Grass Peas (IMAGE)

Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

Grass Peas

Caption

The wild progenitors of domesticated legumes, such as this wild relative of grass peas (Lathyrus), explode and shoot out their seeds when they are ripe. The first steps towards domestication included a loss of this trait in favor of retaining seeds in their pods for humans to collect. Humans then became the obligate dispersers for these domesticated legumes.

Credit

Robert Spengler

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