to maize by 4,000 BC, cotton was domesticated in Peru by 3,600 BC. Camels were domesticated late, perhaps around 3,000 BC, irrigation, crop rotation, and fertilizers were introduced soon after the Neolithic Revolution and developed much further in the past 200 years, starting with the British Agricultural Revolution. The Haber-Bosch process allowed the synthesis of nitrate fertilizer on an industrial scale. Modern agriculture has raised social, political, and environmental issues including pollution, biofuels, genetically modified organisms, tariffs. In response, organic farming developed in the century as a consciously pesticide-free alternative. Scholars have developed a number of hypotheses to explain the origins of agriculture. Current models indicate that wild stands that had been harvested previously started to be planted, localised climate change is the favoured explanation for the origins of agriculture in the Levant. When major climate change took place after the last ice age and these conditions favoured annual plants which die off in the long dry season, leaving a dormant seed or tuber. An abundance of readily storable wild grains and pulses enabled hunter-gatherers in some areas to form the first settled villages at this time, early people began altering communities of flora and fauna for their own benefit through means such as fire-stick farming and forest gardening very early
4.
Flax
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Flax, Linum usitatissimum, is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is a food and fiber crop cultivated in regions of the world. The textiles made from flax are known in the Western countries as linen, and traditionally used for bed sheets, underclothes, the oil is known as linseed oil. In addition to referring to the plant itself, the word flax may refer to the fibers of the flax plant. The plant species is only as a cultivated plant, and appears to have been domesticated just once from the wild species Linum bienne. Several other species in the genus Linum are similar in appearance to L. usitatissimum, cultivated flax, including some that have similar blue flowers, some of these are perennial plants, unlike L. usitatissimum, which is an annual plant. Cultivated flax plants grow to 1.2 m tall, with slender stems, the leaves are glaucous green, slender lanceolate, 20–40 mm long, and 3 mm broad. The flowers are pale blue, 15–25 mm in diameter. The fruit is a round, dry capsule 5–9 mm in diameter, containing several brown seeds shaped like an apple pip. Flax was first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent region, evidence exists of a domesticated oilseed flax with increased seed size by 9,000 years ago from Tell Ramad in Syria. Use of the crop steadily spread, reaching as far as Switzerland, in China and India, domesticated flax was cultivated also by at least 5,000 years ago. Flax was extensively cultivated in ancient Egypt, where the walls had paintings of flowering flax. Egyptian priests only wore linen, as flax was considered a symbol of purity, phoenicians traded Egyptian linen throughout the Mediterranean, and the Romans used it for their sails. Eventually, Flanders became the center of the linen industry in the European Middle Ages. Since then, flax has lost its importance as a commercial crop, Flax is grown for its oil, used as a nutritional supplement, and as an ingredient in many wood-finishing products. Flax is also grown as a plant in gardens. Flax fibers are used to make linen, the Latin species name usitatissimum means most useful. Flax fibers are taken from the stem of the plant, and are two to three times as strong as those of cotton, additionally, flax fibers are naturally smooth and straight
5.
Papyrus
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The word papyrus /pəˈpaɪrəs/ refers to a thick precursor to modern paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of papyrus joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, the plural for such documents is papyri. Papyrus is first known to have used in ancient Egypt. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region and in Kingdom of Kush, the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a writing material, as well as employing it commonly in the construction of other artifacts such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE, the earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza, in the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned, early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking. Papyrus had the advantage of being cheap and easy to produce. Unless the papyrus was of quality, the writing surface was irregular. Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, the latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree, under Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs who originally learned of it from the Chinese, by the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices, pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus which were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping, until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known. They did not contain literary works, the first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. The English word papyrus derives, via Latin, from Greek πάπυρος, Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος
6.
Drainage divide
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A drainage divide, water divide, divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting, is the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins. In hilly country, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a range of hills or mountains. In flat country—especially where the ground is marshy—the divide may be harder to discern, a valley floor divide is a low drainage divide that runs across a valley, sometimes created by deposition or stream capture. Settlements are often built on valley-floor divides in the Alps, examples are Eben im Pongau, Kirchberg in Tirol and Waidring. Extremely low divides with heights of less than two metres are found on the North German Plain within the Urstromtäler, for example, between Havel and Finow in the Eberswalde Urstromtal. In marsh deltas such as the Okavango, the largest drainage area on earth, or in large areas, such as the Finnish Lakeland. Another case is bifurcation, where the watershed is effectively in the river bed, in pre-industrial times, water divides were crossed at portages. Later, canals connected adjoining drainage basins, a key problem in such canals is ensuring a sufficient water supply, category, Drainage basins List of watershed topics European watershed Scottish watershed River source
7.
Geography of Egypt
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Egypt The geography of Egypt relates to two regions, North Africa and Southwest Asia. Egypt has coastlines on both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, Egypt borders Libya to the west, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, and Sudan to the south. Egypt has an area of 1,001,449 km2, the longest straight-line distance in Egypt from north to south is 1,024 km, while that from east to west measures 1,240 km. 35,000 km2 -3. 5% - of the land area is cultivated. Most of the lies within the wide band of desert that stretches eastwards from Africas Atlantic Coast across the continent. The Nile valley extends approximately 800 km from Aswan to the outskirts of Cairo, the Nile Valley is very cool and known as Upper Egypt, while the Nile Delta region is known as Lower Egypt. Steep rocky cliffs rise along the banks of the Nile in some stretches, while areas along the Nile are flat. In the past, flooding of the Nile during the summer provided silt, since construction of the Aswan Dam, agriculture in the Nile valley depends on irrigation. The Nile delta consists of flat, low-lying areas, some parts of the delta are marshy and water-logged, and thus not suitable for agriculture. Other areas of the delta are used for agriculture, the Nile Valley and Delta, the most extensive oasis on earth, was created by the worlds longest river and its seemingly inexhaustible sources. Without the topographic channel that permits the Nile to flow across the Sahara, the length within Egypt of the River Nile in its northwards course from three central African sources – the White Nile, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara – totals some 1,600 km. The White Nile, which begins at Lake Victoria in Uganda, in its course from Lake Victoria to Juba in South Sudan, the White Niles channel drops more than 600 m. In its 1, 600-km course from Juba to Khartoum, Sudans capital, in South Sudan, the White Nile passes through the Sudd, a wide, flat plain covered with swamp vegetation and slows almost to the point of stagnation. The Blue Nile, which originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and this river has a steeper gradient and therefore flows more swiftly than the White Nile, which it joins at Khartoum. Unlike the White Nile, the Blue Nile carries an amount of sediment. The much shorter Atbarah River, which originates in Ethiopia. During the low-water season, which runs from January to June, but, in late-summer, when torrential rains fall on the Ethiopian Highlands, the Atbarah provides 22% of the Niles flow. The Blue Nile has a similar pattern and it contributes 17% of the Niles waters in the low-water season and 68% during the high-water season
8.
Lake Victoria
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Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, Speke accomplished this in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton to locate the source of the Nile River. In terms of volume, Lake Victoria is the ninth largest continental lake. Lake Victoria receives its water primarily from rainfall and thousands of small streams. The Kagera River is the largest river flowing into this lake, Lake Victoria is drained solely by the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, on the lakes northern shore. Lake Victoria occupies a depression in Africa. The lake has a depth of 84 metres and an average depth of 40 metres. Its catchment area covers 184,000 square kilometres, geologically, Lake Victoria is relatively young – about 400,000 years old – and it formed when westward-flowing rivers were dammed by an upthrown crustal block. During its geological history, Lake Victoria went through changes ranging from its present shallow depression, geological cores taken from its bottom show Lake Victoria has dried up completely at least three times since it formed. These drying cycles are probably related to past ice ages, which were times when precipitation declined globally, Lake Victoria last dried out about 17,300 years ago, and it refilled 14,700 years ago. Lake Victoria receives 80 percent of its water from direct rainfall, average evaporation on the lake is between 2.0 and 2.2 metres per year, almost double the precipitation of riparian areas. In the Kenya sector, the main influent rivers are the Sio, Nzoia, Yala, Nyando, Sondu Miriu, Mogusi, combined, these rivers contribute far more water to the lake than does the largest single river entering the lake from the west, the Kagera River. The only outflow from Lake Victoria is the Nile River, which exits the lake near Jinja, in terms of contributed water, this makes Lake Victoria the principal source of the longest branch of the Nile. The uppermost section of the Nile is generally known as the Victoria Nile until it reaches Lake Albert, in 1990–1991, oxygen concentrations in the mixed layer were higher than in 1960–1961, with nearly continuous oxygen supersaturation in surface waters. The changes in oxygenation are considered consistent with measurements of higher algal biomass, the extinction of cichlids in the genus Haplochromis has also been blamed on the lakes eutrophication. The fertility of tropical waters depends on the rate at which nutrients can be brought into solution, the influent rivers of Lake Victoria provide few nutrients to the lake in relation to its size. Because of this, most of Lake Victorias nutrients are thought to be locked up in lake-bottom deposits, by itself, this vegetative matter decays slowly. Animal flesh decays considerably faster, however, so the fertility of the lake is dependent on the rate at which nutrients can be taken up by fish
9.
Blue Nile
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The Blue Nile is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. With the White Nile, the river one of the two major tributaries of the Nile. The upper course of the river is called the Abbay in Ethiopia, some Ethiopians have long identified the Blue Nile as the River Gihon mentioned as flowing out of the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 2 and encircling the entire land of Cush. In the local Sudanese language, the word for black is used for the colour blue. The distance of the river from its source to its confluence has been reported as being between 1,460 kilometres and 1,600 kilometres. According to materials published by the Central Statistical Agency, the Blue Nile has a length of 1,450 kilometres. The Blue Nile flows generally south from Lake Tana and then west across Ethiopia, within 30 km of its source at Lake Tana, the river enters a canyon about 400 km long. This gorge is an obstacle for travel and communication from the north half of Ethiopia to the southern half. The power of the Blue Nile may best be appreciated at the Blue Nile Falls and this stream, known as the Lesser Abay River, flows north into Lake Tana. Other affluents of this include, in clockwise order from Gorgora, the Magech River, the Northern Gumara, the Reb River, the southern Gumara River. Lake Tanas outflow then flows some 30 kilometres before plunging over the Blue Nile Falls, the river then loops across northwest Ethiopia through a series of deep valleys and canyons into Sudan, by which point it is only known as the Blue Nile. There are numerous tributaries of the Abay between Lake Tana and the Sudanese border. Those on the side, also in downstream order, include the Handassa, Tul, Abaya, Sade, Tammi, Cha, Shita, Suha, Muga, Gulla, Temcha, Bachat, Katlan, Jiba, Chamoga, Weter. The flow of the Blue Nile reaches maximum volume in the rainy season, the Blue Nile was a major source of the flooding of the Nile that contributed to the fertility of the Nile Valley and the consequent rise of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology. With the completion in 1970 of the Aswan Dam in Egypt, the Blue Nile is vital to the livelihood of Egypt. The Blue Nile, the most significant tributary of the Nile, though shorter than the White Nile, 59% of the water that reaches Egypt originates from the Blue Nile branch of the great river. The river is also an important resource for Sudan, where the Roseires Dam and these dams also help irrigate the Gezira Scheme, which is most famous for its high quality cotton. The region also produces wheat and animal feed crops, in November 2012, Ethiopia began a six-year project for the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a 6000-megawatt hydroelectric dam on the river
10.
