Gastro Obscura covers the worlds most wondrous food and drink. [12] A proposal to conserve the name, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Her recipes range from Grandmas favorites to the latest food trends. There were no significant differences between seeded and seedless watermelon varieties. [5] Wild plants have fruits up to 20cm (8in) in diameter, while cultivated varieties may exceed 60cm (24in). This created a triploid variety that was sterile and mostly seedless (occasionally you may still find a few white seed coats in the fruit.). If your nighttime lows drop below 50, you may still be . 2021, 200 Frozen Heads and Bodies Await Revival at This Arizona Cryonics Facility. Watermelons were rapidly accepted in Hawaii and other Pacific islands when they were introduced there by explorers such as Captain James Cook. On a garden scale, seeds are usually sown in pots under cover and transplanted into the ground. An excellent example of watermelon tourmaline jewelry is a brooch piece (1969, gold, watermelon tourmaline, diamonds) by Andrew Grima (British, b. [23] Seedless watermelons became more popular in the 21st century, rising to nearly 85% of total watermelon sales in the United States in 2014. Archeologists even found evidence that King Tuts tomb had watermelons placed in it, as he would need some water for his journey into the afterlife. It takes about 90100 days from planting to harvest. Weeds can limit both yield and quality and must be controlled. | The rind of the fruit is mid- to dark green and usually mottled or striped, and the flesh, containing numerous pips spread throughout the inside, can be red or pink (most commonly), orange, yellow, green or white. Watermelon: A Brief History - University of Missouri 2. Monitoring insect populations and early intervention using IPM tactics is recommended to minimize insect damage. Unauthorized use is prohibited. The Kordofan melon, which is about six inches wide, white on the inside and a pale, gently striated green on the outside, has long been grown by farmers in what is now Sudan. Firm, seedy, and pale green on the inside, they were characterized by their bland or bitter taste. Its not clear if there are still any wild versions of the Kordofan melon or its relatives growing in Sudan, Dr. Chomicki said. 5. [7][53], Citrullis lanatus, variety caffer, grows wild in the Kalahari Desert, where it is known as tsamma. But I still have some seeds, he said, so I will plant them and see., A version of this article appears in print on, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/science/watermelons-genome-origins.html. Kordofan melons measure about six inches across and have white, sweet flesh and a bright, somewhat striped green exterior, reports Veronique Greenwood for the New York Times. Instead, researchers, including a first author now at Washington University in St. Louis, found that a Sudanese form with non-bitter whitish pulp, known as the Kordofan melon (C. lanatus), is the closest relative of domesticated watermelons. Charles Andrus at the USDA set out to produce a disease-resistant and wilt-resistant watermelon in the 1950s. All Roads Lead to Texas: Texass Watery Wonders, The Spectacular Beauty of China's Red Beach, The Wonderful World of a Garden Dedicated to Gourds, A 30-Acre Garden Inspired by the Principles of Modern Physics, How One Man Built a Sprawling Treehouse With a Dance Floor, Show & Tell: Inside a House of Hot Sauce With Vic Clinco, The Secret to China's Bounciest Meatballs, The Little Slice of France and Spain in Nevada. You would not have enjoyed them at all. This has been achieved through the use of triploid varieties, but these are sterile, and the cost of producing the seed by crossing a tetraploid parent with a normal diploid parent is high. [7] Watermelon rinds may be eaten, but their unappealing flavor may be overcome by pickling,[44] sometimes eaten as a vegetable, stir-fried or stewed. By Mark StraussNational Geographic. But once lead study author Susanne S. Renner and her co-authors started sequencing the DNA of wild plants in the watermelons genusCitrullusa different picture emerged. Matsum. Only vitamin C is present in appreciable content at 10% of the Daily Value (table). Watermelons grow best at temperatures between 65 and 95 F. and should not be planted until the soil has warmed in the spring. A Southern favorite in the USA is pickles made from the watermelon rind. Guo, S., Zhao, S., Sun, H. et al. However, it was during the 20th century that significant progress was made in the United States where the USDA funded a watermelon breeding project at its Charleston, SC facility. Cookie Policy 3 June 2021 Where do watermelons originate from? But by the first few centuries A.D., posits Paris, the watermelon had likely sweetened up. Watermelon Tourmaline: What Does this Fruit Gemstone Look Like? [18] Watermelon seeds were found in the Dead Sea region at the ancient settlements of Bab edh-Dhra and Tel Arad. In 1987, we envisioned how the emerging area of biotechnology could inspire students to choose a career in science. When was the watermelon discovered? Before it became the sweet summertime treat it is today, the watermelon was one foul, functional fruit. Generations of selective breeding, spanning several countries and cultures, produced the sweet red fruit thats now a common sight on picnic tables. Some smart ancient scientists discovered that a single gene produced the bitter watermelon flavor. from South African arid regions based on an erroneously identified 18th century specimen. Finally, while most do not consider it a "diet food," a cup of watermelon contains only about 45 calories. Writings in Hebrew from the end of the second century, as well as sixth-century Latin texts, group the watermelon with other sweet fruits, including pomegranates, figs, and grapes. [54], Major pests of the watermelon include aphids, fruit flies, and root-knot nematodes. 