[American grain amaranths in the Old World]
1992
Hanelt, P. (Institut fuer Pflanzengenetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung Gatersleben (Germany))
The history of the grain amaranth species in America has been shortly reviewed and the cultivation of these species in the Old World described. There are astonishing parallel developments in regard to cultivation and use in the New and the Old World which can be explained by the transfer of such methods from other seed crops (millets, chenopoda etc). The introduction of the American grain amaranths to their Asian areas of cultivation is still scarcely known, a primary introduction as ornamentals and a later incorporation into the food plant assemblage is proposed. Recently grain amaranths received again agricultural interest as alternative crops and as food plants because of the high protein and lysine content of their seeds. Domestication of the grain amaranths led to a significant increase of the number of female flowers (and therefore of seeds) per plant - often enormous inflorescences are the result - whereas seed weight differs insignificantly or not at all between wild and cultivated taxa.
显示更多 [+] 显示较少 [-]