White Nile
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The White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile, the other is the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, White Nile refers to the river formed at Lake Victoria, at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal, in the wider sense, White Nile refers to the rivers draining from Lake Victoria into the White Nile proper. The White Niles true source was not discovered until 1937, when the German explorer Burkhart Waldecker traced it to a stream in Rutovu, when in flood, the Sobat River tributary carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Niles color. The source of the Nile can be considered to be either the Ruvyironza, which emerges in Bururi Province, Burundi, near Bukirasaz or the Nyabarongo, the two feeder rivers meet near Rusumo Falls on the Rwanda-Tanzania border. The Kagera forms part of the Rwanda–Tanzania and Tanzania–Uganda borders before flowing into Lake Victoria, the river arising from Lake Victoria is known as the Victoria Nile. The place where it arises, just outside Jinja, is marked by a monument, after Nalubaale Power Station and Kiira Power Station at the mouth, the river goes through Bujagali Falls about 15 kilometres downstream from Jinja. It then flows north and westwards through Uganda, feeding into Lake Kyoga in the centre of the country, at Karuma Falls, the river sweeps under Karuma Bridge at the south-eastern corner of Murchison Falls National Park. In 2009, the government of Uganda announced plans to construct a 750-megawatt hydropower project several kilometres north of the bridge, the World Bank had approved funding a smaller 200-megawatt power plant, but Uganda opted for a bigger project, which the Ugandans will fund internally, if necessary. Just before entering Lake Albert, the river is compressed into a passage 7 metres in width at Murchison Falls, the river flows into Lake Albert opposite the Blue Mountains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The river exiting Lake Albert to the north is known as the Albert Nile and it separates the West Nile sub-region of Uganda from the rest of the country. A bridge passes over the Albert Nile near its inlet in Nebbi District, a powered ferry connects the roads between Adjumani and Moyo, navigation of the river is otherwise done by small boat or canoe. The Albert Nile continues north to Nimule, where it enters South Sudan and becomes known as the Mountain Nile or Baḥr al-Jabal, Bahr al Jabal also formerly lent its name to the state of Central Equatoria. The Bahr al-Jabal then winds through rapids before entering the Sudan plain and it makes its way to Lake No, where it merges with the Bahr el Ghazal and there forms the White Nile. An anabranch river called Bahr el Zeraf flows out of the Bahr al-Jabal at and flows through the Sudd, to eventually join the White Nile. The river flows north into Sudan and lends its name to the Sudanese state of White Nile, before merging with the larger Blue Nile at Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, List of rivers of Sudan List of rivers of South Sudan
11.
Khartoum
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Khartoum is the capital and second largest city of Sudan and the state of Khartoum. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing north from Lake Victoria, the location where the two Niles meet is known as al-Mogran. The main Nile continues to north towards Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. The origin of the word, Khartoum, is uncertain, one theory argues that khartoum is derived from Arabic khurṭūm, probably referring to the narrow strip of land extending between the Blue and White Niles. Some scholars speculate that the word derives from the Nubian word, Agartum, other Beja scholars suggest Khartoum is derived from the Beja word, Hartoom. Additionally, the dream interpreting magicians in Genesis 41,8 are referred to as חַרְטֻמֵּ֥י, suggesting that in ancient times the word already existed. In 1821, Khartoum was established 24 kilometres north of the ancient city of Soba, by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Egypts ruler, Muhammad Ali Pasha, who had just incorporated Sudan into his realm. Originally, Khartoum served as an outpost for the Egyptian Army and it also became a focal point for the slave trade. Later, it became the center of Sudan and official capital. On 13 March 1884, troops loyal to the Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad started a siege of Khartoum, the siege ended in a massacre of the Anglo-Egyptian garrison. On 26 January 1885, the damaged city fell to the Mahdists. On 2 September 1898, Omdurman was the scene of the bloody Battle of Omdurman, in 1973, the city was the site of an anomalous hostage crisis in which members of Black September held 10 hostages at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of them diplomats. The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian chargé daffaires were murdered, a 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded, The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat. In 1977, the first oil pipeline between Khartoum and the Port of Sudan was completed, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Khartoum was the destination for hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflicts in neighboring nations such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Many Eritrean and Ethiopian refugees assimilated into society, while others settled in large slums at the outskirts of the city, since the mid-1980s, large numbers of refugees from South Sudan and Darfur fleeing the violence of the Second Sudanese Civil War and Darfur conflict have settled around Khartoum. In 1991, Osama bin Laden purchased a house in the affluent al-Riyadh neighborhood of the city and he lived there until 1996, when he was banished from the country. The destruction of the factory produced diplomatic tension between the U. S. and Sudan, the factory ruins are now a tourist attraction. The sudden death of SPLA head and vice-president of Sudan, John Garang, the riots finally died down after Southern Sudanese politicians and tribal leaders sent strong messages to the rioters
12.
Scorpion II
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Scorpion II, also known as King Scorpion, refers to the second of two kings or chieftains of that name during the Protodynastic Period of Upper Egypt. King Scorpions name and title are of great dispute in modern Egyptology and his name is often introduced by a six- or seven-leafed, golden rosette or flower-sign. Its precise meaning has been discussed, the most common interpretation is that of an emblem meaning nomarch or high lord. Thus, the golden rosette became an emblem of Seshat. The reading of the sign is also disputed. Most linguists and Egyptologists read it Neb or Nesw, and they are convinced that the rosette was some kind of forerunner to the later serekh. The scorpion fetish, which underlies the name of Scorpion II, is linked to the later-introduced goddess Selket. But Egyptologists and linguists such as L. D, morenz, H. Beinlich, Toby Wilkinson and Jan Assmann have pointed out that the goddess was introduced no earlier than the late Old Kingdom period. In this view, the fetish of the protodynastic period should not be associated with Selket. Morenz points out that, in cases where an animal is included in a rulers name. The scorpion animal commonly stood for dangerous things, such as poison and illness, since it is unclear what actual meaning was reserved for the serekh animal of Scorpion II, scholars usually refer to him as King Scorpion II. There are several theories regarding his identity and chronological position and they also argue that the artistic style seen on the macehead of Scorpion II shows conspicuous similarities to that on the famous Narmer macehead. Wilkinson, Renée Friedman and Bruce Trigger, have identified king Scorpion II as the Gegenkönig of Narmer, at the time of Scorpion II, Egypt was divided into several minor kingdoms that were fighting each other. It is likewise conjectured that Narmer simply conquered the realms of Ka and Scorpion II and it is currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The stratigraphy of this macehead was lost due to the methods of its excavators, the Scorpion Macehead depicts a single, large figure wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt. He holds a hoe, which has interpreted as a ritual either involving the pharaoh ceremonially cutting the first furrow in the fields. The use and placement of the iconography is similar to the depiction of the pharaoh Narmer on the side of the Narmer Palette. The king is preceded by servants, the first in row seems to throw seeds from a basket into the freshly hacked ground
13.
Amun
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Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
14.
Karnak
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The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, the area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, the complex is a vast open-air museum, and the second largest ancient religious site in the world, after the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia. It is believed to be the second most visited site in Egypt. It consists of four parts, of which only the largest is currently open to the general public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Ra only, the three other parts, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few temples and sanctuaries connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re. The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, the original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatshepsut, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of the temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times, approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the features of Karnak are unique, but the size. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture and it also contains evidence of adaptations, using buildings of the Ancient Egyptians by later cultures for their own religious purposes. One famous aspect of Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re,122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers and this would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone, if stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material
15.
Gardens of ancient Egypt
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The gardens of ancient Egypt probably began as simple fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, irrigated with water from the Nile. Gradually as the country became richer, they evolved into pleasure gardens, with flowers, ponds and alleys of fruit and shade trees. Temples, palaces, and private residences had their own gardens, the history and character of gardens in Ancient Egypt, like all aspects of Egyptian life, depended upon the Nile, and the network of canals that drew water from it. The earliest gardens were composed of planting beds divided into squares by earthen walls, gardens belonged to temples or the residences. Secular gardens were located near the river or canals, and were used mainly for growing vegetables, beginning with the New Kingdom, gardens were attached to more luxurious residences. and were sometimes enclosed by walls. The ponds of palace gardens were enormous and numerous, in the second millennium B. C. the garden pond of King Sneferu was large enough for boats rowed by twenty oarsmen. The rulers of ancient Egypt, such as Queen Hatshepsut, and Ramses III used pots to bring back to Egypt new kinds of trees and flowers discovered during their conquests in Libya, Syria, beginning during the New Kingdom, pleasure gardens became a common feature of luxury residences. According to paintings in tombs in Thebes from the 18th Dynasty and they had a pond, usually rectangular, in the centre, filled with colourful fish, with lotus blossoms in the water and flowers around the edges. Around the pond were successive rows of trees, including sycamores, palms, the edges of the water basins were sloping, with a stairway down one side so gardeners could collect water for irrigation. The pond was surrounded by walls or columns supporting grapevines. The walls and columns were decorated with paintings of people, animals. The hymns painted on the walls of tombs show that religious ceremonies centred on the cycles of nature, temple gardens often had rows of fig trees and sycamores, tamaris, willows, or palm trees. Rows of trees sometimes stretched for several kilometres, connecting several temples, the temples themselves had esplanades planted with trees. When rows of trees were planted far from the river, wells had to be dug ten metres deep to water for irrigation. During the time of Amenophis III, some temples were devoted to a goddess in the form of a tree, with a trunk for a body and this goddess was believed to carry water to the dead, the quench their thirst. Temple gardens often were the homes of animals sacred to the gods, such as the ibis, flowers were part of all the religious ceremonies during the time of the god Amon. These gardens also produced medicinal herbs and spices such as cumin, marjoram, anise, funeral gardens were miniature versions of house gardens that were placed in tombs. They usually had a square house or pavilion with wooden columns, surrounded by a wall
16.
Orchard
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An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive purpose. A fruit garden is generally synonymous with an orchard, although it is set on a smaller non-commercial scale, most temperate-zone orchards are laid out in a regular grid, with a grazed or mown grass or bare soil base that makes maintenance and fruit gathering easy. Orchards are sometimes concentrated near bodies of water, where climatic extremes are moderated, an orchards layout is the technique of planting the crops in a proper system. There are different methods of planting and thus different layouts, some of these layout types include, Square method Rectangular method Quincunx method Triangular method Hexagonal method Contour method For different varieties, these systems may vary to some extent. The most extensive orchards in the United States are apple and orange orchards, the most extensive apple orchard area is in eastern Washington state, with a lesser but significant apple orchard area in most of Upstate New York. Extensive orange orchards are found in Florida and southern California, where they are widely known as groves. In eastern North America, many orchards are along the shores of Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, in Canada, apple and other fruit orchards are widespread on the Niagara Peninsula, south of Lake Ontario. This region is known as Canada Fruitbelt and, in addition to large-scale commercial fruit marketing, murcia is a major orchard area in Europe, with citrus crops. New Zealand, China, Argentina and Chile also have extensive apple orchards, tenbury Wells in Worcestershire has been called The Town in the Orchard, since the 19th century, because it was surrounded by extensive orchards. Today, this heritage is celebrated through an annual Applefest, streuobstwiese is a German word that means a meadow with scattered fruit trees or fruit trees that are planted in a field. Streuobstwiese, or a meadow orchard, is a landscape in the temperate. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Streuobstwiesen were a kind of a community orchard that were intended for productive cultivation of stone fruit. In recent years, ecologists have successfully lobbied for state subsidies to valuable habitats, biodiversity and natural landscapes, both conventional and meadow orchards provide a suitable habitat for many animal species that live in a cultured landscape. Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts was the residence of American celebrated writer Louisa May Alcott, fruita, Utah part of Capitol Reef National Park has Mormon pioneer orchards maintained by the United States National Park Service. The Orchard Link organisation provides advice on how to manage and restore the county of Devons orchards, an organisation called Orchards Live carries out similar work in North Devon. Peoples Trust for Endangered Species has mapped every traditional orchard within England, the UK Biodiversity Partnership lists traditional orchards and a priority UK Biodiversity Action Plan habitat
17.
