History and Nomenclature

• plant propagation: multiplication of plants by sexual and asexual means to reproduce a new plant with a set of desired characteristics
• agriculture: deliberate cultivation of crops and animals for human use
• plant selection: selecting and/or developing specific kinds of plants
• propagation: multiplying plants and preserving their unique qualities
• agriculture steps:

  1. plant selection

  2. propagation

  3. crop production

  4. crop handling and storage

  5. food technology
• When did plant propagation start?

  9000 B.C.
• early domesticated crops: wheat, barley, rice, beans and peas, grape, fig, olive, pomegranate, potato, yams, banana and pineapple
• early propagation methods: seed and vegetative propagation
• ancient Chinese writings describe grafting and layering
• as population increases, you need more food
• control of land and agricultural surplus = power and wealth
• Theophrastus wrote Historia de Plantis and De Causis Planatrum
• Greeks and Romans propagated via seeds, cuttings, layering, and grafting
• During the Medieval period, most of society organized around large-scale agriculture
• agronomy: cereals, fibers, and forages
• horticulture: vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers
• forestry: woody plants
• Captain Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, Francis Masson, and Robert Fortune all important figures in exploring new areas in plant propagation
• Wardian Case: a glazed wooden cabinet designed to keep high humidity inside and salt water spray outside the case on long sea voyages
• Nathanial Ward invented the Wardian case
• herbals: books produced to describe the utility of local and introduced plants for doctors
• Grafting expanded to fruit crops in the 17th and 18th centuries
• Charles Baltet - The Art of Grafting and Budding
• Liberty Hyde Bailey: father of American horticulture
• The Morrill Act 1862: gave land for agricultural research and education
• Thomas Volney Munson crossed Vitis vinifera with Texas grape species
• First nursery was built by William Prince and Son in Long Island in 1730
• First glasshouse built in 1598
• plant propagation is an art and a science
• International Plant Propagator's Society (IPPS): provides nursery profession with knowledge and research support
• taxonomy: naming and identification of organisms based on their shared characteristics
• non vascular plants:

  • bryophytes (moss plants)
  • no xylem or phloem
  • don't have roots
  • don't have flowers or seeds
  • reproduce via spores
  • small, low-lying plants usually found in moist habitats
  • three divisions
  • mosses
  • liverworts
  • hornworts
• vascular:

  • spore producing
  • Pteridophyta: ferns and fern allies have vascular tissue and roots
  • club mosses, whisk ferns, horsetails
  • seed producing
  • gymnosperms and angiosperms
• gymnosperms: non flowering
• angiosperms: flowering plants; seeds produced in fruits within flowers
• problems with common names:

  • different plants may have the same name
  • some plants may be called different names
• Carl Linnaeus: father of taxonomy
• binomial system: two-part scientific name; genus specific epithet
• genus: describes a group of plants that are similar in morphological, biochemical, and genetic properties
• specific epithet: natural grouping of plants that have common characteristics in appearance, adaptation, and breeding behavior