28
ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS
can be and often
is
an impoverishment of life, a progressive lossof the qualities that we identify with humanness and a progressiveweakening of mental and physical sanity."
16
For all of these reasons I find myself in complete disagreementwith Jackson when he says, in justification of pragmatic, eco-nomically oriented man, that with respect to the environment, "whatthe spectator wants or does not want [in the way or aesthetics]
is
ofsmall account,"
17
for, unlike Jackson, I believe that the most neces-sary ingredient for the creation of a desirable future environmentis a vision of what we think that environment ought to be.
16
R. Dubos, "C. F. Letter," (Conservation Foundation, Washington, D.C.,Feb. 24,1969), p. 11.
17
J. B. Jackson, "Notes and Comments,"
Landscape,
Vol. 13, No. 2 (1963-64), p. 2.
The Grass Pea: Distribution,Diet, and Disease
ROBERT D. MITCHELL
9
ONE
OF
THE MORE INTRIGUING
aspects of man's domestication and useof plants is the assimilation of certain toxin-producing plants intohis agricultural and dietary patterns. Most naturally toxic or unpal-atable plants which have become widely accepted food species, suchas cassava and certain species of yams and mustards, have been somodified by man that any unpleasant elements have been removedor rendered inoperative prior to consumption. Others have beenonly slightly modified or are essentially unchanged. The purposeof this paper is to examine the role played by a relatively little knowntoxic plant, grass pea or chickling vetch
(Lathijrus sativus), in
theagricultural and food patterns of the Old World. An annual legu-minous plant similar in appearance to the common field pea, andprobably native to southwest Asia, grass pea
is
a minor plant inman's culinary arsenal. It has been widely used as a fodder crop. InIndia and West Pakistan it attains the status of a minor food cropunder the commercial name of khesari. Both of these countries aiealso subject to an endemic paralytic disease known as lathyrism,which
has
long been attributed to the grass pea.
ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION
Members of the genus
Lathyrus
occur on all continents exceptAustralasia and Antarctica. The Mediterranean zone of Europe,
* Dr. Mitchell was an Assistant Professor of Geography at San FernandoValley State College when a paper on which this article is based was read atthe 32nd annual meeting of the Association. He is now on the faculty of theDepartment of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland20742. The author wishes to thank Frederick J. Simoons for originally intro-ducing him to the mysteries of grass pea, and Wallace St. Clair for drawing thefinal illustrations.
29
3
ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS YEARBOOKVOLUME 331971
31
north Africa, and southwest Asia has the greatest profession of in-dividual species, seventy-six. This zone holds the key to the originsand subsequent diffusion of many species of the genus.
1
Lathyrus sativus
is an Old World species which has also beenused as an experimental forage crop in the New World. Despitenumerous listings of the areas where this species is found, onlyMuratova has attempted to map its distribution.
2
My research in-dicates a wider distribution for the plant than she was aware of,particularly in southern Asia and Africa (Figure 1). As a cultivatedcrop and as a naturalized weed, grass pea occurs from the Azores andCanary Islands eastward to the lower central Brahmaputra Valley inAssam. It has been identified as a forage plant or as a weed as farnorth as the outskirts of Paris and southern Germany.
3
In the SovietUnion it seems to be confined to the Ukraine, the Caucasus, andTurkestan. In Africa it grows along the north coast, in the Nile Valley,and in limited areas in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and South Africa. Theadaptability of the species to a wide variety of physical conditions isevident in its vertical distribution. In the delta plains of East Pakistanit is cultivated at a few feet above sea level, and it has been observedabove 9,000 feet in southeastern Kashmir.
4
1
Harold A. Senn, "Experimental Data for a Revision of the Genus Lathy-
rus,"
American Journal of Botany,
Vol. 25 (1938), pp. 68-69. For a detaileddiscussion of the botanical characteristics of grass pea, see Gabrielle H. C.Howard and K.S.A.R. Khan, 'The Indian Types of Lathyrus Sativus L.,"
Memoirs of the Department of Agriculture in India,
Botanical Series, VoL 15,
No.
2 (1928), pp. 47-77.
2
V. S. Muratova, "Areas of the geographical distribution of the most im-portant representatives of the genus
Lathyrus L.
which are of agriculturalvalue" (In Russian with English summary),
Bulletin of Applied Botany, Ge-netics and Plant-Breeding,
Vol. 16 ( 1926), p. 95.
3
More than one hundred separate sources were consulted in reconstructingthe plant's distribution. For the limits mentioned, see W. Trelease,
BotanicalObservations on the Azores,
St. Louis, 1897, p. 109; H. Knoche,
Die KanarischeInseln
(Strassburg, 1923), pp. 175 and 226; U. N. Kanjila , P. C. Kanjilal,and A. Das,
Flora of Assam,
Vol. 2, Calcutta, 1938, p. 24; E. Cosson and G.de Saint-Pierre,
Flore des Environs de Paris,
Paris, 1861, p. 182; and GustavHegi,
illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa,
Vol. 4 (Munich, 1924), pp. 1604-
1606.
