Hi Kirk ><snip> >He arrived at a theory on the centers of genetic diversity of >different crops, which he believed were their centers of origin. All >of them were located in mountainous regions with an ancient >agricultural civilization >http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/botany/con_crop.html >Brooklyn Botanic Garden > >Which goes back to my earlier statement. The "ice age" had glacial >presence in present Arkansas. Thus Florida would have been downright >chilly, no citrus, and bananas -- where would they survive?
Bananas aren't that old. They're not wild plants. They probably originated in Indonesia, developed in prehistoric times (whatever that might mean as regards Indonesia), and a real masterpiece of plant-breeding - they're hybrids of two wild species, which still survive. Bananas cannot reproduce themselves and must be planted out by man (or more likely by women). They reached Africa about 2,000 years ago, probably when the Indonesians invaded Madagascar. >If >Arkansas occupied its present latitude there would be no tropical >egions, which brings us back to banana survival. Something wrong with >the theory I think. When you add in mountainous it is doubly so. I don't think it was that simple. It's not exactly that simple now, is it? There are lots of anomalies. Fred just told me it was -49F degrees in Northern Minnesota, -45C, highly unreasonable I thought, and that's about 50 deg N. Maybe it gets that cold in Moscow in Russia, which is about 56 deg N, but maybe not often. I've been to a place in northwest Scotland, about 58 deg N, where there were palm trees growing, a beautiful Mediterranean garden (Inverewe), and, indeed, someone growing bananas. It never freezes there. A few miles or so inland it sure does freeze though. There are a few bananas growing here, and palms, and they seem to survive the frost okay. It doesn't freeze over and stay that way for months, but it can be well below freezing for a few weeks, and not much above it for much longer. "Glacial ice sheets two miles thick have reached as far south as New York City five times," it says here. "The last ice age arrived suddenly, with dramatic effects. The climate changed the world over, fluctuating wildly, but with overall cooling. Winds grew stronger, rain and snow increased, clouds built up to reflect the sun's heat away from the Earth's surface. World temperatures fell 5 to 14 degrees F (3-8 degrees Celsius). Ocean surface temperatures fell 4 to 11 degrees F (2-6 degrees Celsius), further cooling the air. The altitude at which glaciers can form fell 5,000 feet (1,500 meters). The polar ice caps spread and ice sheets formed in the continental highlands, finally covering most of the temperate regions. More than a third of the land lay under a blanket of ice 8,000 feet (2,500 meters) thick. As the ice sheets grew, the ocean levels dropped, by as much as 200-400 feet (60-120 metres). Whole coastlines moved out a hundred miles or more: Britain was joined to Europe, and Alaska to Siberia. The winds carried away the exposed sea beds, filling the air with 10 times as much dust as there is today. In the tropics, beyond the walls of ice, temperatures were lower and it was much drier than today. The sub-tropics were wetter, with large lakes in North Africa. The ice itself scoured out the Great Lakes of North America. The interlocking plates of the Earth's crust sank under the tremendous weight of the ice sheets. When the ice receded, the crust started to spring back to its former position - a gradual process that is not yet complete. Areas such as Canada and Scandinavia, which were below the centers of ice sheets, are still rising. Canada is gaining land every year and could rise a further 1,300 feet (400 meters)." And so on. Still lots of warmth, and only a third of the land iced over, plus a whole lot of "new" land round the coasts as the ocean level dropped: a hundred miles or more. What exactly went on there? No trace remains, but it would hardly have been sterile over all that time, despite the alleged dust removal (not convinced about that). Regards Keith >--- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Kirk > > > > >I find something logically wrong with the concept of tropical >regions > > >being replaced with temperate while the rest of the planet is > > >supposeedly covered with ice. After all, bananas survived didn't >they? > > > > Check out Vavilov centres. > > > > Best > > > > Keith > > > > >As for present clime it is on the cool side as during the time of >the > > >Roman occupation wine grapes were grown in central England. Can't >do > > >that now. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. 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