Wild desert relatives of crops: their direct uses as food

摘要: Arid lands worldwide offer a rich variety of wild and indigenous cultivated food plants adapted to low variable precipitation regimes. For example, the number edible, ethnographically documented plant species Sonoran Desert in southwestern North America is approximately 450, roughly 20 per cent that desert’s vascular flora — revised from preliminary estimate Felger Nabhan (1978). Estimates similar magnitude can be made for several other deserts semi-arid regions around world, including those India Africa, e.g. Bhandari (1978) Becker (1983).