New World crops

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The phrase "New World Crops" is usually used to describe crops that were native to North and South America before 1492 and not found anywhere else in the world at that time. Many of these crops have since come to be grown around the world and have often become an integral part of various old world cultures' cuisines.

Examples

Table of Ancient New World Crops[1]
Grains Little barley, maize (corn), maygrass, wild rice
Pseudograins Amaranth, knotweed, goosefoot (quinoa), sunflower
Beans Common bean, lima bean, peanut, scarlet runner bean, tepary bean
Fiber Agave, yucca, long-staple and upland cotton
Roots and Tubers Arrowroot, jicama, Camas root, hopniss, leren, manioc (yuca, cassava), mashua, oca, potato, sweet potato, ulluco, yacon
Fruits Avocado, blueberry, cherimoya, cranberry, guava (guayaba), huckleberry, papaya, pawpaw, passionfruit, peppers, pineapple, prickly pear (tuna), commercial strawberries, tomato, tomatillo
Melons Chayote, squashes (including pumpkins)
Meat and poultry Coypu, guinea pig, llama, muscovy duck, turkey
Nuts American chestnut, Black walnut, Brazil nut, cashew, hickory, pecans, shagbark hickory
Other Achiote (annatto), canna, chicle (key ingredient in chewing gum and rubber), coca, cocoa, cochineal (red dye), logwood, maple syrup, poinsettia, rubber, tobacco, vanilla

Agriculture

The new world developed agriculture much later than the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East. The following tables illustrate the crops that were grown and the chronology of domestication.

Timeline of New World Crop Cultivation
Date Crops Location
8000BC[2] Squash Oaxaca, Mexico
5500BC Peanut [3] South America
8000-5000 BC Potato [4] Peruvian Andes
6000-4000BC[5] Peppers Oaxaca, Mexico
2500BC[6] Cotton Peru
2300-2200BC[2][7] Maize Mexico, Central America
5000BC[8] Avocados Mexico
4000BC Common Bean Central America
2000BC Sunflowers
Beans
1500BC Cocoa[9] Mexico

See also

References

  1. Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel, W. W. Norton & Company, 1999, p. 126.
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