{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "In plant biology, Vavilovian mimicry (also crop mimicry or weed mimicry[1][a]) is a form of mimicry in plants where a weed...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/717998177184333824/", "html": "<p><a href=\"https://www.tumblr.com/femmenietzsche/717972693075492864/femmenietzsche-in-plant-biology-vavilovian\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">femmenietzsche</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"https://femmenietzsche.tumblr.com/post/657315907010461696/in-plant-biology-vavilovian-mimicry-also-crop\" class=\"tumblr_blog\" target=\"_blank\">femmenietzsche</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><blockquote><p>In plant biology, <b>Vavilovian mimicry</b> (also <b>crop mimicry</b> or <b>weed mimicry</b><sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-1\" target=\"_blank\">[1]</a></sup><sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-2\" target=\"_blank\">[a]</a></sup>) is a form of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\">mimicry</a> <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimicry_in_plants\" title=\"Mimicry in plants\" target=\"_blank\">in plants</a> where a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed\" title=\"Weed\" target=\"_blank\">weed</a> evolves to share one or more characteristics with a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop\" title=\"Crop\" target=\"_blank\">domesticated plant</a> through generations of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_selection\" title=\"Artificial selection\" target=\"_blank\">artificial selection</a>.<sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-Pasteur-3\" target=\"_blank\">[2]</a></sup> It is named after <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov\" title=\"Nikolai Vavilov\" target=\"_blank\">Nikolai Vavilov</a>, a prominent Russian <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botany\" title=\"Botany\" target=\"_blank\">plant</a> <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneticist\" title=\"Geneticist\" target=\"_blank\">geneticist</a>.<sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-Pasteur-3\" target=\"_blank\">[2]</a></sup> Selection against the weed may occur by killing a young or adult weed, separating its seeds from those of the crop (<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnowing\" title=\"Winnowing\" target=\"_blank\">winnowing</a>), or both. This has been done manually since <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic\" title=\"Neolithic\" target=\"_blank\">Neolithic</a> times, and in more recent years by <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_machinery\" title=\"Agricultural machinery\" target=\"_blank\">agricultural machinery</a>.\n</p><p>Vavilovian mimicry is a good illustration of unintentional <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selection_(biology)\" title=\"Selection (biology)\" target=\"_blank\">selection</a> by humans. Although the human selective agents might be conscious of their impact on the local weed <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_pool\" title=\"Gene pool\" target=\"_blank\">gene pool</a>,\n such effects go against the goals of those growing crops. Weeders do \nnot want to select for weeds that are increasingly similar to the \ncultivated plant, yet the only other option is to let the weeds grow and\n <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competition_(biology)\" title=\"Competition (biology)\" target=\"_blank\">compete</a> with crops for <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunlight\" title=\"Sunlight\" target=\"_blank\">sunlight</a> and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_nutrition\" title=\"Plant nutrition\" target=\"_blank\">nutrients</a>. Similar situations include <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibiotic_resistance\" title=\"Antibiotic resistance\" target=\"_blank\">antibiotic resistance</a> and, also in agricultural crops, <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbicide_resistance\" title=\"Herbicide resistance\" target=\"_blank\">herbicide resistance</a>.\n Having acquired many desirable qualities by being subjected to similar \nselective pressures, Vavilovian mimics may eventually be domesticated \nthemselves. Vavilov called these weeds-become-crops <b>secondary crops</b>. <br/></p></blockquote><p>\u2026</p><blockquote><p>Another example is <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rye\" title=\"Rye\" target=\"_blank\">rye</a> (<i>Secale cereale</i>), a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass\" title=\"Grass\" target=\"_blank\">grass</a> which is derived from wild rye (<i><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secale_montanum\" title=\"Secale montanum\" target=\"_blank\">Secale montanum</a></i>), a widely distributed Mediterranean species. Rye was originally just a weed growing with <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat\" title=\"Wheat\" target=\"_blank\">wheat</a> and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley\" title=\"Barley\" target=\"_blank\">barley</a>,\n but came under similar selective pressures to the crops. Like wheat, it\n came to have larger seeds and more rigid spindles to which the seeds \nare attached. However, wheat is an <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_plant\" title=\"Annual plant\" target=\"_blank\">annual plant</a>, while wild rye is a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial_plant\" title=\"Perennial plant\" target=\"_blank\">perennial</a>.\n At the end of each growing season wheat produces seeds, while wild rye \ndoes not and is thus destroyed as the post-harvest soil is <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilling_(agriculture)\" title=\"Tilling (agriculture)\" target=\"_blank\">tilled</a>. However, there are occasional <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutant\" title=\"Mutant\" target=\"_blank\">mutants</a> that do set seed. These have been protected from destruction, and rye has thus evolved to become an annual plant.<sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-McElroy_2014_pp._207%E2%80%93216-6\" target=\"_blank\">[5]</a></sup></p><p>Rye is a hardier plant than wheat, surviving in harsher conditions. Having become <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preadaptation\" title=\"Preadaptation\" target=\"_blank\">preadapted</a>\n as a crop through wheat mimicry, rye was then positioned to become a \ncultivated plant in areas where soil and climatic conditions favored its\n production, such as mountainous terrain.<sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-Wickler-5\" target=\"_blank\">[4]</a></sup></p><p>This fate is shared by <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oats\" title=\"Oats\" target=\"_blank\">oats</a> (<i>Avena sativa</i> and <i><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avena_byzantina\" title=\"Avena byzantina\" target=\"_blank\">Avena byzantina</a></i>), which also tolerate poorer conditions, and like rye, grow as a weed alongside wheat and barley. Derived from a wild species (<i><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avena_sterilis\" title=\"Avena sterilis\" target=\"_blank\">Avena sterilis</a></i>),\n it has thus come to be a crop in its own right. Once again paralleling \nwheat, rye and other cereals, oats have developed tough spindles which \nprevent seeds from easily dropping off, and other characteristics which \nalso help in natural <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_dispersal\" title=\"Biological dispersal\" target=\"_blank\">dispersal</a> have become <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigiality\" title=\"Vestigiality\" target=\"_blank\">vestigial</a>, including the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awn_(botany)\" title=\"Awn (botany)\" target=\"_blank\">awns</a> which allow them to self bury.<sup><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vavilovian_mimicry#cite_note-Wickler-5\" target=\"_blank\">[4]</a><br/></sup></p></blockquote><p>Huh, I never considered that. Evolution wins yet again<br/></p></blockquote>\n\n\n<p>This is what the porn bots are currently in the process of doing</p></blockquote>"}