Where did watermelons originate? Detailed answer

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Where did watermelons originate? Detailed answer

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Where did watermelons originate?

Almost everyone loves watermelons and melons. And when it comes to something known and widespread in our time, it is hard to believe that such a thing is known and gives people pleasure for many millennia! The homeland of these plants is Asia, where they are found even in the wild. It is quite possible that several thousand years ago watermelons and melons came from here to other countries.

Watermelon has been a delicacy since the ancient Egyptians. The ancient Romans, and perhaps the Greeks, got as much pleasure from watermelons as we do. The French began to grow watermelons in times closer to us. This happened about 300 years ago. Watermelons and melons belong to the same plant family as cucumbers and pumpkins. It is a climbing plant that grows best in warm, humus-rich loamy soils.

In colder climate zones, watermelons are grown in greenhouses or greenhouses. All watermelons and melons come from two main plants. Melons originally grew in South Asia, and watermelons in tropical Africa. But during the centuries that they were grown, they spread to many countries, and now there are a lot of them. Musk melons get their name from the aroma they give off. Musk melons are also called cantaloupes. Watermelons are much larger than melons and much juicier.

Author: Likum A.

Random interesting fact from the Great Encyclopedia:

What is pollination?

Flowers are the reproductive organs of angiosperms (flowering) plants. In other words, the flower is meant to produce the pollen or seeds of that plant, or both. The most important parts of a flower are the pistils and stamens.

In many flowers (but not all) there is also a pistil (one or more) located in the center, and stamens surrounding it on all sides. In the thickening at the lower end of the pistil are small bodies called ovules, each of which, under favorable circumstances, is capable of developing into a seed. The most important part of the ovule is the tiny egg. The eggs are so small that they can only be seen under a microscope. Each stamen ends in a sac containing pollen. When the breeding season comes, these sacs open, and pollen, which has the form of a finely ground powder, usually yellow, enters the outside world.

For the seed to germinate, it is necessary that the dust particles somehow get on the pestle. The process of transferring pollen from stamens to pistils, regardless of how it is carried out, is called pollination. There are many different ways of pollination. The simplest is when the pollen itself is shaken off onto the pistil: this method is called self-pollination. However, wind or insects are more often involved in this process. Most herbaceous plants are pollinated by the wind (not only simple meadow grasses, but also wheat and other cereals).

The mechanism of this process is very simple. The wind shakes the plant, knocking pollen from the stamens, picks it up and spreads it throughout the field or meadow. Part of it settles on the pistils, in which the fertilization of eggs occurs, that is, the emergence of seeds. Pollination is often carried out by insects.

This usually occurs in those plants whose flowers have a bright color or strong aroma, which attract insects. They descend on the flowers in search of nectar, from which they make honey, and pollen, which serves as food for them. At the same time, part of the pollen sticks to their bodies and wings, and then, when a bee, butterfly or bumblebee flies to the next flower, they involuntarily shake it off onto the pistil of the last one.

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