Garden
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A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials, the most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has traditionally been a more general one. Zoos, which wild animals in simulated natural habitats, were formerly called zoological gardens. Western gardens are almost universally based on plants, with garden often signifying a shortened form of botanical garden, some traditional types of eastern gardens, such as Zen gardens, use plants sparsely or not at all. Xeriscape gardens use local plants that do not require irrigation or extensive use of other resources while still providing the benefits of a garden environment. Gardens may exhibit structural enhancements, sometimes called follies, including features such as fountains, ponds, waterfalls or creeks, dry creek beds, statuary, arbors, trellises. Some gardens are for ornamental purposes only, while some also produce food crops, sometimes in separate areas. Food-producing gardens are distinguished from farms by their scale, more labor-intensive methods. Flower gardens combine plants of different heights, colors, textures, Gardening is the activity of growing and maintaining the garden. This work is done by an amateur or professional gardener, a gardener might also work in a non-garden setting, such as a park, a roadside embankment, or other public space. Landscape architecture is a professional activity with landscape architects tending to specialise in design for public. See Grad for more complete etymology, the words yard, court, and Latin hortus, are cognates—all referring to an enclosed space. The term garden in British English refers to an enclosed area of land. This would be referred to as a yard in American English, garden design is the creation of plans for the layout and planting of gardens and landscapes. Gardens may be designed by garden owners themselves, or by professionals, professional garden designers tend to be trained in principles of design and horticulture, and have a knowledge and experience of using plants. Some professional garden designers are also landscape architects, a formal level of training that usually requires an advanced degree. Garden design can be divided into two groups, formal and naturalistic gardens. All of these considerations are subject to the limitations of the budget, most gardens consist of a mix of natural and constructed elements, although even very natural gardens are always an inherently artificial creation
18.
Horticulture
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Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of growing plants. It includes the cultivation of plants, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and non-food crops such as grass and ornamental trees. It also includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, landscape and garden design, construction, and maintenance, inside agriculture, horticulture contrasts with extensive field farming as well as animal husbandry. Horticulturists apply their knowledge, skills, and technologies used to grow intensively produced plants for food and non-food uses. Their work involves plant propagation and cultivation with the aim of improving plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases and they work as gardeners, growers, therapists, designers, and technical advisors in the food and non-food sectors of horticulture. Horticulture even refers to the growing of plants in a field or garden, hortus is cognate with the native English word yard and also the borrowed word garden. Turf management includes all aspects of the production and maintenance of grass for sports. Floriculture includes the production and marketing of floral crops, landscape horticulture includes the production, marketing and maintenance of landscape plants. Olericulture includes the production and marketing of vegetables, pomology includes the production and marketing of pome fruits. Viticulture includes the production and marketing of grapes, oenology includes all aspects of wine and winemaking. Postharvest physiology involves maintaining the quality of and preventing the spoilage of plants, Horticulture has a very long history. The practice of horticulture can be retraced for many thousands of years, the cultivation of taro and yam in Papua New Guinea dates back to at least 6950–6440 cal BP. In the Pre-Columbian Amazon Rainforest, natives are believed to have used biochar to enhance productivity by smoldering plant waste. European settlers called it Terra Preta de Indio, in forest areas such horticulture is often carried out in swiddens. A characteristic of horticultural communities is that trees are often to be found planted around communities or specially retained from the natural ecosystem. Horticulture primarily differs from agriculture in two ways, first, it generally encompasses a smaller scale of cultivation, using small plots of mixed crops rather than large fields of single crops. Secondly, horticultural cultivations generally include a variety of crops. Agricultural cultivations however as a focus on one primary crop
19.
Ancient Egyptian cuisine
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The cuisine of ancient Egypt covers a span of over three thousand years, but still retained many consistent traits until well into Greco-Roman times. The staples of both poor and wealthy Egyptians were bread and beer, often accompanied by green-shooted onions, other vegetables, depictions of banquets can be found in paintings from both the Old Kingdom and New Kingdom. They usually started sometime in the afternoon, men and women were separated unless they were married. Seating varied according to status, with those of the highest status sitting on chairs, those slightly lower sat on stools. Before the food was served, basins were provided along with perfumes and cones of scented fat were lit to spread pleasant smells or to repel insects, depending on the type. Lily flowers and flower collars were handed out and professional dancers entertained, accompanied by musicians playing harps, lutes, drums, tambourines, and clappers. There were usually considerable amounts of alcohol and abundant quantities of foods, there were whole roast oxen, ducks, geese, pigeons, the dishes frequently consisted of stews served with great amounts of bread, fresh vegetables and fruit. For sweets there were cakes baked with dates and sweetened with honey, the goddess Hathor was often invoked during feasts. Food could be prepared by stewing, baking, boiling, grilling, frying, spices and herbs were added for flavor, though the former were expensive imports and therefore confined to the tables of the wealthy. Food such as meats was mostly preserved by salting, and dates, the staples bread and beer were usually prepared in the same locations, as the yeast used for bread was also used for brewing. The two were prepared either in special bakeries or, more often, at home, and any surplus would be sold, Egyptian bread was made almost exclusively from emmer wheat, which was more difficult to turn into flour than most other varieties of wheat. The chaff does not come off through threshing, but comes in spikelets that needed to be removed by moistening and pounding with a pestle to avoid crushing the grains inside. It was then dried in the sun, winnowed and sieved and finally milled on a saddle quern, the baking techniques varied over time. In the Old Kingdom, heavy pottery molds were filled with dough, during the Middle Kingdom tall cones were used on square hearths. In the New Kingdom a new type of a large open-topped clay oven, cylindrical in shape, was used, dough was then slapped on the heated inner wall and peeled off when done, similar to how a tandoor oven is used for flatbreads. Tombs from the New Kingdom show images of bread in many different shapes and sizes, loaves shaped like human figures, fish, various animals and fans, all of varying dough texture. Flavorings used for bread included coriander seeds and dates, but it is not known if this was used by the poor. Other than emmer, barley was grown to make bread and also used for making beer, and so were lily seeds and roots, and tiger nut
20.
Grain
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Grains are small, hard, dry seeds, with or without attached hulls or fruit layers, harvested for human or animal consumption. Agronomists also call the plants producing such seeds grain crops, the two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals such as wheat and rye, and legumes such as beans and soybeans. Because of the ubiquity of grain as a source, the term grain is often used to describe something small. After being harvested, dry grains are more durable than other foods, such as starchy fruits. Thus, major global commodity markets exist for canola, maize, rice, soybeans, wheat, in botany, grains and cereals are synonymous with caryopses, the fruits of the grass family. In agronomy and commerce, seeds or fruits from other plant families are called if they resemble caryopses. For example, amaranth is sold as grain amaranth, and amaranth products may be described as whole grains, the pre-Hispanic civilizations of the Andes had grain-based food systems but, at the higher elevations, none of the grains was a cereal. All three grains native to the Andes are broad-leafed plants rather than such as corn, rice. All cereal crops are members of the grass family, cereal grains contain a substantial amount of starch, a carbohydrate that provides dietary energy. As is the case all other whole plant foods, pulses also contain carbohydrate. Vegetable oils provide dietary energy and some essential fatty acids and they are also used as fuel or lubricants. Those who handle grain at grain facilities may encounter numerous occupational hazards, risks include grain entrapment, where workers are submerged in the grain and unable to remove themselves, explosions caused by fine particles of grain dust, and falls
21.
Vegetable
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In everyday usage, a vegetable is any part of a plant that is consumed by humans as food as part of a meal. The term vegetable is somewhat arbitrary, and largely defined through culinary and it normally excludes other food derived from plants such as fruits, nuts, and cereal grains, but includes seeds such as pulses. The original meaning of the vegetable, still used in biology, was to describe all types of plant, as in the terms vegetable kingdom. At first, plants which grew locally would have been cultivated, nowadays, most vegetables are grown all over the world as climate permits, and crops may be cultivated in protected environments in less suitable locations. China is the largest producer of vegetables and global trade in agricultural products allows consumers to purchase vegetables grown in faraway countries, the scale of production varies from subsistence farmers supplying the needs of their family for food, to agribusinesses with vast acreages of single-product crops. Depending on the type of vegetable concerned, harvesting the crop is followed by grading, storing, processing, and marketing. Vegetables can be either raw or cooked and play an important role in human nutrition, being mostly low in fat and carbohydrates. Many nutritionists encourage people to consume plenty of fruit and vegetables, the word vegetable was first recorded in English in the early 15th century. It comes from Old French, and was applied to all plants. It derives from Medieval Latin vegetabilis growing, flourishing, a change from a Late Latin meaning to be enlivening, quickening. The meaning of vegetable as a plant grown for food was not established until the 18th century, in 1767, the word was specifically used to mean a plant cultivated for food, an edible herb or root. The year 1955 saw the first use of the shortened, slang term veggie, the broadest definition is the words use adjectivally to mean matter of plant origin to distinguish it from animal, meaning matter of animal origin. More specifically, a vegetable may be defined as any plant, part of which is used for food, a secondary meaning then being the edible part of such a plant. A more precise definition is any plant part consumed for food that is not a fruit or seed, falling outside these definitions are edible fungi and edible seaweed which, although not parts of plants, are often treated as vegetables. In everyday language, the fruit and vegetable are mutually exclusive. Fruit has a precise meaning, being a part that developed from the ovary of a flowering plant. This is considerably different from the words culinary meaning, while peaches, plums, and oranges are fruit in both senses, many items commonly called vegetables, such as eggplants, bell peppers, and tomatoes, are botanically fruits. The question of whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable found its way into the United States Supreme Court in 1893
22.
