A quick look at the evolution of plant cultivars
A CULTIVAR is a plant that has adapted to its natural habitat and evolved somewhat from the original species first planted in the location. This is why we have some fruit trees that will only produce good fruit when grown in the original location. When grown away from the original spot, the trees will not produce the same eating quality as the parent trees.
Farmers have faced the frustration of trying all kinds of inputs and worked endlessly to try to achieve true to type quality.
A good example would be the pomelo grown in the Kwong Hua area of Sibu, which has a superior eating quality that cannot be copied when planted in new locations. In the past, not even our experts from the research branch of the Department of Agriculture could replicate its quality elsewhere. Historical trends Sometimes you have to wonder how our forefathers got their cultivars of crops for their gardens. Definitely as civilisation developed, so did gardening techniques. Our prehistoric forebears evolved from nomadic hunter-gatherers, who made use of wild fruits and herbs for food and medicines.
Once in settled communities, man began sowing and storing crops to protect themselves from going hungry. Gradually they would have improved upon the crops. This development would have taken thousands of years in different parts of the world.
Gardens as we know them today are a rather recent concept in the Western world but the Chinese have been growing plants as an aesthetic expression – purely for the beauty of the colour and plant forms – for more than 2,000 years.
Early Egyptians cultivated orchards and garlic. These appeared in the first agricultural ‘handbook’ – ‘The Georgics’ – written by the Roman poet Virgil, who was devoted to the husbandry of crops and orchards in 36 BC. Early monasteries had herbal gardens for medicines and also cultivated flower gardens for charms such as the peony, as well other root crops for food and precious herbs like leeks for cures.
The best known of the plantsmen of the late 16th century in the Western world was John Gerard. He is still renowned for his book ‘Herball’ published in 1597 about over 1,000 species in the British Isles.
The world’s horizons were expanded once the sailing explorers travelled across the globe. The seafaring nations in Europe and Asia explored new locations and continents with new species of plants, which they brought back with them.
A better understanding of plants began with botanists, who understood the pollination process, heredity and genes. Johann Mendel’s experiments on peas provided a new understanding of plant species and cultivars.
The advances in agronomy and botany led to the eventual development in agriculture of raw materials and food production. Garden centres also sprung up in the West, where farmers could obtain new seeds or plantlets.
Together with the plants, there came a need of fertilisers and pest control, paving the way for new advances in agriculture. Agriculture in Sarawak I have actually documented the early work on agriculture in Sarawak in my new book entitled ‘100 Years of Agriculture in Sarawak’. Take the mandarin orange or Japanese orange in Kuching, which was first introduced in 1913 by a Japanese agronomist – Kimura – who developed a garden at Quop Road, near the present Kota Padawan at Mile 10.
Another example would be the green skinned oranges from Bintangor, which were actually introduced by Father Bergh from Holland in 1929. He also brought in cocoa and planted it at Mile 15 Kuching-Serian Road. The introduction of rubber was more dramatic as some sources quoted the first introduction was by the Anglican Bishop George Frederick Hose in 1886, with the seeds first planted in the Sarawak Museum Garden.
The first introduction of cocoa came with a batch of 50 trees planted at the Tarat Agricultural Station in 1950. The earlier introductions around 1930 failed to develop as a crop until the 1970s.
The introduction of oil palm was first made before the Second World War in Kanowit near Sibu, but also failed to achieve a commercial level. The second wave came after the Department of Agriculture set up observation plots in Limbang and Stapok, Kuching in the 1950s.
Rajah Charles Brooke introduced coffee in 1867 for the Rajah’s Matang Coffee Estate that was abandoned in 1912. However, it was used as the Rajah’s garden with roses and jasmines, where a bungalow called Vallombrosa stood.
Today, science has brought us a step further, when we see the use of tissue cultured plantlets for use. This includes the NP2 pineapple or new genetically engineered plants.
For comments, questions or suggestions, do send me an email. Happy gardening.