h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Sorry, but references please!
That's a pretty important statement to make without any further reading to back it up.

There is ample further reading listed at the bottom of the entry. I will provide specific references for individual facts if it is necessary.

sweet potato perhaps is a global phenomenoncosins having same root grew quickly all over simultaneously

sweet potato perhaps is a global phenomenon and its cousins having same root grew quickly all over simultaneously

Sweet potato is not a global phenomena...the first European explorers in South America had never seen one before and called it Potato after one of the native names, batata. Later historians looking over the accounts of the first explorers figured out that those in Polynesia and South America were describing the same plant.

motdoc that is really a piece of research work

Hey, if you or anyone else is interested you can check out the full text of my research at http://www.focusanthro.com/. I imagine it should be easy to find.

Cotton is another plant that crossed oceans in prehistoric times, apparently originiating in Africa, it reached Asia, where the socalled old-world-species G. herbaceum und G. arboreum grow, then somehow came to America, forming the new-world-species G. hirsutum, G. barbadense.

Cotton is another question. There is legitimate evidence that Cotton's widespread natural range is the result of its ancient origins, in that it spread across the globe before the breaking apart of the continents.

Really? I knew sugar cane was mesozoic, but cotton i thought had migrated with people. Rather liked the idea.

I don't remember the specific details on this one, but the fact that it has managed to differentiate into so many species by the present day indicates a more distant origin than the 10 kya when the first humans reached the Americas. I can look into it with more detail.