Fruit
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In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate seeds, accordingly, fruits account for a substantial fraction of the worlds agricultural output, and some have acquired extensive cultural and symbolic meanings. On the other hand, in usage, fruit includes many structures that are not commonly called fruits, such as bean pods, corn kernels, tomatoes. The section of a fungus that produces spores is called a fruiting body. Many common terms for seeds and fruit do not correspond to the botanical classifications, however, in botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary or carpel that contains seeds, a nut is a type of fruit and not a seed, and a seed is a ripened ovule. Examples of culinary vegetables and nuts that are botanically fruit include corn, cucurbits, eggplant, legumes, sweet pepper, in addition, some spices, such as allspice and chili pepper, are fruits, botanically speaking. g. Botanically, a grain, such as corn, rice, or wheat, is also a kind of fruit. However, the wall is very thin and is fused to the seed coat. The outer, often edible layer, is the pericarp, formed from the ovary and surrounding the seeds, the pericarp may be described in three layers from outer to inner, the epicarp, mesocarp and endocarp. Fruit that bears a prominent pointed terminal projection is said to be beaked, a fruit results from maturation of one or more flowers, and the gynoecium of the flower forms all or part of the fruit. Inside the ovary/ovaries are one or more ovules where the megagametophyte contains the egg cell, after double fertilization, these ovules will become seeds. The ovules are fertilized in a process starts with pollination. After pollination, a tube grows from the pollen through the stigma into the ovary to the ovule, later the zygote will give rise to the embryo of the seed, and the endosperm mother cell will give rise to endosperm, a nutritive tissue used by the embryo. As the ovules develop into seeds, the ovary begins to ripen and the ovary wall, in some multiseeded fruits, the extent to which the flesh develops is proportional to the number of fertilized ovules. The pericarp is often differentiated into two or three distinct layers called the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, in some fruits, especially simple fruits derived from an inferior ovary, other parts of the flower, fuse with the ovary and ripen with it. In other cases, the sepals, petals and/or stamens and style of the fall off. When such other floral parts are a significant part of the fruit, it is called an accessory fruit, since other parts of the flower may contribute to the structure of the fruit, it is important to study flower structure to understand how a particular fruit forms. There are three modes of fruit development, Apocarpous fruits develop from a single flower having one or more separate carpels
23.
Barley
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Barley, a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago, Barley has been used as animal fodder, as a source of fermentable material for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods. It is used in soups and stews, and in barley bread of various cultures, Barley grains are commonly made into malt in a traditional and ancient method of preparation. In 2014, barley was ranked fourth among grains in quantity produced behind corn, rice, the Old English word for barley was bære, which traces back to Proto-Indo-European and is cognate to the Latin word farina flour. The direct ancestor of modern English barley in Old English was the derived adjective bærlic, the first citation of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to around 966 CE, in the compound word bærlic-croft. The underived word bære survives in the north of Scotland as bere, the word barn, which originally meant barley-house, is also rooted in these words. Barley is a member of the grass family and it is a self-pollinating, diploid species with 14 chromosomes. The wild ancestor of domesticated barley, Hordeum vulgare subsp, spontaneum, is abundant in grasslands and woodlands throughout the Fertile Crescent area of Western Asia and northeast Africa, and is abundant in disturbed habitats, roadsides and orchards. Outside this region, the barley is less common and is usually found in disturbed habitats. However, in a study of genome-wide diversity markers, Tibet was found to be a center of domestication of cultivated barley. Wild barley has a spike, upon maturity, the spikelets separate. Domesticated barley has nonshattering spikes, making it easier to harvest the mature ears. The nonshattering condition is caused by a mutation in one of two linked genes known as Bt1 and Bt2, many cultivars possess both mutations. The nonshattering condition is recessive, so varieties of barley that exhibit this condition are homozygous for the mutant allele, spikelets are arranged in triplets which alternate along the rachis. In wild barley, only the central spikelet is fertile, while the two are reduced. This condition is retained in certain cultivars known as two-row barleys, a pair of mutations result in fertile lateral spikelets to produce six-row barleys. Recent genetic studies have revealed that a mutation in one gene, two-row barley has a lower protein content than six-row barley, thus a more fermentable sugar content. High-protein barley is best suited for animal feed, Malting barley is usually lower protein which shows more uniform germination, needs shorter steeping, and has less protein in the extract that can make beer cloudy
24.
Fermentation in food processing
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Fermentation in food processing is the process of converting carbohydrates to alcohol or organic acids using microorganisms—yeasts or bacteria—under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation usually implies that the action of microorganisms is desired, the science of fermentation is known as zymology or zymurgy. The term fermentation sometimes refers specifically to the conversion of sugars into ethanol, producing alcoholic drinks such as wine, beer. However, similar processes take place in the leavening of bread, other widely consumed fermented foods include vinegar, olives, and cheese. More localised foods prepared by fermentation may also be based on beans, grain, vegetables, fruit, honey, dairy products, fish, meat, since ancient times, humans have exploited the fermentation process. Seven-thousand-year-old jars containing the remains of wine, now on display at the University of Pennsylvania, were excavated in the Zagros Mountains in Iran. There is strong evidence that people were fermenting alcoholic drinks in Babylon c.3000 BC, ancient Egypt c.3150 BC, pre-Hispanic Mexico c.2000 BC, the French chemist Louis Pasteur founded zymology, when in 1856 he connected yeast to fermentation. When studying the fermentation of sugar to alcohol by yeast, Pasteur concluded that the fermentation was catalyzed by a force, called ferments. The ferments were thought to only within living organisms. Alcoholic fermentation is an act correlated with the life and organization of the yeast cells, not with the death or putrefaction of the cells, nevertheless, it was known that yeast extracts can ferment sugar even in the absence of living yeast cells. In 1907 he received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research, one year earlier, in 1906, ethanol fermentation studies led to the early discovery of NAD+. Food fermentation is the conversion of sugars and other carbohydrates into alcohol or preservative organic acids, all three products have found human uses. The production of carbon dioxide is used to leaven bread, the production of organic acids is exploited to preserve and flavor vegetables and dairy products. It has more cases of botulism than any state in the United States of America. The World Health Organization has classified pickled foods as possibly carcinogenic, other research found that fermented food contains a carcinogenic by-product, ethyl carbamate. A2009 review of the studies conducted across Asia concluded that regularly eating pickled vegetables roughly doubles a persons risk for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Science aid, Fermentation - Process and uses of fermentation Fermented cereals, a global perspective - FAO1999
25.
Beer
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Beer is the worlds oldest and most widely consumed alcoholic drink, it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, the fermentation process causes a natural carbonation effect, although this is often removed during processing, and replaced with forced carbonation. Beer is sold in bottles and cans, it may also be available on draught, particularly in pubs, the brewing industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies and many thousands of smaller producers ranging from brewpubs to regional breweries. The strength of beer is usually around 4% to 6% alcohol by volume, archaeologists speculate that beer was instrumental in the formation of civilisations. Approximately 5000 years ago, workers in the city of Uruk were paid by their employers in beer, the earliest known chemical evidence of barley beer dates to circa 3500–3100 BC from the site of Godin Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. The Ebla tablets, discovered in 1974 in Ebla, Syria, a fermented beverage using rice and fruit was made in China around 7000 BC. Unlike sake, mould was not used to saccharify the rice, almost any substance containing sugar can naturally undergo alcoholic fermentation. It is likely that many cultures, on observing that a liquid could be obtained from a source of starch. Bread and beer increased prosperity to a level that allowed time for development of other technologies, Beer was spread through Europe by Germanic and Celtic tribes as far back as 3000 BC, and it was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. The product that the early Europeans drank might not be recognised as beer by most people today, alongside the basic starch source, the early European beers might contain fruits, honey, numerous types of plants, spices and other substances such as narcotic herbs. What they did not contain was hops, as that was an addition, first mentioned in Europe around 822 by a Carolingian Abbot. Beer produced before the Industrial Revolution continued to be made and sold on a scale, although by the 7th century AD, beer was also being produced. During the Industrial Revolution, the production of beer moved from artisanal manufacture to industrial manufacture, the development of hydrometers and thermometers changed brewing by allowing the brewer more control of the process and greater knowledge of the results. Today, the industry is a global business, consisting of several dominant multinational companies. As of 2006, more than 133 billion litres, the equivalent of a cube 510 metres on a side, of beer are sold per year, the process of making beer is known as brewing. A dedicated building for the making of beer is called a brewery, a company that makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company. Beer made on a scale for non-commercial reasons is classified as homebrewing regardless of where it is made. Brewing beer is subject to legislation and taxation in developed countries, however, the UK government relaxed legislation in 1963, followed by Australia in 1972 and the US in 1978, allowing homebrewing to become a popular hobby
26.
Einkorn wheat
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Einkorn wheat can refer either to the wild species of wheat, Triticum boeoticum, or to the domesticated form, Triticum monococcum. The wild and domesticated forms are considered separate species, as here, or as subspecies. Einkorn is a species of hulled wheat, with tough glumes that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe, the domestic form is known as petit épeautre in French, Einkorn in German, einkorn or littlespelt in English, piccolo farro in Italian and escanda menor in Spanish. Einkorn wheat was one of the first plants to be domesticated and cultivated, remnants of Einkorn have been found with the iceman mummy Ötzi. It is a variety of wild wheat, usually less than 70 centimetres tall and is not very productive of edible seeds. The principal difference between wild einkorn and cultivated einkorn is the method of seed dispersal, in the wild variety the seed head usually shatters and drops the kernels of wheat onto the ground. This facilitates a new crop of wheat, in the domestic variety, the seed head remains intact. But harvesting einkorn with intact seed heads was easier for early human harvesters, over time and through selection, conscious or unconscious, the human preference for intact seed heads created the domestic variety, which also has slightly larger kernels than wild einkorn. Domesticated einkorn thus requires human planting and harvesting for its continuing existence and this process of domestication might have taken only 20 to 200 years with the end product a wheat easier for humans to harvest. Einkorn wheat is one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat, grains of wild einkorn have been found in Epi-Paleolithic sites of the Fertile Crescent. Although gathered from the wild for thousands of years, Einkorn Wheat was first domesticated approximately 10,000 years BP in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A or B periods. Evidence from DNA finger-printing suggests einkorn was first domesticated near Karaca Dağ in southeast Turkey, an important characteristic facilitating the domestication of einkorn and other annual grains is that the plants are largely self-pollinating. Thus, the traits of einkorn could be perpetuated at less risk of cross-fertilization with wild plants which might have traits—e. g. Smaller seeds, shattering seed heads, etc. -- less desirable for human management, from the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, the cultivation of einkorn wheat spread to the Caucasus, the Balkans, and central Europe. Einkorn wheat was more grown in cooler climates than emmer wheat. Cultivation of einkorn in the Middle East began to decline in favor of emmer wheat around 2000 BC, cultivation of einkorn was never extensive in Italy, southern France, and Spain. Einkorn continued to be cultivated in areas of northern Europe throughout the Middle Ages
27.
Emmer wheat
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Emmer wheat, also known as farro especially in Italy, or hulled wheat, is a type of awned wheat. The domesticated species are Triticum turgidum subsp, dicoccum and Triticum turgidum conv. durum. The wild species is called Triticum turgidum subsp, along with einkorn wheat, emmer was one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. It was widely cultivated in the ancient world, but is now a relict crop in regions of Europe. Strong similarities in morphology and genetics show that wild emmer is the wild ancestor, because wild and domesticated emmer are interfertile with other tetraploid wheats, some taxonomists consider all tetraploid wheats to belong to one species, T. turgidum. Under this scheme, the two forms are recognized at subspecies level, thus T. turgidum subsp, either naming system is equally valid, the latter lays more emphasis on genetic similarities. For a wider discussion, see Wheat#Genetics & Breeding and Wheat taxonomy Wild emmer grows wild in the Near East, like einkorn and spelt wheats, emmer is a hulled wheat. In other words, it has strong glumes that enclose the grains, on threshing, a hulled wheat spike breaks up into spikelets. These require milling or pounding to release the grains from the glumes, Wild emmer wheat spikelets effectively self-cultivate by propelling themselves mechanically into soils with their awns. During a period of increased humidity during the night, the awns of the spikelet become erect and draw together, and in the process push the grain into the soil. During the daytime, the humidity drops and the awns slacken back again, however, fine hairs on the awns act as hooks in the soil. During the course of alternating stages of daytime and nighttime humidity, the awns pumping movements, Wild emmer is native to the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, growing in the grass and woodland of hill country from modern-day Israel to Iran. The origin of wild emmer has been suggested, without universal agreement among scholars, in 1906, Aaron Aaronsohns discovery of wild emmer wheat growing in Rosh Pinna created a stir in the botanical world. Emmer wheat has been found in excavations and ancient tombs. Emmer was collected from the wild and eaten by hunter gatherers for thousands of years before its domestication. Grains of wild emmer discovered at Ohalo II had a radiocarbon dating of 17,000 BC and at the Pre Pottery Neolithic A site of Netiv Hagdud are 10, the location of the earliest site of emmer domestication is still unclear and under debate. Emmer is found in a number of Neolithic sites scattered around the fertile crescent. From its earliest days of cultivation, emmer was a more prominent crop than its contemporaries and competitors, einkorn wheat
28.