*
Abdul Alim, "Fodder Plant Resources of East Pakistan,"
AgriculturePakistan,
Vol. 10 (1959), pp. 351-357, and R. R. Stewart, 'The Flora of Ladak,Western Tibet,"
Contributions from the Department of Botany, Columbia Uni-verstíy,
No. 281,1916-17, p. 637.
INDIAN OCEANATLANTICOCEAN
1500
I
MILES
Figure 1. Maximum distribution of the grass pea as a food and fodder crop.(Adapted from V. S. Muratova)
There is sufficient archaeological evidence to suggest that thegrass pea is a relatively old cultivated plant closely associated withthe origins and diffusion of Old World agriculture. The earliest refer-ence is for the western foothills of the Zagros Mountains of westernIran. At the Deh Luran excavation site, grass peas were found inassociation with wheat, barley, lentils, and flax in a level which datedbetween 4,000 and
5,200
B.C.
5
The plant was found in the pyramid
8
Frank Hole, K. Flannery, and J. Neely, "Early Agriculture and AnimalHusbandry in Deh Luran, Iran,"
Current Anthropology,
Vol. 6 (1965), pp. 105-
106.
32
ASSOCIATION
OF
PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS YEARBOOK
•
VOLUME
33
1971
33
complexes
of the
lower Nile Valley, dated between 2,300
and
2,700
B.
C,
and
at
the
excavations
at
Navdatoli
on the
northwesternDeccan
in
India, where
it
was eaten
or
cultivated between 1,500
and
2,000
B.
C.
6
There appears
to
be no
Hebrew name
for
the
plant,
but
it does occur
in
ancient Sanskrit under
the
name
triputa
meaning"threefold"
or
"angular," possibly referring
to the
flowers
or the
seeds.
7
A
small-seeded variety was found
at
Aggtelek,
a
late Neolithicsite
in
Hungary,
and the
plant was used
as
a
fodder crop
in
ancientGreece and Rome.
8
Opinions vary widely
on
the
possible hearth area. Linnaeus
be-
lieved
it to be
native
to
southern Europe,
de
Candolle vaguely sug-gested
the
region from
the
Caucasus
to the
north
of
India,
and
Vavilov originally included
it in his
Afghanistan-northwest Indiaand Ethiopia centers. However,
the
most recent archaeological
evi-
dence points
to
southwest Asia
and
particularly
to the
western foot-hill steppe zone
of the
Zagros Mountains
as the
probable originof
the
plant
as a
crop collected
and
eventually cultivated
by
man
(Figure
2).
e
This region which today receives
an
average annualprecipitation
of
10
to
15 inches with
a
distinct winter maximum
was
probably much wetter during
the
early Neolithic period some 10,000to
11,000
years ago.
10
The early association
of
Lathyrus sativus
with
the
wild ancestorsof wheat
and
barley would seem
to be an
additional clue
to the
domestication
of
the
plant.
One
of
the
most striking features aboutthe development
of
Old
World seed agriculture
is
the
close relation-ship between grain crops
and
legumes. Many
of the
latter seem
G
Oakes Ames,
Economic Annuals
and
Human Cultures,
Cambridge, Mass.,1939,
pp.
51-52,
and
Robert
J.
Braidwood
and G. R.
Willey (eds.),
Course s
Toward Urban Life
(Chicago, 1962),
p.
75.
7
Suáruta,
Sushruta Samhita,
Chowkhamba Sanskrit Studies,
Vol.
30 (Var-
anasi, India, 1963), p.
474.
8
F.
Pax,
Grundzüge
der
Pflanzenverbreitung
in den
Karpathen,
Leipzig,1898,
240, and H. O.
Lenz,
Botanik
der
Alten Griechen
und
Römer
(Gotha1859),
pp.
729-730.
9
Hole, Flannery,
and
Neely,
op.
cit.,
pp. 105-106.
See
also Robert
J.
Braid-wood, "Near Eastern Prehistory,"
Science,
Vol.
127
(1958),
p. 1426.
10
Karl
W.
Butzer,
Environment
and
Archaeology,
Chicago,
1964, pp.
425-426,
and H. E.
Wright, "Natural Environment
of
Early Food ProductionNorth
of
Mesopotamia,"
Science,
Vol.
161
(1968), pp. 334-339.
(\\
t
a
y
/•>
m
y
^y
—>
./
J
/
/
A.
T/
/
U
0
I
//'/
r—r
Maximum
distribution
a Original
^*
center„i Diffusion
B.C.
_.> Diffusion0 1800 A.D.
_..^
Diffusionsinoe 18001500
1
MILES
Figure 2. Origins and diffusion
of
the
grass pea.
to have been brought into cultivation
as
secondary domesticants,i.e., they were originally found as weeds in cultivated wheat or barleyfields. On
the
other hand,
in
some areas
of
southwest Asia
it
is
pos-sible that legumes were primary domesticants, having been selectedand brought into cultivation as forage plants by groups
in
the processof domesticating herd animals.Assuming that
the
origin
of
the
plant
as a
cultivated crop
was
in
the
Zagros foothills,
it
would have been easier
for it to
spreadwest
to the
Mediterranean zone with
its
winter rains than
to
move
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