With breeding studies or genetic changes, desired properties such as taste, strength and resistance to pests can be given to plants. This process is a long and slow process.
In this content, we will see the different aspects of humanity, from banana to eggplant, before they started growing these plants for food.
This detail from a 17th-century painting by Giovanni Stanchi depicts a watermelon that looks strikingly different from today's watermelons, as Vox points out. The cross-cut watermelon, pictured between 1645 and 1672, appears to have swirl shapes embedded in six triangular pie-shaped pieces.
Over time, people have obtained the red and fleshy watermelon varieties through breeding, as seen in the picture. Some of us may think that the watermelon in Stanchi's picture may be immature, but the seeds in the picture indicate that the watermelon is ripe.
The first bananas may have been grown in Papua New Guinea and Southeast Asia probably 7000-10000 years ago. Today's bananas come from two wild varieties, Musa acuminata and Musabalbisiana, which have large and hard seeds as pictured.
Thanks to hybrid varieties, today's bananas can be grasped more easily and the skin is easily peeled. Its fruit has smaller seeds than its ancestors, it is delicious and has a higher nutritional content.
Throughout their history, eggplants have come in a wide variety of colors and shapes, including white, azure, purple, and yellow. The wild types of eggplant, known to have been first cultivated in China, had thorns where the stem was attached to the flowers.
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The eggplant, which developed with the breeding efforts, got rid of its thorns and became the purple-colored vegetable we know today.
The earliest known carrots were grown in Iran and Anatolia in the 10th century. The first carrots were purple or white in color and are thought to have a thin, forked stem as pictured.
Plant breeders have developed these biennial slender roots into an orange-coloured, palatable, larger plant that is an annual winter crop.
Perhaps the most iconic example of breeding is maize grown from the teosinte plant, known as the ancestor of maize. It is estimated that the first known corn was grown in 7000 BC .
Today's maize is 1,000 times larger than it was 9,000 years ago and is much easier to grow and peel.