Bread
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Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history it has been popular around the world and is one of the oldest artificial foods, proportions of types of flour and other ingredients vary widely, as do modes of preparation. As a result, types, shapes, sizes, and textures of breads differ around the world, Bread may be leavened by processes such as reliance on naturally occurring sourdough microbes, chemicals, industrially produced yeast, or high-pressure aeration. Some bread is cooked before it can leaven, including for traditional or religious reasons, non-cereal ingredients such as fruits, nuts and fats may be included. Commercial bread commonly contains additives to improve flavor, texture, color, shelf life, Bread is served in various forms with any meal of the day. It is eaten as a snack, and used as an ingredient in other preparations, such as sandwiches. It forms the main component of bread pudding, as well as of stuffings designed to fill cavities or retain juices that otherwise might drip out. Bread has a social and emotional significance beyond its importance as nourishment and it plays essential roles in religious rituals and secular culture. Its prominence in daily life is reflected in language, where it appears in proverbs, colloquial expressions, in prayer and in the etymology of words, the Old English word for bread was hlaf, which appears to be the oldest Teutonic name. Old High German hleib and modern German Laib derive from this Proto-Germanic word, Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods. Evidence from 30,000 years ago in Europe revealed starch residue on rocks used for pounding plants. It is possible that during this time, starch extract from the roots of plants, such as cattails and ferns, was spread on a rock, placed over a fire. Around 10,000 BC, with the dawn of the Neolithic age, yeast spores are ubiquitous, including on the surface of cereal grains, so any dough left to rest leavens naturally. There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread, airborne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce a kind of bread than other peoples. Parts of the ancient world that drank wine instead of used a paste composed of grape juice and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine. The most common source of leavening was to retain a piece of dough from the day to use as a form of sourdough starter. In 1961 the Chorleywood bread process was developed, which used the intense mechanical working of dough to dramatically reduce the fermentation period, the process, whose high-energy mixing allows for the use of lower protein grain, is now widely used around the world in large factories
29.
Bean
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Bean is a common name for large seeds of several genera of the flowering plant family Fabaceae which are used for human or animal food. The word bean and its Germanic cognates have existed in common use in West Germanic languages since before the 12th century, referring to broad beans and this was long before the New World genus Phaseolus was known in Europe. After Columbian-era contact between Europe and the Americas, use of the word was extended to pod-borne seeds of Phaseolus, such as the bean and the runner bean. Thus the term bean in general usage can mean a host of different species, seeds called beans are often included among the crops called pulses, although a narrower prescribed sense of pulses reserves the word for leguminous crops harvested for their dry grain. The term bean usually excludes legumes with tiny seeds and which are used exclusively for forage, hay, one is that in the past, several species, including Vigna angularis, mungo, radiata, and aconitifolia, were classified as Phaseolus and later reclassified. Unlike the closely related pea, beans are a crop that need warm temperatures to grow. Maturity is typically 55–60 days from planting to harvest, as the bean pods mature, they turn yellow and dry up, and the beans inside change from green to their mature colour. As a vine, bean plants need external support, which may be provided in the form of special bean cages or poles, native Americans customarily grew them along with corn and squash, with the tall cornstalks acting as support for the beans. In more recent times, the bush bean has been developed which does not require support and has all its pods develop simultaneously. This makes the bean more practical for commercial production. Beans are one of the longest-cultivated plants, broad beans, also called fava beans, in their wild state the size of a small fingernail, were gathered in Afghanistan and the Himalayan foothills. In a form improved from naturally occurring types, they were grown in Thailand since the seventh millennium BCE. They were deposited with the dead in ancient Egypt, not until the second millennium BCE did cultivated, large-seeded broad beans appear in the Aegean, Iberia and transalpine Europe. In the Iliad is a mention of beans and chickpeas cast on the threshing floor. Beans were an important source of protein throughout Old and New World history, the oldest-known domesticated beans in the Americas were found in Guitarrero Cave, an archaeological site in Peru, and dated to around the second millennium BCE. The corn would not be planted in rows as is done by European agriculture, Beans would be planted around the base of the developing stalks, and would vine their way up as the stalks grew. All American beans at that time were vine plants, bush beans having been bred only more recently, the cornstalks would work as a trellis for the beans, and the beans would provide much-needed nitrogen for the corn. Squash would be planted in the spaces between the patches of corn in the field, dry beans come from both Old World varieties of broad beans and New World varieties
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Lentil
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The lentil is an edible pulse. It is an annual plant of the legume family, known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 40 cm tall, and the seeds grow in pods, in South Asian cuisine, split lentils are known as lentils. Usually eaten with rice or rotis, the lentil is a staple throughout regions of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. As a food crop, the majority of production comes from Canada. Lentils have been part of the diet since aceramic Neolithic times. Archeological evidence shows they were eaten 9,500 to 13,000 years ago, Lentil colors range from yellow to red-orange to green, brown and black. Lentils also vary in size, and are sold in forms, with or without the skins. Raw lentils are 8% water, 63% carbohydrates including 11% dietary fiber, 25% protein, lentils are a rich source of numerous essential nutrients, including folate, thiamin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, phosphorus, iron and zinc, among others. When lentils are cooked by boiling, protein content declines to 9% of total composition, lentils have the second-highest ratio of protein per calorie of any legume, after soybeans. The low levels of readily digestible starch, and high levels of slowly digested starch, the remaining 65% of the starch is a resistant starch classified as RS1. A minimum of 10% in starch from lentils escapes digestion and absorption in the small intestine, lentils also have anti-nutrient factors, such as trypsin inhibitors and a relatively high phytate content. Trypsin is an involved in digestion, and phytates reduce the bioavailability of dietary minerals. The phytates can be reduced by prolonged soaking and fermentation or sprouting, lentils are relatively tolerant to drought, and are grown throughout the world. FAOSTAT reported that the production of lentils for calendar year 2013 was 4,975,621 metric tons, primarily coming from Canada. About a quarter of the production of lentils is from India. Canada is the largest export producer of lentils in the world, Statistics Canada estimates that Canadian lentil production for the 2009/10 year was a record 1.5 million metric tons. The most commonly grown type is the Laird lentil, the Palouse region of eastern Washington and the Idaho panhandle, with its commercial center at Pullman, Washington, constitute the most important lentil-producing region in the United States
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Chickpea
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The chickpea or chick pea is a legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. Its different types are known as gram, or Bengal gram. Its seeds are high in protein and it is one of the earliest cultivated legumes,7, 500-year-old remains have been found in the Middle East. The name chickpea traces back through the French chiche to cicer, the Oxford English Dictionary lists a 1548 citation that reads, Cicer may be named in English Cich, or ciche pease, after the Frenche tongue. The dictionary cites Chick-pea in the century, the original word in English taken directly from French was chich. The current form garbanzo comes directly from modern Spanish, and is used in regions of the United States with a strong Mexican or Spanish influence. Domesticated chickpeas have been found in the levels of Jericho along with Çayönü in Turkey and in Neolithic pottery at Hacilar. They were found in the late Neolithic at Thessaly, Kastanas, Lerna and Dimini, in southern France, Mesolithic layers in a cave at LAbeurador, Aude, have yielded wild chickpeas carbon dated to 6790±90 BCE. Chickpeas are mentioned in Charlemagnes Capitulare de villis as cicer italicum, albertus Magnus mentions red, white, and black varieties. Nicholas Culpeper noted chick-pease or cicers are less windy than peas, white cicers were thought to be especially strong and helpful. In 1793, ground-roast chickpeas were noted by a German writer as a substitute for coffee in Europe, in the First World War, they were grown for this use in some areas of Germany. They are still sometimes brewed instead of coffee, sequencing of the chickpea genome has been completed for 90 chickpea genotypes, including several wild species. A collaboration of 20 research organizations, led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics identified more than 28,000 genes, scientists expect this work will lead to the development of superior cultivars, among which 77 have already been released to farmers around the world. The new research will benefit the millions of developing country farmers who grow chickpea as a source of much needed income, production is growing rapidly across the developing world, especially in West Asia, where it has increased four-fold over the past 30 years. India is by far the world largest producer, but is also the largest importer, the plant grows to 20–50 cm high and has small, feathery leaves on either side of the stem. Chickpeas are a type of pulse, with one containing two or three peas. It has white flowers with blue, violet, or pink veins, several varieties of chickpea are cultivated throughout the world. Desi chana has small, darker seeds and a rough coat and it is grown mostly in India and other parts of the Indian subcontinent, as well as in Ethiopia, Mexico, and Iran
32.
