Classification and

naming crops
Sanaullah Iqbal
Classification of crops
• Agronomic Crops
• Bioenergy crops
• Nutritional use categories
• Medicinal and Psychoactive crops
• Toxic plants

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 Agronomic Crops
• Agronomy is the production of field crops while sustaining the
soil resource and the environment.
• agronomy -- Greek words agros (field) and nomos (to manage)
• Agronomic Crop Categories
• cereals, grains, pulses, forages, fiber crops, root and tuber crops,
cover crops, companion crops, green manure crops, and
recreational turf crops.

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Cereal Crops
• word cereal is derived from the name of Roman goddess of grain, Ceres
• Cereal is an actual grass, primarily cultivated for the edible starch components of its grain.
• Botanically, this grain is a type of fruit known as a caryopsis, and it contains three parts such as
the endosperm, germ, and bran.
• It belongs to the monocot family Poaceae and is grown in larger quantities and provides more
food energy and carbohydrate for the entire world than any other type of crop.
• grasses that produce edible grain
• cereal is that cereals are processed breakfast foods to which milk is added (USA)
• Wheat, rice, corn, barley, and sorghum
• Cereals store energy in their seeds as starch
• Starch extracted -- used as an energy source for livestock and humans
• 75 % starch, 12 % protein, 2 % fat, and smaller quantities of vitamins and minerals

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• In addition to that, they are considered as staple crops.
• Cereals are a rich source of macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats, oils, and
protein) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals) as well as bioactive
phytochemicals (polyphenols, flavonoids, anthocyanin, carotenoids, etc.).
• During the refining and polishing process, the nutrients accumulated in
the bran and germ are removed, and the remaining endosperm contains
mostly carbohydrate.
• In some developing countries, cereal grain in the form of rice, wheat,
millet, or maize constitutes a majority of daily nutrition.

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Cereal Crops

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Grain Crops
• Grain is the fruit or seed of a crop plant.
• Similar to cereal crops, the term grain crop is applied to the
harvested portion of a number of grass crops such as corn.
• But the term also includes legumes such as soybean and kidney
beans, and other plants such as flax and buckwheat.
• Small grain is a term applied to wheat, oat, barley, and rye
because, relative to corn, their seed is small.

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Pulses
• Pulses are grain legumes that are annual crop yielding from one to twelve
seeds of different morphology, and color within a pod.
• Legumes grown for their edible, high protein seeds are known as pulses.
• 1/3 is protein (dry weight)
• store energy as carbohydrates or oil
• seeds borne in pods that burst into halves when mature and dried.
• roasted or boiled before human consumption to destroy chemicals that
reduce the availability of nutrients.
• Soybean is the most widely grown pulse
• soybean has an oil content around 13–25%, used for cooking, protein-rich
meal for livestock feed.
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• Pulses are used as food not only for humans but also other animals.
• Similar to many leguminous crops, pulses play a significant role in crop rotation
due to their capability to fix nitrogen.
• Depending on the variety, a pulse may be known as common bean, dry bean,
kidney bean, haricot bean, pinto bean, navy bean, soybeans, field peas,
lentils, peanuts, chickpeas, cow peas etc.
• Pulses are cultivated agriculturally, primarily for their human food grain seed,
for livestock forage, silage production, and as soil-enhancing green manure.
• Many pulses contain symbiotic bacteria known as Rhizobia within root nodules
of plant root systems. These bacteria have the distinct capability of fixing
nitrogen from the atmosphere. This structure helps the root nodules to act as
sources of nitrogen for pulses and make them relatively rich in plant proteins.
• Therefore, pulses are among the greatest sources of plant protein and also
serve as fertilizer for the soil.
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Difference Between Cereals and Pulses
Definition
Cereal is a grain used for food or breakfast food prepared from roasted grain. Pulses is a grain legume.
Scientific Classification
Cereal belongs to Family Poaceae. Pulses belong to Family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae).
Production
Cereals are cultivated in larger quantities than pulses. Pulses are cultivated in lesser quantities than
cereals. India is the world’s largest producer and the largest consumer of pulses.
Staple Diet
Most of the developing countries consume cereals such as rice, wheat, and millet as their staple diets.
Pulses are incorporated into the staple diet
Carbohydrate and Energy Content
Cereals contain more carbohydrate (65-78%) and energy compared to pulses and is considered the
largest energy food source in the world. Pulses contain less carbohydrate (55-65%), and energy
compared to cereals
Starch Characteristics
The digestibility of starches in cereals, both in terms of absolute amount digested and the rate at which it
is hydrolyzed, is higher than that of pulse starches.
The digestibility of starches in pulses, both in terms of absolute amount digested and the rate at which it is
hydrolyzed, is lower than that of cereal starches. Therefore, high consumption of pulse-based foods leads
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to gassiness and other physiological discomforts in the stomach.
Morphology
Cereals contain a hard and non-edible husk and grains are attached to a stalk. Pulse grains
are found within a pod, and they do not contain a hard and non-edible husk
Amylose Content
The amylose content of cereal starches is 20-25%, which is lower than pulses. The amylose
content of legume pulses starches is -30-40%, which is lower than cereals.
Protein Content
Cereals contain less protein content (5-15%). Pulses contain more protein content (20-25%)
Amino Acid Lysine Content
Some cereals are deficient in the essential AA lysine. Pulses are rich in lysine compare to
cereals.
Amino Acid Methionine Content
Cereals are rich in AA methionine compared to pulses. Many pulses deficient in methionine.
Nitrogen Fixing Ability
Cereals do not have the ability to fix nitrogen while Pulses have it.
Uses
Cereals are used for human consumption, food products processing (Breakfast cereals),
biogas and biofuel production, and for forage crops for domesticated animals
Pulses are used for human consumption, forage crops for domesticated animals and for crop
rotation due to their ability to fix nitrogen.

