# Which plants changed history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2011, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410 "2011-10-12T09:49:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![NineToTheSky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5a626/32.png) [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/21 "2011-10-12T16:04:28Z")
> [@Randy\_Seltzer](#): > > Indeed, it’s hard to take any list seriously which excludes what is currently the most important food source for our species. It’s such a small word…so easy to miss. ---
**Author:** ![Kiber](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiber/32/317_2.png) [@Kiber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiber)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/22 "2011-10-12T16:05:24Z")
I’m surprised that pepper isn’t at least a contender. It played a pretty significant role in the creation of the spice trades. From [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pepper): > [@wiki](#): > > Black pepper, along with other spices from India and lands farther east, changed the course of world history. It was in some part the preciousness of these spices that led to the Portuguese efforts to find a sea route to India during the age of discovery and consequently to the Portuguese colonial occupation of that country, as well as the European discovery and colonisation of the Americas. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/23 "2011-10-12T16:07:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > But the earlier, wilder forms of maize did not have “nice big ears”. Yes, so my answer should have been ‘domesticated maize’. I wasn’t counting the domestication process. In this case, I’m actually naming a plant that DIDN’T change history, i.e., the utility of the domesticated product may have inhibited possible changes. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/24 "2011-10-12T16:08:12Z")
Apparently the sequel will have to be named “1,342 plants that had some effect on history” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/25 "2011-10-12T16:11:37Z")
The food crops being mentioned certainly allowed huge population increases and some historically significant famines, but when it comes to changing history I nominate the rubber tree. Without rubber the Industrial Revolution could not have happened. Artificial rubber made some dents but natural rubber is still required for many things; I think it’s about 40% natural rubber these days. The history of rubber is full of stories about massive deforestation, slavery, political intrigue, seed stealing, etc., and the story continues to this day as some of the first rubber plantations in Laos begin to produce – the plantation contracts foisted upon poor uneducated subsistence farmers by Chinese wheeler-dealers – it’s another human and ecological tragedy in the making as hundred of thousands of acres of land is turned into a monoculture of plants the locals can’t eat while the good paying jobs go to foreign workers. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/26 "2011-10-12T16:27:08Z")
Eh, it’s only arguably a plant, but none of these even come remotely close to the impact the first blue-green algae had. We think our air pollution is bad? These things replaced a fifth of the atmosphere with one of the most reactive, poisonous, and all-around dangerous gasses known. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/27 "2011-10-12T16:51:36Z")
Tobacco. I’d also include the lime (and other citrus), poppy, tea, and grudgingly, rice. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/28 "2011-10-12T16:55:10Z")
I think the Olive has to be on the short list. Will grow with little cultivation. Provides both food and fuel. Drought tolerant and hardy. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/29 "2011-10-12T17:04:20Z")
Olives–interesting. My second string: alfalfa, allowing dairying to supplant grain farming and rejuvenating the soil; soya, quinine, corn, and the American Chestnut, whose demise screwed up the ecosystem on half of North America. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/30 "2011-10-12T17:12:24Z")
I think you could usefully distinguish between plants that changed the world because of an inherent qualities (rubber, quinine) and those that changed the world because of their social function (sugar cane, spices). Those are really different things. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/31 "2011-10-12T17:15:42Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > I think tea and coffee should be on the list, since they gave people in Europe something besides beer and wine to drink and helped jump start the industrial revolution. See Steven Johnson’s talk on “[Did Coffee Fuel the Age of Enlightenment?](http://www.goodreads.com/videos/show/2789-did-coffee-fuel-the-age-of-enlightenment-steven-johnson)”. The basic argument is that, before coffee arrived in Europe, people typically had a glass of wine or beer with lunch and then basically zoned out; when coffee houses began to appear, people had coffee after lunch, woke up, and started coming up with ideas. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/32 "2011-10-12T17:32:26Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think you could usefully distinguish between plants that changed the world because of an inherent qualities (rubber, quinine) and those that changed the world because of their social function (sugar cane, spices). Those are really different things. True. Guess I’d lump in staple food plants all together in the “allows population to increase” category; the medicinal/psychoactive drug plants in another category; the practical plants and trees in another. I could see your social category for sugar sources and spices & herbs, but I tend to look at those as allowing improved food preservation. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/33 "2011-10-12T19:41:16Z")
What about various wood trees that enabled humans to build all kinds of things from boats to houses as well as providing wood pulp for paper. Though I guess most early paper wasn’t made from wood pulp. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/34 "2011-10-12T19:46:49Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Apparently the sequel will have to be named “1,342 plants that had some effect on history” 🙂 I’d vote for Robert to be #1. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2011, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/35 "2011-10-12T19:47:03Z")
> [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](#): > > True. > Guess I’d lump in staple food plants all together in the “allows population to increase” category; the medicinal/psychoactive drug plants in another category; the practical plants and trees in another. I could see your social category for sugar sources and spices & herbs, but I tend to look at those as allowing improved food preservation. Spices had an enormous effect - not because they’re a big crop, but because they were highly sought after. They had a massive effect on exploration, the development of trade and shipping routes, international alliances, territory claims, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Sirreal72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Sirreal72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sirreal72)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/36 "2011-10-13T01:28:30Z")
I don’t know if I could narrow it down to a top 5 list, but I’d vote as the most _recent_ would be U.S. government subsidized **corn**. The economic impact has affected food production for the entire world; The use of corn as an ingredient has affected how we manufacture food (ex: high fruitcose corn syrup) and our eating habits. _Food Inc_. has some very interesting ideas about the relationship between government and corn. I have to admit, I never before considered the idea of feeding animals corn to be strange. ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/37 "2011-10-13T02:23:50Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I think the Olive has to be on the short list. > Will grow with little cultivation. > Provides both food and fuel. > Drought tolerant and hardy. One of the triad of plants – grapes and I forget which kind of grain that allowed cities (and hence civilisation) to develop around the Meditteranean. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/38 "2011-10-13T03:06:08Z")
Medicines made from willow and other salicylate-rich plants date back at least to 400 BCE. Where would man be without these plants? Has to be one of the more important discoverys. > **[History of aspirin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aspirin)** > > Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a novel organic compound that does not occur in nature, and was first successfully synthesised in 1899. In 1897, scientists at the drug and dye firm Bayer began investigating acetylated organic compounds as possible new medicines, following the success of acetanilide ten years earlier. By 1899, Bayer created acetylsalicylic acid and named the drug 'Aspirin', going on to sell it around the world.: 27  The word Aspirin was Bayer's brand name, rather than the gen... ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/39 "2011-10-13T03:26:29Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Medicines made from willow and other salicylate-rich plants date back at least to 400 BCE. > > Where would man be without these plants? Has to be one of the more important discoverys. > [History of aspirin - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_aspirin) [Taxus brevifolia](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Taxus_brevifolia) ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-plants-changed-history/599410/40 "2011-10-13T06:12:46Z")
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