BIOB38H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Sugarcane, Soil Fertility, Caryopsis
Document Summary
Plants that feed the world: the top 20, cereals (grasses, sugar crops, vegetables, legumes, plants that fed ontario. Cereals (grasses: sugar cane, corn, wheat, rice, barley, sorghum, basic foods for humankind, rice, corn, wheat, barley, sorghum & millet (africa), oats & rye (europe, seeds of grasses are rich in kcal and don"t carry too much water. It is energy dense, > fruits/ vegetables: wind pollinated so it doesn"t invest in making big flowers, reproduce asexually through runners. Husks need to be removed: seed of a grass = caryopsis. Has outer layer to let it survive drought. Embryo is inside the seed and feeds off the endosperm which is starch-rich. Rice: comes from china and india originally (asia, rice is never fed to animals, only to humans, grows in lowland tropics where there is flooding. It"s good for it because of less weeds: wetland preparation (lowland) highest yield, bunds are strips of mud in the field.
