Legumes Pt. I

What is the Old World Legume that is a chocolate substitute?

Locust Bean/Carob/St. John’s Bread from the Mediterranean region.

How do you fertilize a field?

1. Decomposers in soil break down added organic matter.
2. special case: Azolla in rice fields
3. Crop rotation w/ legumes
4. add artificial produced fertilizers

Why are should we avoid artificially produced fertilizers?

Energy- expensive process (Haber-Bosch Process) and the high amount of fossil fuels used for hydrogen, high heat, and pressure.

When is the earliest known usage of legumes?

Neanderthals were eating cooked legumes

Why is nitrogen a limiting nutrient in humans?

Creates essential amino acids, and is high in proteins

What are the plants part of the three sister’s agriculture? And what does each plant contribute?

Corn is a good source of grain, beans can grow on the stalk of the corn, and squash shades soil and prevents competition.

What are the forage legumes used in the United States?

Clovers and Alfalfa. Which are a cow’s favorite plants.

What is the origin of Alfalfa?

Western Asia.

Why were the honeybees not able to pollinate Alfalfa? What bees replaced it?

The bees did not like being hit by the spring-loaded keel petal. They found that native Alkali bees were good at pollinating it. They also brought alfalfa leaf-cutting bees from Eurasia.

What does Endozoochory mean?

Seed dispersal because of animals.

What type of seeds are dispersed by large mammals and which are dispersed by birds?

Mammals spread seeds with a fleshy mesocarp and birds spread seeds with an aril (fleshy seed coat).

What legume and which part of the fruit does the term Carat comes from?

The Locust bean and the seeds are uniform which led to the term carat.

What Legumes’ endosperm is used as a thickening agent?

Locust bean gum, Guar gum (native to India),

What habitat is Acacia trees important to?

Sub-Sahara Savanna (Grassland w/some trees and an open canapy)

What are the seed dispersers of Acacia Tree? And what do they provide?

Elephants. They clean the seeds and they cleaned of predator insect larvae.

What is the modern use for Senna?

Gentle laxative. It brings more water into intestines to stimulate the bowels.

What was the Native American’s usage of the ice-cream bean?

Native Americans used it as a sweetener, it is also a market crop and famine food

What are the two Legumes native to Eastern North America? And who were their seed dispersers?

Honey Locust and Kentucky Coffee tree. The seed dispersers are ancient Mastodons.

What was the original use for Honey Locust and its current modern usage?

Natives used mesocarp as a sweetener and modern usage is used for livestock who also disperses their seeds.

Why were Kentucky Coffee trees used in the Revolutionary and Civil wars?

The soldiers could not get coffee and so this coffee-tasting beverage was used instead.

What are the qualities of Endozochory legumes with birds as their seed dispersers? (3 characteristics)

Dry exocarp, no mesocarp, and seeds will have arils or false aril coloration.

Why does the cyclops wattle look like an eye? Where are they native to and where were they introduced? Where can they be found?

The fleshy seed coat looks like an eye because it is good for bird distribution and attraction. And it is native to Austrailia and introduced to North America. They are commonly planted along highways and naturalized in coastal dunes.

Which state was the Rosary Pea introduced to and why? And what nutrients do the birds get from eating this?

Was introduced to Florida as an ornamental plant. The seeds have a false aril coloration and when dispersed the bird recieves no nutrition.

What happens when humans eat the Rosary Pea and what protein affects this?

It poisons the human causing respiratory failure from the ribosome inhibiting Abrin. There is no cure and one seed can kill a person.

Where is the Jicama plant native to and what part is eaten?

South America. And the swollen storage root is eaten.

What does the Jicama utilize, and what other benefit does it have?

Storage root utilizes inulin (partial polysaccharides of chain of fructose units), it also has prebiotics and is 75% water.

What is the difference between probiotics and prebiotics?

Probiotics are administering live organisms orally to help the host’s health. And Prebiotics is manipulating the fuel imputs in our diet to alter the bacterial community.

Which type of Therapy is more helpful Probiotic or Prebiotic?

Prebiotic because the utilization of oligosaccharides can actually stimulate the growth of Bifidobacterium at the expense of pathogenetic bacteria. So Prebiotic vitamins and inulin is better.