#65 - Feb 2023 - Garden Stuff - © Sandy Lang - slang@xtra.co.nz
GOOD FOOD, PRETTY FLOWERSFebruary/March: : Late summer/early autumn. Hot days, sandy soils, water restrictions. But plenty of free tree chip. A mulch blanket helps keep water in, and soil temperature constant.
Angiosperms: The flowering/fruiting plants emerged between 300 and 150 million years ago (late Carboniferous, early Cretaceous). They soon underwent rapid genome downsizing. So, smaller nuclei, smaller cells, faster cell division. So, faster growth, shorter life cycles. So, faster evolution. The Angiosperms spread rapidly, outcompeting and displacing the previously dominant ferns and conifers of the Carboniferous (many extinctions). Today, with 416 Angiosperm families, 13,000 genera and 300,000 species, they are about 90% of all land plants.
Co-opt 1: Another key to Angiosperm success was they co-opted animals. They grew bright coloured flowers and fruits (maximum visibility) and offered sugary nectar, juice (maximum attraction) to get animals to disperse their pollen (mostly insects) and seeds (mostly vertebrates). So, dispersion was much further, much faster.
Co-opt 2: Very recently (in evolutionary terms), about 10,000 years ago, the Angiosperm strategy of animal co-option became very specialised. A tiny minority of Angiosperms entered a special relationship with a single vertebrate species (Homo sapiens). Our ancestors around the world (Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe) became farmers. They chose only plants that were easy to grow, produced good food and looked pretty.
Discrimination: So, farming has greatly increased the populations of a very tiny proportion of all land plants. Only 7 of the 416 Angiosperm families. Almost all the rest (i.e., about 409 Angiosperm families) were suddenly considered ‘weeds’. Just consider what we’ve done to the native bush of New Zealand and Australia in the last 200 years... (Many extinctions over the last 10,000 years)
Lucky few: The lucky few Angiosperm families are: •Poaceae (rice, maize, wheat, pasture grasses...) which feed both us and the animals we farm for meat, milk, wool and leather; •Leguminosae (beans, peas...); •Solanaceae (potatoes, tomatoes...); •Cucurbitaceae (melons, pumpkins...); •Brassicaceae (cabbages, kales...); •Rutaceae (oranges, lemons...) and •Rosaceae (apples, plums...). There are a small number of other Angiosperms which provide us with fibres (cotton, hemp...); medicines (aspirin, digitalin...) and drinks (coffee, wine...). The only major exception to Angiosperm dominance today is the Pinales (conifers) which provides most of our timber and paper. [This column is not about animals but just consider how the wild populations of the non-farmed animal species have declined or become extinct – but the world has never seen so many chickens, pigs, sheep and cattle...]
Technology: Then, about 200 years ago, new farming methods allowed huge increases in food production and so in the human population (1 billion of us in 1800, there're 8 billion of us today). So, we now farm/afforest huge areas of land, and have destroyed huge areas of habitat. So, are causing mass extinction of the diversity of 'weed plants' and ‘wild animals'. ___________________________________
GOOD FOOD, PRETTY FLOWERSFebruary/March: : Late summer/early autumn. Hot days, sandy soils, water restrictions. But plenty of free tree chip. A mulch blanket helps keep water in, and soil temperature constant.
Angiosperms: The flowering/fruiting plants emerged between 300 and 150 million years ago (late Carboniferous, early Cretaceous). They soon underwent rapid genome downsizing. So, smaller nuclei, smaller cells, faster cell division. So, faster growth, shorter life cycles. So, faster evolution. The Angiosperms spread rapidly, outcompeting and displacing the previously dominant ferns and conifers of the Carboniferous (many extinctions). Today, with 416 Angiosperm families, 13,000 genera and 300,000 species, they are about 90% of all land plants.
Co-opt 1: Another key to Angiosperm success was they co-opted animals. They grew bright coloured flowers and fruits (maximum visibility) and offered sugary nectar, juice (maximum attraction) to get animals to disperse their pollen (mostly insects) and seeds (mostly vertebrates). So, dispersion was much further, much faster.
Co-opt 2: Very recently (in evolutionary terms), about 10,000 years ago, the Angiosperm strategy of animal co-option became very specialised. A tiny minority of Angiosperms entered a special relationship with a single vertebrate species (Homo sapiens). Our ancestors around the world (Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe) became farmers. They chose only plants that were easy to grow, produced good food and looked pretty.
Discrimination: So, farming has greatly increased the populations of a very tiny proportion of all land plants. Only 7 of the 416 Angiosperm families. Almost all the rest (i.e., about 409 Angiosperm families) were suddenly considered ‘weeds’. Just consider what we’ve done to the native bush of New Zealand and Australia in the last 200 years... (Many extinctions over the last 10,000 years)
Lucky few: The lucky few Angiosperm families are: •Poaceae (rice, maize, wheat, pasture grasses...) which feed both us and the animals we farm for meat, milk, wool and leather; •Leguminosae (beans, peas...); •Solanaceae (potatoes, tomatoes...); •Cucurbitaceae (melons, pumpkins...); •Brassicaceae (cabbages, kales...); •Rutaceae (oranges, lemons...) and •Rosaceae (apples, plums...). There are a small number of other Angiosperms which provide us with fibres (cotton, hemp...); medicines (aspirin, digitalin...) and drinks (coffee, wine...). The only major exception to Angiosperm dominance today is the Pinales (conifers) which provides most of our timber and paper. [This column is not about animals but just consider how the wild populations of the non-farmed animal species have declined or become extinct – but the world has never seen so many chickens, pigs, sheep and cattle...]
Technology: Then, about 200 years ago, new farming methods allowed huge increases in food production and so in the human population (1 billion of us in 1800, there're 8 billion of us today). So, we now farm/afforest huge areas of land, and have destroyed huge areas of habitat. So, are causing mass extinction of the diversity of 'weed plants' and ‘wild animals'. ___________________________________