2. Get Nat Geo newsletters plus unlimited access to free content. Or get a Premium Subscription to access the best of Nat Geo - just $19, Rare octopus nursery found, teeming with surprises, Animals trapped in war zones find a second chance here, How extreme heat affects our petsand how to help them, This place may have the highest density of great white sharks, Controversial oil drilling paused in Namibian wilderness, Dolphin moms use 'baby talk' with their calves, Earth's shifting magnetic poles don't cause climate change, This ancient society tried to stop El Niowith child sacrifice. The first color sketches of the red-fleshed, sweet watermelon in Europe can be found in a medieval medical manuscript, theTacuinum Sanitatis. The genes that color watermelons interior neighbor theCIVST1gene. Matsum. Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family and the name of its edible fruit. )[10], The species is further divided into several varieties, of which bitter wooly melon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) It was found growing in Florida as early as 1576 and in Massachusetts by 1629. Researchers still dont know, however, who took this wild melon ancestor and turned it into whats on the tomb wall in Saqqara, or set it on the path to what we eat today. [61], Flower stems of male and female watermelon blossoms, showing ovary on the female, Watermelon and other fruit in Boris Kustodiev's Merchant's Wife, Watermelon out for sale in Maa Kochilei Market, Rasulgarh, Odisha, India, Article 23.4 "The specific epithet, with or without the addition of a transcribed symbol, may not exactly repeat the generic name (a designation formed by such repetition is a tautonym).". Thus, although produced from a seed, triploid watermelons bear no seeds. [2] Wild watermelon seeds were found in Uan Muhuggiag, a prehistoric site in Libya that dates to approximately 3500BC. Watermelon was being cultivated in India by the 7th century, and by the 10th century it had found its way to China. Researchers at the University of Delaware have found that spring pollination with viable pollen is essential to proper cell division in the watermelons fruit tissue. Later, the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder described watermelon as a cooling food in his first century publication, Historia Natualis. A beginner's guide to extracting flavors from herbs and flowers. They spread from there and by the 2000th year BC they were cultivated and became an everyday food in ancient Egypt. Which trees will live and which ones will die? Many wild relatives of crop plants are facing extinction around the world, a result of human disturbance and climate change. Watermelons suffering from hollow heart are safe to consume. English version", "Watermelon production in 2020, Crops/Regions/World list/Production Quantity (pick lists)", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Watermelon&oldid=1162400039. Luckily, a single gene in watermelon,CIVST1, strongly influences its taste by redirecting sugar from the leaves to the fruit. One of the earliest proofs of that are the hieroglyphs on the buildings from that time that tell stories about the harvesting of watermelons. Vitamin C. This antioxidant is essential for skin health and immune function (5, 6). Granny Smiths and Fujis can both be traced back to Kazakhstan, where apples still grow wild. Terms of Use The discovery required digging into forgotten corners of African botany, said Guillaume Chomicki, a botanist at the University of Sheffield in England and an author of the new paper. and the bitter wooly melon Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) It was first discovered at a mine in Newry, Maine in 1902. Bailey in 1930. The watermelons grown in the United States were soon subsumed under the same Latin binomial. See. By purposefully breeding many generations of plants with certain characteristics, the gene for bitterness was eliminated. Facts & FAQs - Watermelon Board ), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, HOSAs International Leadership Conference. By the 7th century, watermelons were also being cultivated in India. The result, in 1954, was "that gray melon from Charleston". Three discussions in Cucurbitaceae. [46] Georgia, Florida, Texas, California and Arizona are the United States' largest watermelon producers, with Florida producing more watermelon than any other state. The edible part of a watermelon is known as a pepo, which is a ripened ovary (fruit) with watery flesh and a hard rind. The sentiment evolved into a racist stereotype where black people shared a supposed voracious appetite for watermelon, a fruit long correlated with laziness and uncleanliness. colocynthis (L.) Schrad. ; Potassium. In conditions of high humidity, the plants are prone to plant diseases such as powdery mildew and mosaic virus. November 6, 2022. Its big, fat, green and generously striped: Everything youd expect a watermelon to be. Farmers selectively bred watermelons that had a little sweetness until they became sweeter and sweeter like today. However, they do best in temperatures that don't sink below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The latter contains a number of familiar garden vegetables including cucumber, squash, pumpkin and musk melon. While scientists believed that watermelons wild ancestors came from the African continent, no one knew of a wild watermelon anywhere near the Nile Valley. Watermelon was given a scientific name and classification by Carl Linnaeus in 1756 that placed it alongside pumpkins and other gourds in the Cucurbita genus. Nearly 70 years later, 'Charleston Grey' still is a widely planted variety known for its high yields, disease resistance and table quality. Please be respectful of copyright. University of Missouri (573) 882-9631 trinkleind@missouri.edu, "Watermelon is the chief of this world's luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. The citron melon or makataan a variety with sweet yellow flesh that is cultivated around the world for fodder and the production of citron peel and pectin.