Evolution of Crop Plants

The second edition of this classic volume provides comprehensive coverage of over one hundred of the world’s major economically significant crop plants and their wild ancestors. The crops featured range from cereals to tropical staples, beans and pulses, vegetables, fruits, cash crops, oil crops and spices. Information on crop evolution is vital in the current effort to understand and conserve biodiversity, and provides a basis for the improvement of plant species. For each crop, the book includes a detailed examination of:

• cytotaxonomic background
• early history — evolution and domestication
• recent history — modern cultivars
• future prospects — for markets, production systems and crop improvement

This new edition takes into account the rapid advances made in this field with the advent of new molecular techniques and our ever growing understanding of genetics. Evolution of Crop Plants is an excellent resource for plant breeders and biotechnologists, seed producers, plant pathologists and researchers in agriculture, crop evolution and conservation.