Where the wild veggies are: Cultivated cucumber and melon originated in Asia and Australia
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 - 10:14
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Cucumbers and melons are familiar items on our market stands. Botanists have now shown that both plants originated in Asia. The cucumber traces its ancestry to the slopes of the Himalayas, but, surprisingly, the closest living wild relative of the melon is found in Australia.