Botany - B.Ye. Yakubenko 2017

Part Three. The Plant Kingdom (Planthae)
Chapter XI. Fundamentals of Phytogeography
11.5. Cultivated plants as an object of agrophytocenology and their coenotic significance. Centers of origin of cultivated plants

There are over 4,000 known cultivated plant species worldwide, with more than 700 species represented in Ukraine.

Plants have been cultivated since ancient times. In Ukraine, agriculture is rooted in the Trypillya culture, one of the oldest in the world. Our ancestors' first cereal crops were wheat, millet, and barley, followed later by rye, while flax and hemp served as the primary industrial crops. A significant number of cultivated crops originate from wild species, which continue to enrich the Gene pool of field flora to this day. Some plants have been artificially bred by humans for the first time and do not exist naturally in the wild.

Cultivated plants exhibit considerable diversity and an uneven geographical distribution. While studying The Nature of cultivated plants, N.I. Vavilov identified their centers of diversity and regions of origin. Initially, he outlined 8 centers, later revising this to 7. Subsequently, P.M. Zhukovsky expanded upon these ideas, proposing 12 centers of cultivated plant diversity that simultaneously serve as their regions of origin. These are as follows:

I. The Sino-Japanese Genetic Center encompasses Eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan, with the Chinese Center being the richest among them. It is the native region of such cultivated plant species as rice, proso millet, oats, garden radish, the tea plant, and the tung tree. According to N.I. Vavilov, this is the East Asian center, which accounts for up to 20% of the cultivated plant gene pool. A.I. Barbarych refers to this region as the Chinese center and also includes foxtail millet, proso millet, buckwheat, bamboo, mulberry, orange, azuki bean, soybean, garlic, apple, pear species, apricot, peach, plums, jujube, mandarin orange, and naked oats.

II. The Indo-Indonesian Genetic Center includes Indochina, Indonesia, and the Malay Archipelago. Tropical crops originate from here, including endemic rice species, the breadfruit tree, banana, coconut palm, sago palm, lemon, taro, textile banana, and Chinese sugarcane.

III. The Australian Genetic Center encompasses Australia and adjacent islands. It is considered the birthplace of over 60 cotton species.

IV. The Hindustan Genetic Center serves as the origin point for wild and noble sugarcane. According to A.I. Barbarych, this is the Indian region, which is also the birthplace of rice, wild rice (sildao), cotton (two local species), jute, kenaf, luffa, certain bean species, mung bean, spherococcum wheat, chickpea, eggplants, cucumbers, citron, black pepper, and Asian cotton.

V. The Central Asian Genetic Center includes Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. This region is THE ORIGIN OF common bread wheat, Afghan rye, chickpea, edible lentil, and the biennial cultivated carrot. A.I. Barbarych also attributes species such as peas, garlic, apricot, almond, local apple varieties, medlar, grapevine, walnut, melons, bulb onion, and fava beans to this region.

VI. The Central Asian (Western Asian) Genetic Center covers the mountainous regions of Turkmenistan, Iran, Transcaucasia, Asia Minor, and Arabia. It is the cradle of Transcaucasian wild emmer wheat, bread wheat, einkorn wheat, rye, cultivated two-rowed barley, common sugar beet, garden cabbage, leek, peas, date palm, quince, plum, sweet cherry, cornelian cherry, pomegranate, fig, and chestnut.

VII. The Mediterranean Genetic Center comprises the territories of 17 countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. It is an ancient center of cultivated flax, carotenoid carrot, rutabaga, olive, dill, parsley, lavender, Byzantine oat, carob tree, and bay laurel.

VIII. The African Genetic Center spans the greater part of the continent and serves as the center of origin for sorghum, castor bean, pumpkins, African rice, pearl millet, African cotton, watermelon, Robusta coffee, Liberian coffee, and the oil palm.

IX. The European-Siberian Genetic Center. This region is the starting point for species such as sycamore maple, domestic apple, black currant, red currant, wild strawberry, garden strawberry, hop, hemp, fiber flax, sugar beet, red clover, creeping clover, and sickle alfalfa.

X. The Mesoamerican Genetic Center covers the territory of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama. This is the center of origin and diversity for maize, beans, potatoes, tobacco, summer squash, sweet potato, rustic tobacco, pepper, sisal, avocado, cacao, pecan, and cotton.

XI. The South American Genetic Center is the cradle of sunflowers, cultivated tomatoes, giant pumpkin, tobacco, cinchona tree, Canna, papaya, potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, cassava, pineapple, and rubber tree (Hevea).

XII. The North American Genetic Center served as the region of origin for annual and perennial sunflower species, Jerusalem artichoke, and lupine.