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Forages
• Forages are any crops whose vegetative parts—including stems, leaves,
and sometimes attached seed or grain—are used for livestock feed
• forages directly from pastures by grazing, or can be fed following storage -
-- Grazing most traditional form of forage use
• Farmers store forages as hay or silage. Hay is forage that is dried
to about 20 percent moisture and stored in the air,
• silage is harvested at 50–80 % moisture, sealed in a structure called a silo
• Ruminants – can digest fibrous portion of plants
• Producers grow a diversity of perennial and annual plants for forage.
• Species used depend on the climatic, soil conditions & intended use.
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Forages
• Species used depend on climatic and soil conditions and the intended use.
• In the northern US and Canada, temperate cool-season legumes such
as alfalfa and clovers, and grasses such as smooth bromegrass are used
for pasture, hay, and silage.
• In the southern US, annual clovers, bermuda grass, and tall fescue are
grazed and used for hay.
• In the dryer regions of the Great Plains, shrubs and native grasses such
as big bluestem, little bluestem and buffalo grass are grazed.
• Throughout the US, corn and small grains are harvested for silage when
they are immature. In some regions, small grains are grazed

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Fiber Crops
• Cotton, flax, hemp, Jute ---- used for clothing, rope, paper, and baskets
• Cotton fiber is mostly pure cellulose and is white. It is called a surface fiber
and surrounds the seed. Cotton fibers vary in length and are twisted. Cotton is
the most widely used natural fiber crop.
• Flax fiber is called bast fiber, which is the soft fiber extracted from the stem.
The cloth produced after processing is called linen. Flax is the oldest crop used
for fiber and cloth production. Flax fibers are longer than those of cotton and
average about 2 feet in length. They consist of about 70 % cellulose with some
waxes mixed in
• Hemp fiber is also extracted from the stem. It is very coarse and brown. It is
an extremely strong fiber used for the production of canvas, rope, and bags.
• Ramie is one of the oldest fiber crops. Its fibers are harvested from the
bark of the plant. Unlike many other fiber crops, ramie is a perennial species
that can be harvested several times a year for up to 20 years.

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Root and Tuber Crops
• White or Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, and cassava are examples of
root crops, or tuber crops.
• harvested for their underground storage organs that are rich in starch.
• Potatoes are enlarged underground stems called tubers.
• Though sweet potatoes and cassava seem similar to the Irish potato,
they have enlarged roots, not tubers.
• These crops are among the most important in the world as a source of
energy for human nutrition.
• Another tuber-producing crop is Jerusalem artichoke. In contrast to
Irish potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes store energy as inulin, another type
of complex carbohydrate
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Cover Crops
• Farmers use cover crops to prevent soil erosion due to water or
wind during periods when the soil is not protected by growing
plant cover.
• For example, in the Midwest, summer annuals such as corn and
soybean are normally in the field from May through October.
The soil remains uncovered, except for crop residue, from
November until the following spring.
• A cover crop such as winter rye or hairy vetch is sometimes
planted in late fall to provide soil cover over the winter.
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Companion Crops
• Companion crops such as oat and wheat have traditionally been seeded
with a small-seeded legume such as alfalfa to provide erosion control,
suppress weeds, and provide some income from the land during the
establishment period if either crop fails.
• Companion crops are harvested at
maturity for grain and straw or when
immature for silage.
• Following the harvest of the companion
crop, the legume will regrow

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Green Manure Crops
• Green manure crops are legumes or grasses that are incorporated into
the soil while vegetative with the purpose of adding nutrients to the soil
or enhancing soil quality.
• Sweet clover is an example of a traditional green manure crop that
farmers grow expressly for the purpose of plowing down and adding
nitrogen and organic matter to the soil.
• Other examples include alfalfa,
hairy vetch, crimson clover, and winter rye

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Classification as to growth habit

• Annuals: is the plant which its life cycle is completed in one season as
corn, wheat and rice
• Biennials plant that require two seasons to attain full development,
mature seed and die are biennials. Red clover is a biennial plant.
• Perennials: some plant live for several years. They may produce seed
each year but they do not die with seed production. Perennials plant are
usually the trees.

