THE ACTUAL FLORA OF CULTIVATED PLANTS: THE RESULT OF AUTOCHTHONOUS DEVELOPMENTS AND FOREIGN INTRODUCTIONS

Abstract

The flora of cultivated plants of a specific region can be analyzed according to the same principles as it is done usually for the wild floras (number of taxa, taxonomic composition, differentiation into elements). A basic classification of a cultivated flora is into autochthonous and allochthonous elements, that means either from domestication of indigenous species or from introduction of foreign cultigens. The allochthonous elements can be subdivided according to their geographic origin (geoelements) and the different chrono-elements indicate the time of establishment as crop plants within that region (archaeophytic, palaeophytic and neophytic elements). American neophytic elements play an important role in all Old World cultivated floras.