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Info about plants millions of years ago
"David Hershey" wrote in message m... "ByoBlu" wrote in message . .. Hi, I'm not an expert: therefor I came here since I believe you all are the right people to speak to. I'm writing a fantasy book and have to collect a reasonable amount of information about life 200 mya. I have to discover what plants, vegetables, grass and so on would you have found if living there, and if they were acceptable food or was it necessary to cook or treat it to eliminate poison. Any other information, even ideas, or useful relevant links is very appreciated. Thank you very much, Claudio As others mentioned, in the Jurassic era, you would be restricted to seedless plants (mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns, club mosses, equisetums) and gymnosperms (ginkgo, conifers, cycads, gnetophytes). Ginkgo seeds, pine seeds and other gymnosperm tree seeds are edible. They might be your major staple crops. Pine seeds are often called pine "nuts" or pignolias and are sold in supermarkets today. The USDA database listed says pignolias (Pinus pinea) have 13.69% protein by weight, which is a good deal of protein. They also contain 68.37% fat and about 13% carbohydrate. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/ Raw gingko seeds contain 37.6% carbohydrate, 4.32% protein and 1.68% fat. Aborigines used seeds of bunya bunya (Araucaria bidwillii) as a major food source. http://farrer.riv.csu.edu.au/ASGAP/APOL8/dec97-3.html South American natives used seeds of Monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana) as a staple food. http://www.victorialodging.com/monkey_puzzle_tree.htm Starch can be obtained from the stems of certain cycads, such as Zamia floridana, which once provided arrowroot starch sold in supermarkets. The USDA database says arrowroot flour contains 88.15% carbohydrate. Cycads contain toxic substances so the starch may have had to be treated before use. Cycad seeds and roots also have been used as food sources. Cycad toxicities: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.gov.au/PlantNet/cycad/ethn.html The Native American Ethnobotany database lists their uses of native plants. Many conifers were used as food including, The sap of sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana). The sugar-rich inner bark of pines. Young "male" or microsporangiate cones of white pine (Pinus strobus). White pine bark was used to make a beverage. http://herb.umd.umich.edu/ Native Americans also ate mosses as famine foods. Young fiddleheads of some ferns (Ostrich fern - Matteuccia struthiopteris) are edible but others are carcinogenic (Bracken fern -Pteridium aquilinum). http://museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/bracken.htm The fleshy arils surrounding the seeds of yew (Taxus spp.) are edible but the seeds and other parts are toxic. http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/sh...&recnum=TS0061 The seeds of plum yew (Cephalotaxus spp.) are edible. http://www.floridata.com/ref/C/ceph_har.cfm If you obtained a list of conifer scientific names, you could probably find a lot of conifer species with edible seeds or other parts. There are some Jurassic gardens in existence: http://www.earthmuseum.segs.uwa.edu....rassic_gardens Juniper seeds are used to flavor gin so you probably could ferment some cycad starch and make alcohol. I Australia we have the "dinosaur palm" (Wollemia nobilis ARAUCARIACEAE) discovered recently, but it is not on sale just yet. Perhaps its nut are edible? http://www.ias.ac.in/resonance/Augus...2003p43-47.pdf |
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