The Post Quiz: Plants and History - Answers

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Reaping the fruits of history…

Plants and History: Answers

If you aren't a farmer or a competitive gardener, you may take plants for granted. However, this is a very bad idea. Your Editor's front garden was once assaulted by a very aggressive ailanthus. We called it Audrey.

Plants have set off revolutions, started wars, and ruined economies. Strange how much power a sessile organism has. Keep this in mind the next time your forget to water your houseplants.

  1. The Biblical story of Cain and Abel may be based on this world-changing agricultural shift. Neolithic Revolution.
  2. When Columbus 'discovered' America, he was really looking for a way to beat the Portuguese to this. Spice Road.
  3. This game-changer is why Europeans have tomatoes in their salads. Columbian Exchange.
  4. This event crashed the economy of the Netherlands. Tulip Bubble.
  5. This frenzy made Englishmen rich, taverns polluted, and King James really annoyed. Jamestown Tobacco Boom.
  6. These people only wanted a place to plant their own food. Digger Movement.
  7. How the King of Prussia got his peasants to plant tubers. Kartoffelbefehl. (German for, 'We haff vays of making you plant potatoes.')
  8. This phenomenon caused the spread of slavery and eventually, 600,000 deaths. King Cotton.
  9. Overfarming + drought + tornados = … (The refugees ended up in California.) Dust Bowl.
  10. Some say it's the future. Others call it the source of 'Frankenfood'. Transgenic Revolution.

How did you do? Share this important historical knowledge with your friends and acquaintances. Remind them to be thoughtful the next time they yawn at the farm reports. And remember: plants are sneaky.

A bonsai tree
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Dmitri Gheorgheni

26.05.14 Front Page

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