The following are excerpts from Thor Hanson's 2015 book, titledThe Triumph of Seeds - How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom
and Shaped Human History.Read the information, then answer each of the Discussion questions.
There are hundreds of thousands of kinds of plants; each owing their beginnings to a seed. In “Seeds Nourish” Thor Hanson explores what makes seeds so successful.
The germination of seeds depends on what that plant needs (amount of sunlight, water, nutrients in the soil) in the particular environment in which it finds itself. Carol Baskin, a seed biologist at the University of Kentucky, says that seeds are “baby plants in a box with its lunch” (p.9). Seeds are portable, protected, and well nourished.
Hanson goes on to point out that the availability of grains seems to be tied to the success of early civilizations (p.23). Richard Wrangham, a professor of biological anthropology at Harvard, theorizes that many of the changes in humans over history is a result of a diet based on “gathering” rather than “hunting” (p. 27) Thus, seeds came to be our most important nutritional resource.
Hanson shows how the success of fracking today is closely tied to plants. And, he shows how that has led to a boom in the production and exportation of other grains (p.51).
A plant’s primary job is to continue its species. To do so it must defend its seeds. Hanson explores the idea of “coevolution” – a change in one organism leads to a change in another (p.
115). To give the seed the best chance of germinating, some seeds have developed an almost impenetrable shell. Other seeds have developed toxins to prevent predators from consuming the seeds. In any case, plants/seeds must balance between protection from being eaten and still being dispersed. Many of these strategies have benefitted humans – from the tang of a spicy dish, to life saving pharmaceuticals, to a morning cup of coffee, to sweet smooth chocolate.
Interesting Facts:
• Most seeds take up water right before they germinate, thus making them heavier. (p.12)
• Grains have been key factors in founding nearly every early civilization – wheat, rice, corn, sorghum. (p.22)
• By the year 2000 the exportation of guar brought over $280 million to India. (p.50)
Based on the above excerpts, what you learned in lecture, and your own independent research, answer the following discussion questions:
1. What do you see as the relationship between the cultivation of seeds and the course of history?
2. “When harvests are poor, governments falter” (p.32). What evidence is there of this dependence on plants in today’s world? Do you see this currently happening in countries?
3. “Excluding small, ineffective seed predators and limiting the damage from large ones requires a shell with just the right level of defenses, one that optimizes what ecologists
call handling time” (p. 117). This suggests a balancing act for plants to protect their seeds while still needing them to be dispersed. Explain the coevolution between plant seeds and the animals who eat them.