Читать книгу Harlan's Crops and Man - H. Thomas Stalker - Страница 19

Because the same general pattern is operative, it might be worthwhile to call attention to repetitive patterns in two families whose produce appeals to gatherers.

Solanaceae. The genus Solanum is found on every continent and includes several hundred species. About 15 species are gathered for food in Africa, 9 are listed for North America, and several are found in South America, India, and Australia. Some must be detoxified before being eaten. The fruits are the parts eaten in most cases, but leaves may be used as pot‐herbs and a number of species have edible tubers. Physalis is another genus widely exploited with at least 10 species gathered in North America plus others in South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Species of wild Capsicum, Cyphomandra, and Lycopersicon were gathered in the Americas. The genus Nicotiana was a favorite of gathering tribes in the Americas and Australia. Several distinct species were involved and they were utilized almost wherever they occurred. In the Americas, the tobaccos were both chewed and smoked, while it was a masticatory only in Australia. Lime of some sort was often mixed with the quid. Datura was used as a drug, medicine, or hallucinogen in both eastern and western hemispheres.

Cucurbitaceae. Plants of this family were often attractive to gathering peoples and in some cases were very important because of their abundance. In Australia, Maiden (1889) observed that Cucumis trigonus Roxb. was sometimes “growing in such abundance that the whole country seemed strewed with the fruit.” In southern Africa, the landscape may be almost cluttered with wild watermelon [Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Schrad.] where it may serve as the only source of water for man and animals alike over extended periods of the dry season (Story, 1958). Tropical Cucumis and Mamordica species are still gathered in the wild in Africa and Asia. The genus Cucurbita is confined to the Americas and was extensively exploited by the Native Americans; several species were domesticated. The white‐flowered bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] has been widely exploited, primarily for the hard shells of the fruits which make excellent containers. Its use has been recorded in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia, but its distribution as a wild plant is not well known. The fruits of the Australian races are said to be purgative or even poisonous according to Maiden (1889) but are eaten by the Aborigines after being processed. The fruits of some domesticated races may be eaten when young without special precautions. Luffa is also widely used in Asia and Africa as a vegetable or medicine, but is a fish poison in Australia (Palmer, 1883).