Vicia faba
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The origin of this legume is obscure, but it had been cultivated in the Middle East for 8,000 years before it spread to Western Europe. Fava beans have been found in the earliest human settlements and they probably originated in the Near East during the Neolithic Age and by the Bronze Age had spread to Northern Italy. They have been found in settlements in Switzerland and in Britain at Glastonbury. Remains are reported to have found in Egyptian tombs. In Egypt, the beans were considered food and were shunned by the upper classes. Fava beans were cultivated by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, in ancient Rome, they were used in funeral rites. This once forbidden bean is also related to favism, a genetic deficiency most commonly affecting people of Mediterranean origins, the term fava bean is used in other English-speaking countries such as the United States. Broad bean is the most common name in the United Kingdom, Australia, Vicia faba is a stiffly erect plant 0. 5–1.8 m tall, with stout stems of a square cross-section. The leaves are 10–25 cm long, pinnate with 2–7 leaflets, unlike most other vetches, the leaves do not have tendrils for climbing over other vegetation. The flowers are 1–2.5 cm long, with five petals, the standard petal white, the wing white with a black spot. Crimson-flowered broad beans also exist, which were saved from extinction. The flowers have a strong and sweet scent which is attractive to bees and other pollinators, particularly bumble bees. Each pod contains 3–8 seeds, round to oval and 5–10 mm diameter in the plant, usually flattened and up to 20–25 mm long,15 mm broad. Vicia faba has a chromosome number of 12. Five pairs are acrocentric chromosomes and one pair is metacentric, various agricultural books state that Vicia faba is not a true bean, the sense of the word bean that they implicitly reference is the narrow one restricted solely to the genus Phaseolus. However, the definitions of bean in most general dictionaries include several senses, narrow and wider, Broad beans have a long tradition of cultivation in Old World agriculture, being among the most ancient plants in cultivation and also among the easiest to grow. Along with lentils, peas, and chickpeas, they are believed to have part of the eastern Mediterranean diet around 6000 BC or earlier. They are still often grown as a crop to prevent erosion, because they can overwinter and because as a legume
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Root crops
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Root vegetables are plant roots used as vegetables. Although botany distinguishes true roots from non-roots, the term root vegetable is applied to all types in ordinary, agricultural. Root vegetables are generally storage organs, enlarged to store energy in the form of carbohydrates and they differ in the concentration and the balance between sugars, starches, and other types of carbohydrate. Of particular economic importance are those with a high concentration in the form of starch. Many root vegetables keep well in root cellars, lasting several months and this is one way of storing food for use long after harvest, which is especially important in nontropical latitudes, where winter is traditionally a time of little to no harvesting. There are also season extension methods that can extend the harvest throughout the winter, the following list classifies root vegetables according to anatomy. Taproot Arracacia xanthorrhiza Vigna lanceolata Beta vulgaris Brassica spp, bunium persicum Burdock Carrot Celeriac Daikon – the large East Asian white radish Dandelion spp. Lepidium meyenii Microseris lanceolata Pachyrhizus spp, radish Scorzonera hispanica Sium sisarum Tragopogon spp. Colocasia antiquorum Rhizome Curcuma longa Panax ginseng Arthropodium spp, cordyline fruticosa Maranta arundinacea Nelumbo nucifera Typha spp. Zingiber officinale Tuber Apios americana Cyperus esculentus Dioscorea spp, Dioscorea polystachya Helianthus tuberosus Hemerocallis spp. Lathyrus tuberosus Oxalis tuberosa Plectranthus edulis and P. esculentus Solanum tuberosum Stachys affinis Tropaeolum tuberosum Ullucus tuberosus Allium spp, camassia quamash Cyperus bulbosus Caladenia Cryptostylis Cymbidium canaliculatum Diuris Dipodium Erythronium spp. Narskyy vulgare Geodorum Glossodia Lilium spp, lypernathus Microtis Prasophyllum Pterostylis Tacca leontopetaloides Thelymitra Vegetables From Underground from Waynes Word at Palomar College
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Onion
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The onion, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable and is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. This genus also contains several other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion, the onion. The name wild onion is applied to a number of Allium species and its ancestral wild original form is not known, although escapes from cultivation have become established in some regions. The onion is most frequently a biennial or a perennial plant, the onion plant has a fan of hollow, bluish-green leaves and its bulb at the base of the plant begins to swell when a certain day-length is reached. The bulbs are composed of shortened, compressed, underground stems surrounded by fleshy modified scale that envelop a central bud at the tip of the stem, in the autumn, the foliage dies down and the outer layers of the bulb become dry and brittle. The crop is harvested and dried and the onions are ready for use or storage, the crop is prone to attack by a number of pests and diseases, particularly the onion fly, the onion eelworm, and various fungi cause rotting. Some varieties of A. cepa, such as shallots and potato onions, Onions are cultivated and used around the world. As a food item, they are served cooked, as a vegetable or part of a prepared savoury dish. They are pungent when chopped and contain certain chemical substances which irritate the eyes, the onion plant, also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. It was first officially described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1753 work Species Plantarum, a. cepa is known exclusively from cultivation, but related wild species occur in Central Asia. The most closely related species include A. vavilovii and A. asarense from Iran, however, Zohary and Hopf state that there are doubts whether the A. vavilovii collections tested represent genuine wild material or only feral derivatives of the crop. The vast majority of cultivars of A. cepa belong to the common onion group and are referred to simply as onions. The Aggregatum group of cultivars includes both shallots and potato onions, the genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion, Egyptian onion, and Canada onion. The onion plant has grown and selectively bred in cultivation for at least 7,000 years. It is a plant, but is usually grown as an annual. Modern varieties typically grow to a height of 15 to 45 cm, the leaves are yellowish- to bluish green and grow alternately in a flattened, fan-shaped swathe. They are fleshy, hollow, and cylindrical, with one flattened side and they are at their broadest about a quarter of the way up, beyond which they taper towards a blunt tip. The base of leaf is a flattened, usually white sheath that grows out of a basal disc
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Garlic
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Garlic is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, with a history of several thousand years of human consumption and use, garlic is native to the region between the Mediterranean and China, and has long been a common seasoning worldwide. It was known to Ancient Egyptians, and has used both as a food flavoring and as a traditional medicine. Allium sativum is a bulbous plant and it grows up to 1.2 m in height. Its hardiness is USDA Zone 8 and it is pollinated by bees and other insects. Allium sativum grows in the wild in areas where it has become naturalized, the wild garlic, crow garlic, and field garlic of Britain are members of the species Allium ursinum, Allium vineale, and Allium oleraceum, respectively. In North America, Allium vineale and Allium canadense, known as garlic or wild garlic. So-called elephant garlic is actually a wild leek, and not a true garlic, single clove garlic originated in the Yunnan province of China. A. sativum var. ophioscorodon Döll, called Ophioscorodon, or hard-necked garlic, includes porcelain garlics, rocambole garlic and it is sometimes considered to be a separate species, Allium ophioscorodon G. Don. A. sativum var. sativum, or soft-necked garlic, includes artichoke garlic, silverskin garlic, Garlic is easy to grow and can be grown year-round in mild climates. While sexual propagation of garlic is possible, nearly all of the garlic in cultivation is propagated asexually, in colder climates, cloves are planted in the autumn, about six weeks before the soil freezes, and harvested in late spring or early summer. The cloves must be planted deep enough to prevent freeze/thaw, which causes mold or white rot, Garlic plants can be grown closely together, leaving enough space for the bulbs to mature, and are easily grown in containers of sufficient depth. Garlic does well in loose, dry, well-drained soils in sunny locations, when selecting garlic for planting, it is important to pick large bulbs from which to separate cloves. Large cloves, along with proper spacing in the planting bed, Garlic plants prefer to grow in a soil with a high organic material content, but are capable of growing in a wide range of soil conditions and pH levels. There are different varieties or subspecies of garlic, most notably hardneck garlic, the latitude where the garlic is grown affects the choice of type, as garlic can be day-length sensitive. Hardneck garlic is grown in cooler climates and produces relatively large cloves, whereas softneck garlic is generally grown closer to the equator and produces small. Garlic scapes are removed to all the garlics energy into bulb growth. The scapes can be eaten raw or cooked, Garlic plants are usually hardy and not affected by many pests or diseases
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Radish
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The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman times. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, being eaten raw as a crunchy salad vegetable. They have numerous varieties, varying in size, flavor, color, Radishes owe their sharp flavor to the various chemical compounds produced by the plants, including glucosinolate, myrosinase, and isothiocyanate. They are sometimes grown as companion plants and suffer from few pests and they germinate quickly and grow rapidly, smaller varieties being ready for consumption within a month, while larger daikon varieties take several months. Another use of radish is as cover or catch crop in winter or as a forage crop, some radishes are grown for their seeds, daikon, for instance, may be grown for oil production. Others are used for sprouting and both roots and leaves are served cooked or cold. Varieties of radish are now distributed around the world, but almost no archeological records are available to help determine their early history. However, scientists tentatively locate the origin of Raphanus sativus in southeast Asia, india, central China, and central Asia appear to have been secondary centers where differing forms were developed. Radishes enter the record in third century BC. Greek and Roman agriculturalists of the first century AD gave details of small, large, round, long, mild, the radish seems to have been one of the first European crops introduced to the Americas. A German botanist reported radishes of 100 lb and roughly 3 ft in length in 1544, although the only variety of that size today is the Japanese Sakurajima radish. The large, mild, and white East Asian form was developed in China, Radishes are annual or biennial brassicaceous crops grown for their swollen tap roots which can be globular, tapering, or cylindrical. The root skin colour ranges from white through pink, red, purple, yellow, and green to black, but the flesh is usually white. Smaller types have a few leaves about 13 cm long with round roots up to 2.5 cm in diameter or more slender, both of these are normally eaten raw in salads. A longer root form, including radishes, daikon or mooli. The flesh of radishes harvested timely is crisp and sweet, but becomes bitter, leaves are arranged in a rosette. They have a shape, meaning they are divided pinnately with an enlarged terminal lobe. The white flowers are borne on a racemose inflorescence, the fruits are small pods which can be eaten when young
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Salad
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A salad is a dish consisting of a mixture of small pieces of food, which may be mixed with a sauce or salad dressing. They are typically served cold, although some, such as south German potato salad, are served warm, salads may contain vegetables, fruits, cheese, cooked meat, eggs, grains and nuts. Garden salads use a base of leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale or spinach, other types include bean salad, tuna salad, fattoush, Greek salad, and Japanese sōmen salad. The sauce used to flavor a salad is commonly called a salad dressing, well-known types include ranch, Thousand Island, vinaigrette comes in many varieties, one version is a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs, and seasonings. Salads may be served at any point during a meal, such as, Appetizer salads, light, side salads, to accompany the main course as a side dish. Main course salads, usually containing a portion of heartier fare, such as chicken breast, dessert salads, sweet versions containing fruit, gelatin, sweeteners or whipped cream, or just fruit, which is called a fruit salad. The word salad comes from the French salade of the meaning, from the Latin salata. In English, the word first appears as salad or sallet in the 14th century, salt is associated with salad because vegetables were seasoned with brine or salty oil-and-vinegar dressings during Roman times. The Romans and ancient Greeks ate mixed greens with dressing, in his 1699 book, Acetaria, A Discourse on Sallets, John Evelyn attempted with little success to encourage his fellow Britons to eat fresh salad greens. Mary, Queen of Scots, ate boiled celery root over greens covered with creamy mustard dressing, truffles, chervil, oil used on salads can be found in the 17th century colony of New Netherland. Curaçao Papers page 234 In a 1653 inventory in New Netherland dressing can be found, council Minutes Volume V, page 78 The United States popularized mixed greens salads in the late 19th century. Salads including layered and dressed salads were popular in Europe since Greek imperial, several other regions of the world adopted salads throughout the second half of the 20th century. From Europe and the Americas to China, Japan, and Australia, salads are sold in supermarkets, at restaurants, in the US market, restaurants will often have a Salad Bar laid out with salad-making ingredients, which the customers will use to put together their salad. Salad restaurants were earning more than $300 million in 2014, a green salad or garden salad is most often composed of leafy vegetables such as lettuce varieties, spinach, or rocket. The salad leaves may be cut or torn into bite-sized fragments and tossed together and they are often adorned with garnishes such as nuts or croutons. A wedge salad is made from a head of lettuce halved or quartered, vegetables other than greens may be used in a salad. Common raw vegetables used in a salad include cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onions, spring onions, red onions, carrots, celery, a bound salad can be composed or tossed. They are assembled with thick sauces such as mayonnaise, one portion of a true bound salad will hold its shape when placed on a plate with an ice-cream scoop
38.
