On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 22:56:32 -0500, Michelle
wrote:

Hey I was reading a post on my cooking group and one user always
posts a factoid about food this time it was about a chili pepper plant
and it's ancesstory .
so my question is how come you don't just see vegetables growing all
over the place wild like som crazy out of control tomatoes or somthing
like that once I saw some whild sunflowers in the woods and I saw a
pumpkin once but not too much else I see whild fruit all the time like
crab apples or sour cherry but no bunches of
Have we imbread cultivated food plants that they just don't grow wild
where did all the wild plants go that we cultivated modern vegetables
from?

Go find a copy of 'The Botany of Desire' -- your library probably has
more than one, as it was a recent best-seller. The wild plants didn't
go away -- it's just that you probably wouldn't recognize (or want to
eat) the ancestors of wheat or sweetcorn. Cultivated plants are just
that -- not only selected and bred for the most desirable
characteristics, but given the best conditions to grow. Plowing,
weeding, and irrigation make life a lot easier for a 'domestic'
tomato. :-)