I wonder, “What is the most influential plant in the world?” The answer to this question becomes quite obvious once I take a closer look at my life; I communicate with people on my Apple, for a healthy snack I pack that handy-dandy apple, and someday I want to see ‘The Big Apple’. Even when it comes to religion and culture, my peers often allude to the apple of the forbidden tree. It is clear that apples dominate all other plants when it comes to influence. So where does this plant originate from and what is special about it?
Malus sieversii is the scientific name for the grandfather of apples. Malus sieversii is native to parts of Central Asia, namely, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan. This region is famous for the Altai Mountain Range and the Mongolian steppe, which experiences much of the same continental weather as Siberia. Alma-Ata, former capital of Soviet Kazakhstan, experiences anywhere between 107.1 Degrees Fahrenheit down to -35.9 Degrees Fahrenheit. Interestingly enough, the word Alma-Ata is derived from “alma” in the Kazakh language which means ‘apple’. It therefore seems quite appropriate to learn that Alma-Ata is regarded as the ‘Cradle of Apples’. Now that I know where apples come from I wonder, though, “so what?”
A bit more thinking makes me realize the enormous impact the environment of Alma-Ata has had on human civilization, and my life in general. Maybe without this region of the world, apples would not have survived natural selection. What would happen then? For one, what would people name their companies? For some reason, ‘Orange’ or ‘Watermelon’ just doesn’t seem to have the same ring and attractiveness that ‘Apple” does. Second of all, what would people eat for snack? Few fruits or vegetables can compete with the apple on a world wide scale, in terms of availability. Even in the poorest regions of the world, people have apples. This is yet another reason why Alma-Ata’s climate has helped humanity.
If Kazakhstan’s climate wasn’t as harsh as it is, apples would not have developed such good defenses against the elements. Malus sieversii has recently been cultivated by the United States Agricultural Research Service; according to the research, some Malus sieversii plants show remarkable disease resistance. Furthermore, these Kazakh apples are much more capable of growing in environments that are not suitable for the domesticated apple, such as in colder areas. With climate change pillaging our world, we have to introduce hardier species that will guarantee a food supply even in the roughest weather. If, for example, China had an extremely cold winter and forty percent of its apple trees were lost, around twenty six percent of apples in the world would be lost. This would mean that sixteen million, five-hundred and four thousand, two hundred tones of apples would be lost in one year alone, not to mention the fact that it would take several years for the Chinese to re-plant those apple trees. Of course this is a ‘really-horrible-case scenario’, but then again, how many people expected there to be a giant freeze in Europe this winter? Or who expected there to be floods in Australia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and even Saudi Arabia. The weather is certainly unpredictable at the moment, therefore we should prepare for the worst.
Increasing awareness about Malus sieversii may not only be the answer to securing the stability of apple output in the world, but it just be the answer to increased demand for food across the globe as well. Since this species of apples is not well known in modern agriculture, farmers are still unaware of the potential that this species possesses. With an annual worldwide production of around sixty-five million tones of apples, it is hard to deny that Malus sieversii may be able to greatly contribute to the food basket of the world. I do not believe that everybody should just become apple farmers; instead I propose that people open their eyes to new potentials and possibilities. With careful planning, knowledge in the agricultural field, and global effort, I know that humans can create a natural, sustainable, non-genetically modified, and healthy system where the demands of all humans are completely met, in terms of fruits and vegetables.