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Classification as to growth season

• Kharif Crops: The crops which are sown in the rainy season are called
kharif crop. The rainy season in India is from June to September.
• For Example- Paddy, maize, soyabean, groundnut, cotton, etc.
• Rabi Crops: The crops grown in the winter season are rabi crops. Their
time Period is generally from October to March.
• For Example- Wheat, gram, pea ,mustard, and linseed.

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Recreational Turf Crops
• Many perennial grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, perennial
ryegrass, and bentgrass are used for recreational purposes.
• Kentucky bluegrass and ryegrass are used extensively for lawns,
soccer fields, and football fields in the northern regions of
the United States.
• Further south, bermuda grass is often used in recreational areas
such as golf courses. Varieties of these species have been selected
with tolerance to wear from human traffic.

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 Bioenergy Crops
• Bioenergy is a general term that describes production of energy from
biological systems. We also use the terms biomass and biofuel to describe
bioenergy.
• Biomass crops are burned to produce heat and electricity. Biomass crops
include trees such as hybrid poplars and willows, or herbaceous perennials
such as switchgrass or alfalfa.
• Biofuel crops are crops grown specifically for use as a dedicated fuel
source for production of liquid fuels. Corn, grain sorghum, and soybean are
examples of biofuel crops. Starch in the grain of corn and to a lesser extent
sorghum is converted to ethanol, while oils from soybean are converted to
biodiesel

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 Nutritional-Use Categories
• Crops can be classified by the way we use them nutritionally.
• The basic components of human and animal diets are fats, proteins,
and carbohydrates such as sugars and starches
• Sugar crops
• Oil crops
• Protein crops
• Starchy seed crops
• Starchy root and tuber crops

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Sugar Crops
• Sugar beets, sugarcane, corn, and sweet sorghum are some of the crops
from which sugar is obtained.
• The sugar beet is a root crop grown for sucrose.
• Sugarcane stores sugar in a tall-growing stem that is crushed during sugar
extraction.
• Corn is the source of high fructose corn syrup, which is the leading
sweetener used in drinks and candies. It is produced by conversion of corn
starch from the kernel to a fructose-glucose mixture.
• Sweet sorghum, which is related to grain sorghum, is another tall-growing
plant where the stem is pressed to extract sugars to produce syrup.

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Oil Crops
• Many crop species produce oil-rich seeds that can be processed for
their oil.
• Oil crops produce oils that contain fatty acids that vary in saturation.
• Oil crops include soybean, flax, sunflowers, canola, peanuts, and
cotton.
• Soybean accounts for half of edible oil production.

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Protein Crops
• Legumes such as soybean, peas, field beans, and peanuts produce
seeds that are naturally high in protein.
• These protein crops are an important source of protein in many parts
of the world.
• Nonlegumes can also be used for seed protein production and include
quinoa, cotton, and sunflowers.
• Protein cake for live stock use.

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• Starchy Seed Crops
Seed from the cereal grasses is naturally high in starch. Cereal crops
include corn, wheat, oat, barley, rye, millet, and sorghum. Nongrasses
such as amaranth and buckwheat also produce starchy seed.

• Starchy Root and Tuber Crops

Roots and tuber crops store their energy primarily as starch. Humans
can convert this starch to energy.

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Medicinal and Psychoactive Crops
• Functional Foods
• Plants contain many unique substances that humans utilize in ways other
than for nutrition.
• Medicinal and psychoactive crops are grown for their unique compounds
such as alkaloids and glycosides that have properties for pain relief,
hallucinogenic effects, disease treatment, or other uses.
• Almost half of all drugs used today came originally from plants.
• However, many medicines are no longer derived directly from the plants
in which they were discovered; once the active compounds are isolated
and synthesized, they can be produced in laboratories.
• Plants will continue to be a source for drugs as researchers hunt for new
compounds that may yield the next new drug
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• Some of the more common psychoactive crops include tobacco, opium
poppy, coca plant, and marijuana
• Tobacco ----- United States,
• Opium poppy ---- Afghanistan
• Coca plant ----- Andes countries of South America
• Tobacco use is legalized, but smoking and chewing tobacco cause cancer
and cardiac and respiratory problems.
• Illegal trade and use of other drugs like opium and heroin, derived from
the opium poppy, and cocaine, derived from the coca plant, are a leading
cause of gang warfare
• Psychoactive crops can also be valued as medicines.
• Morphine produced from the opium poppy and is prescribed to relieve
extreme pain resulting from injury, surgery, or cancer.
• Marijuana is considered an illegal hallucinogenic drug in most of the
United States, but it can also be used legitimately to treat diseases such as
glaucoma (eye disease)
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Toxic Plants
• Monkshood, contains an alkaloid called
aconitine -- During WWII, German Nazis
used aconitine in poison bullets.

