L3.5

• Agronomic crops are staple food crops, such as corn, rice, beans, and wheat, which are produced on a large scale and represent the foundation of our human food supply.
• 2 Main Classification System

  • Botanical system
  • Functional System
• Botanical system - most precise and universally used
• Cereals

  corn, rice, barley, oats, rye, grain sorghum, wheat
• Seed Legumes (pulses)

  soybean, mungbean, pea
• Green Manure Legumes

  soybeans, cowpeas and other crops - grown then plowed under to improve soil fertility
• corn and sorghum - grown to be cut and preserved in a succulent condition for silage
• Green Crop

  corn, sunda grass, soybeans and many other crops - cut when green and succulent and are fed to livestock without curing
• Supplement Crop - grown as secondary crop, such as sunda grass when used to provide grazing at a time when other pastures cannot be used or are not sufficiently productive
• Horticultural crops

  Horticultural crops comprise mainly fruits, vegetables, ornamental, aromatic, plantation, and medicinal plants.
• Vegetables

  • crops usually grown for cullinary purposes
• Fruit is a mature, ripened ovary. It contains the seed (ripened ovule) and pericarp (the tissue that surrounds the seed).
• Simple fruit- one fruit develop from single ovary of a flower with or without accessory parts. (Ex. Corn, Peanut)
• Aggregate fruit- collection of simple fruit developing from apocarpus pistil of a flower (Ex. Strawberry, Raspberry)
• Multiple or composite fruits- develop from a number of flowers from an inflorescence.(Ex. Pineapple, peach fruit.)
• Accessory fruit- a fruit not derived from the ovary but from another part of the flower (Ex. Apple)
• Berry - has an entirely fleshy ovary
• Hesperidium - have a leathery rind.
• Pepo - defined by hard rind and flesy inner matrix
• Drupe - is a fruit with fleshy exterior and a single hard, stony pit surroundin the seed
• Pomes - have a fleshy exterior and a center with papery carpels
• Dry Fruits may be indehiscent or dehiscent
• Indehiscent fruits are those that do not split open at maturity and are usually one or two-seeded
• Dehiscent fruits are fruits that split open upon maturation
•  Achene - is a single-seeded fruit with seed attached only at only one place to the pericarp
• Caryopsis - a fruit is similar to a an achence; however, the pericarp sticks or clings to the seed
• Samara - is usually single-seeded with a membranous wing
• Utricle - is like an achene, but the ovary wall fits loosely around the seed
•  Nut - a hard, one-seeded fruit
• Nutlet - a small version of a nut
• Legume or pod - composed of a single carpel and has two longitudinal sutures
• Follicle - is composed of a single carpel and splits open along one suture
• Capsule - is composed of more than one carpel that are united and form many-seeded fruits
• Silique - a specialized form of capsule in mustards
• Pyxis - is a type of capsule with a lid that falls from the fruit
• Plantation crops

  • loosely defined as crops, usually perennial and require minor changes in the structure of the product (primary processing) before utilization
• Ornamentals includes all plants that are used for their aesthetic qualities or for decorative purposes
• The difference between horticultural ad agronomic crops depends on the purpose for which the crop is grown, type of culture, traditions and customs of the country
• Oil crops- grown for their oil content. 

  Eg. Soybean, peanut, sunflower, castor, coconut.
• Sugar crops- grown for their sugar content.

  Eg. Sugarcane