Lettuce
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Lettuce is an annual plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a vegetable, but sometimes for its stem. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is seen in other kinds of food, such as soups, sandwiches and wraps. One variety, the woju, or asparagus lettuce, is grown for its stems, in addition to its main use as a leafy green, it has also gathered religious and medicinal significance over centuries of human consumption. Europe and North America originally dominated the market for lettuce, world production of lettuce and chicory for calendar year 2013 was 24.9 million tonnes, over half of which came from China. Lettuce was first cultivated by the ancient Egyptians who turned it from a weed whose seeds were used to oil, into a food plant grown for its succulent leaves. Lettuce spread to the Greeks and Romans, the latter of whom gave it the name lactuca, by 50 AD, many types were described, and lettuce appeared often in medieval writings, including several herbals. The 16th through 18th centuries saw the development of varieties in Europe. Generally grown as an annual, lettuce is easily cultivated. It can be plagued by numerous nutrient deficiencies, as well as insect and mammal pests, L. sativa crosses easily within the species and with some other species within the Lactuca genus. Although this trait can be a problem to home gardeners who attempt to save seeds, lettuce is a rich source of vitamin K and vitamin A, and a moderate source of folate and iron. Contaminated lettuce is often a source of bacterial, viral and parasitic outbreaks in humans, including E. coli, Lactuca sativa is a member of the Lactuca genus and the Asteraceae family. The species was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in the volume of his Species Plantarum. Synonyms for L. sativa include Lactuca scariola var. sativa, L. scariola var. integrata, L. scariola is itself a synonym for L. serriola, the common wild or prickly lettuce. L. sativa also has many identified taxonomic groups, subspecies and varieties, the Romans referred to lettuce as lactuca, an allusion to the white substance, now called latex, exuded by cut stems. This word has become the name, while sativa was added to create the species name. The current word lettuce, originally from Middle English, came from the Old French letues or laitues, lettuces native range spreads from the Mediterranean to Siberia, although it has been transported to almost all areas of the world. Plants generally have a height and spread of 15 to 30 cm, the leaves are colorful, mainly in the green and red color spectrums, with some variegated varieties
39.
Parsley
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Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. Parsley is widely used in European, Middle Eastern, and American cooking, curly leaf parsley is often used as a garnish. In central Europe, eastern Europe and southern Europe, as well as in western Asia, root parsley is very common in central, eastern and southern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles. Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no, in Linear B, is the earliest attested form of the word selinon, garden parsley is a bright green, biennial, plant in temperate climates, or an annual herb in subtropical and tropical areas. Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. In the second year, it grows a stem to 75 cm tall with sparser leaves. The seeds are ovoid, 2–3 mm long, with prominent style remnants at the apex, one of the compounds of the essential oil is apiol. The plant normally dies after seed maturation, Parsley grows best in moist, well-drained soil, with full sun. It grows best between 22–30 °C, and usually is grown from seed, germination is slow, taking four to six weeks, and it often is difficult because of furanocoumarins in its seed coat. Typically, plants grown for the crop are spaced 10 cm apart. Parsley attracts several species of wildlife, bees and other nectar-feeding insects also visit the flowers. Birds such as the goldfinch feed on the seeds, in cultivation, parsley is subdivided into several cultivar groups, depending on the form of the plant, which is related to its end use. Often these are treated as varieties, but they are cultivated selections. The two main groups of parsley used as herbs are curly leaf and Italian, or flat leaf, of these, a third type, sometimes grown in southern Italy, has thick leaf stems resembling celery. Another type of parsley is grown as a vegetable, the Hamburg root parsley. This type of parsley produces much thicker roots than types cultivated for their leaves. Although seldom used in Britain and the United States, root parsley is common in central and eastern European cuisine, although root parsley looks similar to the parsnip, which is among its closest relatives in the family Apiaceae, its taste is quite different. Parsley is widely used in Middle Eastern, European, Brazilian and American cooking, curly leaf parsley is used often as a garnish
40.
Agricultural machinery
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Agricultural machinery is machinery used in farming or other agriculture. There are many types of equipment, from hand tools and power tools to tractors. Diverse arrays of equipment are used in organic and nonorganic farming. Especially since the advent of mechanised agriculture, agricultural machinery is an part of how the world is fed. With the coming of the Industrial Revolution and the development of complicated machines. Instead of harvesting grain by hand with a blade, wheeled machines cut a continuous swath. Instead of threshing the grain by beating it with sticks, threshing machines separated the seeds from the heads, the first tractors appeared in the late 19th century. Power for agricultural machinery was supplied by ox or other domesticated animals. With the invention of power came the portable engine, and later the traction engine. Agricultural steam engines took over the heavy pulling work of oxen, the steam-powered machines were low-powered by todays standards but, because of their size and their low gear ratios, they could provide a large drawbar pull. Their slow speed led farmers to comment that tractors had two speeds, slow, and damn slow, the internal combustion engine, first the petrol engine, and later diesel engines, became the main source of power for the next generation of tractors. These engines also contributed to the development of the self-propelled, combined harvester and thresher, instead of cutting the grain stalks and transporting them to a stationary threshing machine, these combines cut, threshed, and separated the grain while moving continuously through the field. Combines might have taken the job away from tractors. They are used to push implements—machines that till the ground, plant seed, tillage implements prepare the soil for planting by loosening the soil and killing weeds or competing plants. The best-known is the plow, the ancient implement that was upgraded in 1838 by John Deere. Plows are now used frequently in the U. S. than formerly, with offset disks used instead to turn over the soil. The most common type of seeder is called a planter, and spaces seeds out equally in long rows, some crops are planted by drills, which put out much more seed in rows less than a foot apart, blanketing the field with crops. Transplanters automate the task of transplanting seedlings to the field, with the widespread use of plastic mulch, plastic mulch layers, transplanters, and seeders lay down long rows of plastic, and plant through them automatically
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Cloning
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In biology, cloning is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments, cells, the term also refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such as digital media or software. The term clone, invented by J. B. S. Haldane, is derived from the Ancient Greek word κλών klōn, twig, referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig. In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century, since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively. In botany, the term lusus was traditionally used, Cloning is a natural form of reproduction that has allowed life forms to spread for more than 50 thousand years. It is the method used by plants, fungi, and bacteria. Examples of these organisms include blueberry plants, hazel trees, the Pando trees, the Kentucky coffeetree, Myricas, molecular cloning refers to the process of making multiple molecules. Cloning is commonly used to amplify DNA fragments containing whole genes and it is used in a wide array of biological experiments and practical applications ranging from genetic fingerprinting to large scale protein production. In practice, localization of the gene to a chromosome or genomic region does not necessarily enable one to isolate or amplify the relevant genomic sequence, initially, the DNA of interest needs to be isolated to provide a DNA segment of suitable size. Subsequently, a procedure is used where the amplified fragment is inserted into a vector. The vector is linearised using restriction enzymes, and incubated with the fragment of interest under appropriate conditions with an enzyme called DNA ligase, following ligation the vector with the insert of interest is transfected into cells. A number of techniques are available, such as chemical sensitivation of cells, electroporation, optical injection. Finally, the cells are cultured. Modern cloning vectors include selectable antibiotic resistance markers, which allow only cells in which the vector has been transfected, additionally, the cloning vectors may contain colour selection markers, which provide blue/white screening on X-gal medium. Nevertheless, these selection steps do not absolutely guarantee that the DNA insert is present in the cells obtained, further investigation of the resulting colonies must be required to confirm that cloning was successful. This may be accomplished by means of PCR, restriction fragment analysis and/or DNA sequencing, Cloning a cell means to derive a population of cells from a single cell. In the case of organisms such as bacteria and yeast. However, in the case of cell cultures from multi-cellular organisms, a useful tissue culture technique used to clone distinct lineages of cell lines involves the use of cloning rings
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Plant propagation
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Plant propagation is the process of creating new plants from a variety of sources, seeds, cuttings, bulbs and other plant parts. Plant propagation can also refer to the artificial or natural dispersal of plants, seeds and spores can be used for reproduction. Seeds are typically produced from sexual reproduction within a species, because genetic recombination has occurred, a plant grown from seeds may have different characteristics from its parents. Some species produce seeds that require special conditions to germinate, such as cold treatment, the seeds of many Australian plants and plants from southern Africa and the American west require smoke or fire to germinate. Some plant species, including many trees do not produce seeds until they reach maturity, seeds can be difficult to acquire and some plants do not produce seed at all. Some plants (like certain Plants modified using genetic use restriction technology may produce seed, in certain cases, this is done to prevent the accidental spreading of these plants, for example by birds and other animals. Plants have a number of mechanisms for asexual or vegetative reproduction, some of these have been taken advantage of by horticulturists and gardeners to multiply or clone plants rapidly. Humans may utilize these processes as propagation methods, such as tissue culture, vegetative reproduction uses plants parts such as roots, stems and leaves. In some plants seeds can be produced without fertilization and the seeds contain only the material of the parent plant. Therefore, propagation via asexual seeds or apomixis is asexual reproduction and this can be in the form of a clear enclosed bin sitting over a hotpad, or even a portable heater pointed at the bin. The key is to keep the moisture in the bin, while keeping lighting over the top of it. An electric seed-propagation mat is a rubber mat covered by a metal cage which is used in gardening. The mats are made so that planters containing seedlings can be placed on top of the cage without the risk of starting a fire. In extreme cold, gardeners place a plastic cover over the planters/mats which creates a sort of miniature greenhouse. The constant and predictable heat allows people to garden in the months when the weather is generally too cold for seedlings to survive naturally. When combined with a system, many plants can be grown indoors using these mats. Adventitious Clonal colony Fruit tree propagation Orthodox seed Recalcitrant seed Selection methods in plant breeding based on mode of reproduction Propagation of grapevines, the Complete Book of Plant Propagation, Taunton Press,1997
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Introduced species
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Non-native species can have various effects on the local ecosystem. Introduced species that become established and spread beyond the place of introduction are called invasive species, some have a negative effect on a local ecosystem. Some introduced species may have no effect or only minor impact. Some species have been introduced intentionally to combat pests and they are called biocontrols and may be regarded as beneficial as an alternative to pesticides in agriculture for example. In some instances the potential for being beneficial or detrimental in the long run remains unknown, a list of some introduced species is given in a separate article. The effects of introduced species on natural environments have gained much scrutiny from scientists, governments, the terminology associated with introduced species is now in flux for various reasons. The term invasive refers only to those species that become established, for practical purposes, this term is applied only to invasive species that cause damage. With respect to plants, these latter are in this case defined as either ornamental or cultivated plants, also called an exotic or non-native species. Such species might be termed naturalized, established, wild non-native species, if they further spread beyond the place of introduction they are called invasive. The transition from introduction, to establishment and to invasion has been described in the context of plants, introduced species are essentially non-native species. Invasive species are introduced species that spreadwidely or quickly and cause harm, be that to the environment, human health. There have been calls from scientists to consider a species only in terms of their spread. According to a definition, an invasive species is one that has been introduced and become a pest in its new location. The term is used to both a sense of urgency and actual or potential harm. Executive Order 13112 defines invasive species as a species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. The biological definition of species, on the other hand, makes no reference to the harm they may cause. From a regulatory perspective, it is neither desirable nor practical to list as undesirable or outright ban all non-native species, regulations require a definitional distinction between non-natives that are deemed especially onerous and all others. Introduced pest species that are listed as invasive, best fit the definition of an invasive species