• Castor bean is a tropical plant grown

commercially for production of castor oil,
an industrial lubricant --- Ricin.

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Naming Plants
• Every culture has given plants common names that often describe a
morphological feature or a use.
• For example, white clover is a legume plant with white flowers,
whereas red clover is a legume with red flowers.
• White snakeroot, a poisonous plant, is so named because of its white
flowers and roots that grow from the crown in a snake-like fashion.
• The challenge with common names for plants is that they vary
regionally and nationally
• Alfalfa is also known as lucerne, corn is known as maize
• Scientific Names

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Scientific Names

• Scientific names allow for the universal identification of plants.

• In the 18th century, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus first
developed the binomial nomenclature system of plant identification.
• plants are identified using a two-part Latin name: the genus and
species.
• Scientific names are always italicized, with the genus capitalized.
• complete scientific name for soybean is Glycine max L.

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• The division Magnoliophyta includes the flowering plants.
• The class Liliopsida represents monocot plants,
• Magnoliopsida represents dicot plants
• The family Poaceae is the grass family,
• Fabaceae is the legume family.
Complete classification of corn, soybean, and cow.

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Taxonomy
System of organizing all life based on similar genetic or morphological
characteristics.
• Species are the lowest taxonomic unit.
• Similar species are grouped into families,
• families into orders,
• orders into classes,
• classes into divisions, and
• divisions into kingdoms.
• The kingdom category separates plants from animals.

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Dicots and Monocots
• Crop plants can be classified as dicots or
monocots.
• Dicots are plants such as soybeans and
sunflowers that have two seed leaves
(cotyledons) within the seed.
• Monocots are plants such as corn and
bluegrass that have a single cotyledon within
the seed.
• Dicots and monocots also differ in root, stem,
leaf, and flower characteristics

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Plant Families
• Plant genera are grouped into families based on floral, fruit, or genetic
characteristics.
• Two of the most important crop families—with a large number of
species of economic significance—are the Poaceae (grass) and Fabaceae
(legume) families.
• Note that family names end in the suffix -aceae.

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The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
• One of the most interesting plant families when it comes to food,
medicines, drugs, and toxic compounds
• family of extremes when it comes to human usage.
• It contains plants that are
• extremely nutritious,
• plants that upon ingestion can easily kill people,
• plants that can be used in weapons,
• one plant, responsible for the deaths of
millions of people each year.

Potato flower.
Members of the Solanaceae family generally have flowers with five petals,
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fused.
The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
 Crops species:
 Potato, tomato, pepper, eggplant, huckleberry, and goji berry.
 most significant economically is the potato, the 4th most important crop in world.
 Weed species:
 Eastern black nightshade, jimsonweed, and buffalo bur.
 These are weeds from the Solanaceae family that affect agronomic crops.
 Ornamental species:
 Moonflower (Datura species), flowering tobacco (Nicotiana species), and petunia.
Petunias are among the most popular bedding plants.
 Weapon species:
 Chili pepper. Some varieties of chili peppers are used as components in pepper
spray that is used for self-defense.
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The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
 Medicinal species:
 Deadly nightshade, mandrake --- contain atropine, a muscle relaxant and antidote
to nerve-gas poisoning.
 A compound in chili pepper called capsaicin is used in topical creams.
 Insecticide species:
 Tobacco. Nicotine, the addictive ingredient in tobacco-based products, causes
convulsions and death in insects upon contact. Synthetic derivatives of nicotine
used for insecticides
 Poisonous species:
 Mandrake, deadly nightshade, henbane, jimsonweed, tobacco. Ingestion of either
the herbage, berries, or seed of these species can lead to death. Even contact with
the skin can cause a reaction.
 Tobacco through smoking cigarettes causes cancer and other ailments and kills five
million people a year. By 2020, this number is expected to rise to 10 million people
a year.
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The Nightshade Family - (Solanaceae)
What makes this plant family so special?
• Particular compounds produced by members of Solanaceae (and in some
other plant families) called alkaloids.
• Alkaloids are nitrogen compounds that cause physiological effects in
humans.
• One of the most well known of these alkaloids is nicotine, which is the
major alkaloid found in tobacco.
• Nicotine acts on the central nervous system by releasing adrenaline,
slowing the heart rate, and raising blood pressure.
• Nicotine is also highly addictive

The chemical structure of 52

nicotine