I was pondering that last night, trying to decide if it was true. I think I just don't know enough about the history of crop domestication around the world, though!
The Cucurbitaceae and the various pulses are pretty cosmopolitan, right? Pulses are hugely important in a bunch of cultures around the world. Chickpeas, peas, fava beans are big. (Lentils are a bit small, but some have pretty patterns, which might be noteworthy.) Cucurbits are mostly eaten for the flesh, but some have seeds that are desirable.
Europe and Asia seem to have gone all-in on grasses, which shifts the balance. North America also has... what else? Chia, various Amaranthaceae, grasses in a couple places? It does seem like large-seeded seed crops are more the norm, but I can't tell if it's significantly so. And I don't know which plants started out with large seeds in their wild types.
I can't even tell with corn. Not knowing a ton about maize domestication, but looking at teosinte seedheads... those seeds look pretty chonky, but maybe that's *after* humans did some selection. I wonder if it's even possible to find teosinte that is untouched by human selection. There's got to have been a ton of backcrossing, right?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2022-06-12 02:59 pm (UTC)The Cucurbitaceae and the various pulses are pretty cosmopolitan, right? Pulses are hugely important in a bunch of cultures around the world. Chickpeas, peas, fava beans are big. (Lentils are a bit small, but some have pretty patterns, which might be noteworthy.) Cucurbits are mostly eaten for the flesh, but some have seeds that are desirable.
Europe and Asia seem to have gone all-in on grasses, which shifts the balance. North America also has... what else? Chia, various Amaranthaceae, grasses in a couple places? It does seem like large-seeded seed crops are more the norm, but I can't tell if it's significantly so. And I don't know which plants started out with large seeds in their wild types.
I can't even tell with corn. Not knowing a ton about maize domestication, but looking at teosinte seedheads... those seeds look pretty chonky, but maybe that's *after* humans did some selection. I wonder if it's even possible to find teosinte that is untouched by human selection. There's got to have been a ton of backcrossing, right?