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Sorghum bicolor
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Sorghum originated in northern Africa, and is now cultivated widely in tropical and subtropical regions. Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop after rice, wheat, maize. S. bicolor is typically an annual, but some cultivars are perennial and it grows in clumps that may reach over 4 m high. The grain is small, ranging from 2 to 4 mm in diameter, sweet sorghums are sorghum cultivars that are primarily grown for foliage, syrup production, and ethanol, they are taller than those grown for grain. Sorghum bicolor is the species of sorghum, its wild relatives make up the botanical genus Sorghum. The leading producers of sorghum bicolor in 2011 were Nigeria, India, Mexico, Sorghum grows in a wide range of temperature, high altitudes, toxic soils and can recover growth after some drought. It has four features that make it one of the most drought-resistant crops, in times of drought, it will roll its leaves to lessen water loss by transpiration. If drought continues, it will go into dormancy rather than dying and its leaves are protected by a waxy cuticle. Sorghum is cultivated in parts of the world today. In the past 50 years, the planted with sorghum worldwide had increased 66%. In many parts of Asia and Africa, its grain is used to make breads that form the staple food of many cultures. The grains can also be popped in a fashion to popcorn. The species can be used as a source for making ethanol fuel and it typically has protein levels of around 9%, enabling dependent human populations to subsist on it in times of famine, in contrast to regions where maize has become the staple crop. It is also used for making a traditional corn broom, the reclaimed stalks of the sorghum plant are used to make a decorative millwork material marketed as Kirei board. Sweet sorghum syrup is known as molasses in some parts of the U. S. although it is not true molasses. In China, sorghum is known as gaoliang, and is fermented and distilled to one form of clear spirits known as baijiu 白酒 of which the most famous is Moutai. Sorghum was ground and the flour was the alternative to wheat in northern China for a long time. In India, where it is commonly called jwaarie, jowar, jola, or jondhahlaa, an Indian bread called Bhakri, jowar roti or jolada rotti, is prepared from this grain
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Grape
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A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus Vitis. Grapes can be fresh as table grapes or they can be used for making wine, jam, juice, jelly, grape seed extract, raisins, vinegar. Grapes are a type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of the grape began 6, 000–8,000 years ago in the Near East. Yeast, one of the earliest domesticated microorganisms, occurs naturally on the skins of grapes, the earliest archeological evidence for a dominant position of wine-making in human culture dates from 8,000 years ago in Georgia. The oldest known winery was found in Armenia, dating to around 4000 BC, by the 9th century AD the city of Shiraz was known to produce some of the finest wines in the Middle East. Thus it has proposed that Syrah red wine is named after Shiraz. Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics record the cultivation of grapes, and history attests to the ancient Greeks, Phoenicians. The growing of grapes would later spread to regions in Europe, as well as North Africa. Vitis vinifera cultivars were imported for that purpose, Grapes are a type of fruit that grow in clusters of 15 to 300, and can be crimson, black, dark blue, yellow, green, orange, and pink. White grapes are actually green in color, and are derived from the purple grape. Mutations in two genes of white grapes turn off production of anthocyanins, which are responsible for the color of purple grapes. Anthocyanins and other pigment chemicals of the family of polyphenols in purple grapes are responsible for the varying shades of purple in red wines. Grapes are typically an ellipsoid shape resembling a prolate spheroid, most grapes come from cultivars of Vitis vinifera, the European grapevine native to the Mediterranean and Central Asia. Vitis riparia, a vine of North America, is sometimes used for winemaking. It is native to the entire Eastern U. S. Vitis rotundifolia, the muscadines, used for jams and wine, are native to the Southeastern United States from Delaware to the Gulf of Mexico. Vitis amurensis is the most important Asian species, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization,75,866 square kilometers of the world are dedicated to grapes. Approximately 71% of world production is used for wine, 27% as fresh fruit
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Watermelon
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Watermelon is a scrambling and trailing vine originally from southern Africa. It is a large, sprawling annual plant with coarse, hairy pinnately-lobed leaves and it is grown for its large edible fruit, also known as a watermelon, which is a special kind of berry with a hard rind and no internal division, botanically called a pepo. Considerable breeding effort has been put into disease-resistant varieties and into developing a strain with only digestible white seeds. Many cultivars are available that produce fruit within 100 days of planting the crop. The fruit can be eaten raw or pickled and the rind can be cooked, the watermelon is a flowering plant thought to have originated in southern Africa, where it is found growing wild. It reaches maximum genetic diversity there, with sweet, bland, in the 19th century, Alphonse de Candolle considered the watermelon to be indigenous to tropical Africa. Citrullus colocynthis is often considered to be an ancestor of the watermelon and is now found native in north. Evidence of its cultivation in the Nile Valley has been found from the second millennium BC onward, watermelon seeds have been found at Twelfth Dynasty sites and in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. In the 7th century watermelons were being cultivated in India, and by the 10th century had reached China, moorish invaders introduced the fruit into Europe and there is evidence of it being cultivated in Córdoba in 961 and also in Seville in 1158. It spread northwards through southern Europe, perhaps limited in its advance by summer temperatures being insufficient for good yields, the fruit had begun appearing in European herbals by 1600, and was widely planted in Europe in the 17th century as a minor garden crop. European colonists and slaves from Africa introduced the watermelon to the New World, around the same time, Native Americans were cultivating the crop in the Mississippi valley and Florida. Watermelons were rapidly accepted in Hawaii and other Pacific islands when they were introduced there by such as Captain James Cook. The watermelon is a plant with long, weak, trailing or climbing stems which are five-angled. Young growth is densely woolly with hairs which disappear as the plant ages. The leaves are stemmed and alternate, large and pinnately-lobed, they get stiff, the flowers grow singly in the leaf axils and the corolla is white or yellow inside and greenish-yellow on the outside. The flowers are unisexual, with male and female flowers occurring on the same plant, the male flowers predominate at the beginning of the season, the female flowers, which develop later, have inferior ovaries. The styles are united into a single column, the large fruit is a kind of modified berry called a pepo with a thick rind and fleshy center. Wild plants have fruits up to 20 cm in diameter, while cultivated varieties may exceed 60 cm
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Prehistoric Egypt
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This Predynastic era is traditionally equivalent to the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c.6000 BC and corresponds to the Naqada III period. The Predynastic period is divided into cultural periods, each named after the place where a certain type of Egyptian settlement was first discovered. The Late Paleolithic in Egypt started around 30,000 BC, the Nazlet Khater skeleton was found in 1980 and dated in 1982 from nine samples ranging between 35,100 and 30,360 years. This specimen is the only complete human skeleton from the earliest Late Stone Age in Africa. Excavation of the Nile has exposed early stone tools, the earliest of these lithic industries were located within the 100-foot terrace, and were Chellean, primitive Acheulean and an Egyptian form of the Clactonian. Within the 50-foot terrace was developed Acheulean, originally reported as Early Mousterian but since changed to Levalloisean, other implements were located in the 30-foot terrace. The 15- and 10-foot terraces saw a more developed version of the Levalloisean, finally, tools of the Egyptian Sebilian technology and an Egyptian version of the Aterian technology were also located. Some of the oldest known buildings were discovered in Egypt by archaeologist Waldemar Chmielewski along the border near Wadi Halfa. They were mobile structures—easily disassembled, moved, and reassembled—providing hunter-gatherers with semi-permanent habitation, Aterian tool-making reached Egypt c.40,000 BC. The Khormusan industry in Egypt began between 40,000 and 30,000 BC, khormusans developed advanced tools not only from stone but also from animal bones and hematite. They also developed small arrow heads resembling those of Native Americans, the end of the Khormusan industry came around 16,000 B. C. with the appearance of other cultures in the region, including the Gemaian. The Halfan culture flourished along the Nile Valley of Egypt and Nubia between 18,000 and 15,000 BC, though one Halfan site dates to before 24,000 BC, people survived on a diet of large herd animals and the Khormusan tradition of fishing. Greater concentrations of artifacts indicate that they were not bound to seasonal wandering and they are viewed as the parent culture of the Ibero-Maurusian industry, which spread across the Sahara and into Spain. The Halfan culture was derived in turn from the Khormusan, which depended on specialized hunting, fishing, the primary material remains of this culture are stone tools, flakes, and a multitude of rock paintings. Qadan peoples developed sickles and grinding stones to aid in the collecting and processing of plant foods prior to consumption. However, there are no indications of the use of these tools after around 10,000 BC, in Egypt, analyses of pollen found at archaeological sites indicate that the Sebilian culture were gathering wheat and barley. It has been hypothesized that the sedentary lifestyle used by farmers led to increased warfare, continued expansion of the desert forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. The period from 9000 to 6000 BC has left little in the way of archaeological evidence
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Ficus sycomorus
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Ficus sycomorus, called the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry, sycamore, or sycomore, is a fig species that has been cultivated since ancient times. The term sycamore spelled with an A has also used for unrelated trees. The spelling sycomore, with an O rather than an A as the vowel is, if used. Ficus sycomorus is native to Africa south of the Sahel and north of the Tropic of Capricorn, in its native habitat, the tree is usually found in rich soils along rivers and in mixed woodlands. Ficus sycomorus grows to 20 m tall and has a considerable spread as can be seen from the photograph below right, the leaves are heart-shaped with a round apex,14 cm long by 10 cm wide, and arranged spirally around the twig. They are dark green above and lighter with prominent yellow veins below, the petiole is 0. 5–3 cm long and pubescent. The fruit is a large fig, 2–3 cm in diameter. They are borne in clusters on long branchlets or the leaf axil. Flowering and fruiting occurs year-round, peaking from July to December, the bark is green-yellow to orange and exfoliates in papery strips to reveal the yellow inner bark. Like all other figs, it contains a latex, according to botanists Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, the ancient Egyptians cultivated this species almost exclusively. Remains of F. sycomorus begin to appear in predynastic levels and it was the ancient Egyptian Tree of Life. Zohary and Hopf note that the fruit and the timber, and sometimes even the twigs, are represented in the tombs of the Egyptian Early, Middle. In numerous cases the parched fruiting bodies, known as sycons, bear characteristic gashing marks indicating that this art, some of the caskets of mummies in Egypt are made from the wood of this tree. In tropical areas where the wasp is common, complex mini-ecosystems involving the wasp, nematodes, other parasitic wasps, the trees random production of fruit in such environments assures its constant attendance by the insects and animals which form this ecosystem. A study in 2015 indicated that the tree was brought to Israel by Philistines during the Iron Age, along with opium poppy. In the Near East F. sycomorus is an orchard and ornamental tree of great importance and it has wide-spreading branches and affords shade. In the Bible, the sycomore is referred to seven times in the Old Testament [Hebrew שקמה shiqmah, Strongs number 8256), though it was not as common in Palestine, the sycomore was a very popular and valuable fruit tree in Jericho and Canaan. Mishnah and Talmud In the Mishnah, in chapter 9 of tractate Sheviit of order Zeraim, the Upper Galillee is defined as the area north of Kfar Hananya where the sycomore does not grow, the Lower Galillee is the area south of Kfar Hananya where the sycomore does grow
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Paliurus spina-christi
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It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 3–4 m tall. The shoots are zig-zagged, with a leaf and two spines on the outside of each kink. The leaves are oval, 2–5 cm long and 1–4 cm broad, glossy green, the fruit is a dry woody nutlet centred in a circular wing 2–3.5 cm diameter. The name reflects an old legend that the branches were used to make the crown of thorns placed on Christs head before his crucifixion. Ziziphus spina-christi, the Christs thorn jujube, is identified as being used for the crown of thorns. It is viewed as a curiosity and is cultivated in some areas, spreading its range. Flora Europaea, Paliurus spina-christi Germplasm Resources Information Network, Paliurus spina-christi Rushforth, VI.694 pp. Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden
