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Capsicum history from an archaeological perspective (link)

Interesting I was watching the full video before sleep :) I did not know that baccatum came frist? Also Aji Panca is baccatum? If it's hybrid with chinense. How you can call it just "baccatum" :think: The growth style and flower is chinense but setting only one pod at each branch.
 
There are a couple of papers out that are about this type of thing.

I enjoy reading them and learning but the taxonomic perspective is tricky and I have more questions than answers at this point.
 
Carolina Carrizo García e.a.
Phylogenetic relationships, diversification and expansion of chili peppers ( Capsicum , Solanaceae)
Annals of Botany 118(1):35-51
DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcw079 // researchgate
 
Background and aims: Capsicum (Solanaceae), native to the tropical and temperate Americas, comprises the well-known sweet and hot chili peppers and several wild species. So far, only partial taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses have been done for the genus. Here, the phylogenetic relationships between nearly all taxa of Capsicum were explored to test the monophyly of the genus and to obtain a better knowledge of species relationships, diversification and expansion. Methods: Thirty-four of approximately 35 Capsicum species were sampled. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses were performed using two plastid markers (matK and psbA-trnH) and one single-copy nuclear gene (waxy). The evolutionary changes of nine key features were reconstructed following the parsimony ancestral states method. Ancestral areas were reconstructed through a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis. Key results: Capsicum forms a monophyletic clade, with Lycianthes as a sister group, following both phylogenetic approaches. Eleven well-supported clades (four of them monotypic) can be recognized within Capsicum, although some interspecific relationships need further analysis. A few features are useful to characterize different clades (e.g. fruit anatomy, chromosome base number), whereas some others are highly homoplastic (e.g. seed colour). The origin of Capsicum is postulated in an area along the Andes of western to north-western South America. The expansion of the genus has followed a clockwise direction around the Amazon basin, towards central and south-eastern Brazil, then back to western South America, and finally northwards to Central America. Conclusions: New insights are provided regarding interspecific relationships, character evolution, and geographical origin and expansion of Capsicum A clearly distinct early-diverging clade can be distinguished, centred in western-north-western South America. Subsequent rapid speciation has led to the origin of the remaining clades. The diversification of Capsicum has culminated in the origin of the main cultivated species in several regions of South to Central America.
 
With molecular clock studies and other bioinformatic approaches to taxonomy the method of interpreting data is guesswork and frankly not particularly informative when it comes to plastic species with a high degree of diversity and whose population covers expansive areas over relatively long periods of time.

Archaeological data is good but there is so much it doesn't tell us.

I'll likely address the topic of taxonomy more thoroughly later. It is an interest of mine.
 
ahayastani said:
Carolina Carrizo García e.a.
Phylogenetic relationships, diversification and expansion of chili peppers ( Capsicum , Solanaceae)
Annals of Botany 118(1):35-51
DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcw079 // researchgate
 
Background and aims: Capsicum (Solanaceae), native to the tropical and temperate Americas, comprises the well-known sweet and hot chili peppers and several wild species. So far, only partial taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses have been done for the genus. Here, the phylogenetic relationships between nearly all taxa of Capsicum were explored to test the monophyly of the genus and to obtain a better knowledge of species relationships, diversification and expansion. Methods: Thirty-four of approximately 35 Capsicum species were sampled. Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analyses were performed using two plastid markers (matK and psbA-trnH) and one single-copy nuclear gene (waxy). The evolutionary changes of nine key features were reconstructed following the parsimony ancestral states method. Ancestral areas were reconstructed through a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo analysis. Key results: Capsicum forms a monophyletic clade, with Lycianthes as a sister group, following both phylogenetic approaches. Eleven well-supported clades (four of them monotypic) can be recognized within Capsicum, although some interspecific relationships need further analysis. A few features are useful to characterize different clades (e.g. fruit anatomy, chromosome base number), whereas some others are highly homoplastic (e.g. seed colour). The origin of Capsicum is postulated in an area along the Andes of western to north-western South America. The expansion of the genus has followed a clockwise direction around the Amazon basin, towards central and south-eastern Brazil, then back to western South America, and finally northwards to Central America. Conclusions: New insights are provided regarding interspecific relationships, character evolution, and geographical origin and expansion of Capsicum A clearly distinct early-diverging clade can be distinguished, centred in western-north-western South America. Subsequent rapid speciation has led to the origin of the remaining clades. The diversification of Capsicum has culminated in the origin of the main cultivated species in several regions of South to Central America.

This video is about the domesticated species and the study you cited is about the evolution of Capsicum. In that study they flip the old model onto it's head. Interestingly enough,the ethnobotanist in this video missed the memo or doesn't believe Carolina and Barboza because she mentions Bolivia being the starting point. Even more interesting,in the new model they have C.rhomboideum as the possible mother to all Capsicum. No more than 15 years ago it wasn't even considered a pepper.

P.S. Gloria Barboza is currently working on a new monograph.
 
Pr0digal_son said:
This video is about the domesticated species and the study you cited is about the evolution of Capsicum.
 
 
Yes. My reply was directed at Max Nihil's comment:
 
Max Nihil said:
There are a couple of papers out that are about this type of thing.

I enjoy reading them and learning but the taxonomic perspective is tricky and I have more questions than answers at this point.
 
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