{"id":1544,"date":"2024-08-21T15:07:50","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T12:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/discoversphere.co.in\/?p=1544"},"modified":"2024-08-21T15:07:50","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T12:07:50","slug":"before-selective-breeding-fruits-and-vegetables-that-look-out-of-this-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/2024\/08\/21\/before-selective-breeding-fruits-and-vegetables-that-look-out-of-this-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Before Selective Breeding: Fruits and Vegetables That Look Out of This World"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we eat cucumbers, carrots, or eggplants, we have no idea that many fruits and vegetables used to look completely different. For example, cucumbers were spiky like cacti, and carrots were purple. Our curiosity led us to discover what some of the familiar fruits, vegetables, and berries looked like before they were cultivated.<\/p>\n

Eggplant<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Philipp Weigell \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY 3.0<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Urek Meniashvili \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a><\/h6>\n

Today, we enjoy a variety of eggplants in different shapes, colors, and sizes. However, early versions of these plants did not produce edible fruits and were more ornamental, resembling chicken eggs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Corn<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0John Doebley \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY 3.0<\/a><\/h6>\n

Thanks to genetics, we can learn what corn looked like before selective breeding. Its wild ancestor is believed to be a plant called ‘teosinte.’ Corn cobs found by archaeologists over time show that corn used to be much smaller.<\/p>\n

Apple<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Yakov Fedorov \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Dominicus Johannes Bergsma \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a><\/h6>\n

Apples are one of the most well-known fruits. In their original form, known as the wild apple (Malus sieversii), they were smaller in size and more round in shape. By today’s taste standards, they were hardly edible at all.<\/p>\n

Grapes<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0Chris Light \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Cjp24 \/ Wikimedia \u0421ommons<\/a><\/h6>\n

It is believed that the grapevine was the first fruit crop domesticated by humans. Today, grapes are juicy and sweet, but their ancestors produced only small, sparse, and bitter fruits.<\/p>\n

Potato<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0stu_spivack \/ Flickr<\/a>,\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a><\/h6>\n

Potatoes were cultivated by the Incas as early as 400 BCE. However, they looked quite different back then: the tubers were crooked, small, and elongated (there’s even an engraving showing what potatoes looked like before selective breeding). As for how potatoes made their way to Europe, you’re probably familiar with the story: the vegetable was brought to Spain and Britain toward the end of the 16th century. Initially, potatoes were not highly regarded and were mostly used to feed livestock or the starving population.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we eat cucumbers, carrots, or eggplants, we have no idea that many fruits and vegetables used to look completely different. For example, cucumbers were spiky like cacti, and carrots were purple. Our curiosity led us to discover what some of the familiar fruits, vegetables, and berries looked like before they were cultivated. Eggplant \u00a9\u00a0Philipp […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1544\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jollypulse.co.nz\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}