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by nkrisc 492 days ago
Basically, yes. Though wheat didn’t look like that initially. We’ve cultivated it to become like that over thousands of years.

Same for corn (maize). There is no naturally occurring plant that looks like what we’ve turned it into.

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Wild potatoes look pretty close to some domesticated potatoes I had.

Also I had lots of wild berries (of various species) in forests, and they look pretty much like the berries you can find in a garden. (Though probably not like the berries you can get in a supermarket?)

Wild grass also looks pretty much like some of the domesticated variety. (Well, some varieties do.)

My understanding is that most berries weren’t farmed until recently because they couldn’t be domesticated like other plants, rather they were typically foraged. I remember reading that initially wild blueberry bushes were simply dug up and replanted. Not certain of the veracity of this, however.

Wheat still generally looks like wild grasses, but like maize its seeds are much larger than you’ll find on wild grasses.

Wild corn relatives, however, just look like most other grass.
Yes. I agree that most domesticated plants look rather different from their wild ancestors. Just not all.