[30]. The 'Moon and Stars' variety was created in 1926. A seedy slice of history: Watermelons actually came from northeast is a synonym of C. amarus Schrad. [20], European colonists and enslaved people from Africa introduced the watermelon to the New World. Using DNA from greenhouse-grown plants representing all species and hundreds of varieties of watermelon, scientists discovered that watermelons most likely came from wild crop progenitors in northeast Africa. An ancient DNA study has revealed that a leaf discovered almost 200 years ago in an Egyptian tomb belongs to a bona fide watermelon, New Scientist reports. During this long phase of global expansion, watermelon itself was transforming. Our bodies need to experience pain here's why, Using natures air conditioning in the summer heat, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Newly discovered . Several Egyptian pyramids contained carefully preserved watermelon seeds along with paintings depicting watermelon crops. New evidence of decapitations point to this predators fatal flaw. The green-striped, red-fleshed watermelon might not look inherently mysterious, but botanists have long puzzled over which wild plant the modern domesticated crop originated from. This thick rind is desirable for making watermelon pickles, and some old cultivars favoured for this purpose include 'Tom Watson', 'Georgia Rattlesnake', and 'Black Diamond'. From dehumidifiers to electrolyte water, heres what you need to know to protect yourself from deadly heat. The new study found that it has different forms of genes related to disease resistance than the standard watermelon. Todays watermelon comes from a very small genetic stock and is highly susceptible to diseases and insect pests, including various mildews, other fungi, viruses and nematodes [worms], Renner said. Its bright red color comes from the pigment lycopene which is a powerful antioxidant. It turns out the color of watermelons was controlled by the same gene that controlled watermelon sweetness. The first written record of North American cultivation dates from 1629 in Massachusetts. Placing the watermelons roots in nearby Sudan helps explain what this melon might have been doing in Egypt. Today Edvotek has expanded to become the worlds leading supplier of safe, affordable and easy-to-use biotechnology kits and equipment. [58] The cubic shape was originally designed to make the melons easier to stack and store, but these "square watermelons" may be triple the price of normal ones, so appeal mainly to wealthy urban consumers. It was reassigned to the genus Citrullus in 1836, under the replacement name Citrullus vulgaris, by the German botanist Heinrich Adolf Schrader. How did watermelon get its name? Watermelon improvement via selection (saving the seeds of superior melons) began almost as soon as the crop was cultivated. The resulting database may help future breeders find wild genes that could help this crop adapt to a changing climate. SCIENTISTS AND PUBLIC WERE SHOCKED WITH A HUGE WATERMELON THAT WAS DISCOVERED IN CENTRAL LONDON. Reproductive cells contain half that amount, so when they join the other plants reproductive cells from the opposite sex, they form a new combination of 22 chromosomes for the new plant. Clemson researcher explains seedless watermelon production 4. Plus, unlike other desserts, it's fat-free, low in cholesterol, and contains no sodium. 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Ready to read more and dive into the DNA details? Contrary to popular belief, swallowing watermelon seeds is not harmful and they do not increase the risk of developing appendicitis. Consequently, in the vast majority of cases, a redder watermelon equals a sweeter watermelon. The thinking that the watermelons wild progenitors came from South Africa emerged roughly 150 years ago when a student of the famed taxonomist Carl Linneaus came across a melon in a market near Cape Town and dubbed it Citrullus lanatus. This detail of a painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep in Saqqara was a puzzle. History of Watermelon - The Spruce Eats . Watermelon breeders discovered that crossing a diploid plant (bearing the standard two sets of chromosomes) with a tetraploid plant (having four sets of chromosomes) results in a fruit that produces a triploid seed. DNA from ancient seeds is already beginning to help.. & Nakai, was accepted by the nomenclature committee and confirmed at the International Botanical Congress in 2017. Although we don't know the exact identity of this plant, we do know it was prized for its ability to store water and was used by indigenous people in the Kalahari Desert region. Therefore, as the watermelon became sweeter it also changed color to the familiar deep red we now know and expect. It turned out there were more species than previously thought, and that plants from South Africa were not genetically close to todays domesticated watermelon, Renner, an evolutionary biologist at Washington University in St. Louis, tells Inverse. Additionally, we now have yellow, orange and white-fleshed varieties for added color appeal. Native to Africa, watermelons have been grown throughout the continent since ancient times. In Fruits. [citation needed], The large fruit is a kind of modified berry called a pepo with a thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy center (mesocarp and endocarp). The sweet watermelon was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and given the name Cucurbita citrullus. One product of this research was a large, oblong light green melon that locally became known as "the grey melon from Charleston." About 4,300 years ago, someone drew a melon on the wall of a tomb in Egypt. Watermelons have a longer growing period than other melons and can often take 85 days or more from the time of transplanting for the fruit to mature.

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