The Botany of Desire: The
Apple
Important
Terms & Concepts Define
or describe the following. Can you give an example?
-
coevolution
-
domestication
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native
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naturalized
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introduced
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cultivated
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artifical selection
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natural selection
Questions:
-
Pollan argues that “flowers and spuds have manipulated human desires –
conscious or otherwise – to help them be ‘fruitful’.” (p xv) And he
wonders, “Did I choose to plant these potatoes, or did the potato make me do
it?” (p xv) He further states that his book “…is as much about human
desires that connect us to these plants as it is about the plants
themselves.” (xvii) And, he sees ”...plants instead as willing partners in
an intimate and reciprocal relationship with us.” What does he mean by all
of this? Do you agree?
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Pollan describes plants as “nature’s alchemists.” Do you agree with this
description? Offer a hypothesis why might this have evolved? (xix)
-
Recall the plant way of life? Since plants are stationary they have had to
evolve some strategies for a non-motile lifestyle. Identify some
strategies.
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“Design in nature is but a concatenation of accidents, culled by natural
selection until the result is so beautiful or effective as to seem a miracle
of purpose.” (xxi) Do you agree?
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Describe Johnny Appleseed.
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Explain why it is incorrect to call apples, “The American Fruit.”
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What does it mean that apples don’t “come true from seed?”
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What is hard cider? How is it made? What is applejack?
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Apple seeds contain a metabolic poison. Identify this poison. Why do they
possess such chemicals? How is the poison formed? Why don’t the plants
poison themselves?
- How
are apples propagated?
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What is the scientific name of the wild apple? cultivated apple?
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Pollan described Johnny Appleseed as the “American Dionysus.” Who was
Dionysus? What is the connection? Do you agree?
-
When the settlers arrived in North America, what sweeteners did they
encounter?
- Do
you agree that “sweetness is a force in evolution” (19) and “Could it be
that sweetness is the prototype of all desire?”
-
What is your favorite variety of apple? Do a search and learn where this
variety originated.
-
Have we always knows that “An apple a day keeps the doctor away?”
- Do
you agree with Pollan’s argument that Catholics embraced the grape while
Protestants the more wholesome apple?
-
What is a germplasm bank? Why is it important
- Who
was Vavilov? (53)
- Do
you agree that apples are the “true democratic fruit?” (48)
- Were apples part of the “the Garden
of Eden?”
Other
- I have placed a Powerpoint on
"apples" in our Public Folder.
Last updated:
02/23/2005 © Copyright by SG
Saupe
