The Botany of Desire Page #2

sweet evolved

When sweet things were rare

in the environment,

They were there

in small amounts,

And our biggest problem

was to make sure

We got enough calories

and didn't starve to death.

If a plant was sweet,

That meant it wasn't bitter

and poison,

It meant it was reasonably high

in calories,

Because sugars

are calorie-rich,

And so sweetness is the signal

For something

that's good for us.

Sweetness in nature is

very rare, very special --

It's really limited to

ripe fruit,

And honey,

if you're willing to risk

Going into a beehive.

And apples are a particularly

big, portable,

Long-lasting vessel

for sweetness.

It was here in

The ancient forests

of central asia

That our own pursuit

of sweetness

First brought us into contact

with the apple.

This, scientists say,

Is the apple's genetic home --

The place

where it originated.

These high forests in what is

now the nation of kazakhstan

Gave rise to thousands of

different varieties,

Many of which

still grow here today.

You land in almaty,

the capital of kazakhstan,

And there are apple seedlings

Pushing up through

the broken pavement.

You go up into the hills,

And there are thousands of

different kinds of apples.

Great big red apples

That look like

large macintosh --

And you'd find these sort of

knotty little green things

That even a rat wouldn't eat.

To see these wild apples

in all their diversity

Is to realize that, in these

forests, this is, you know,

These are god's first drafts of

what an apple could be.

One way the apple

could secure its future

Was by expanding its habitat --

But that's a hard thing to do

if you're a plant.

You know, the apple has

the same existential predicament

Of any plant -- it's stuck

in place, it's rooted down.

So you had the apple

beginning its life

In these kazakh forests

in central asia,

But they would be stuck there

If not for mammals,

that they evolved to appeal to.

If you're a bear in a forest

and you're hungry,

You don't pick the little

blueberry sized apples,

You pick the biggest ones

you can get.

If you find

a particularly sweet one,

You're going to eat

more of that one

Than a sour one.

And in their case,

They eat the whole apple

and excrete the seeds,

And that's how apples

spread their genes.

And sweetness was the ticket

out of that forest.

But to move farther

than bears could take it,

The apple would need

a new ally --

And found one...In us.

Part of

the apple's genius

Has been to insinuate itself

into our culture,

And art and religion, as well.

It's kind of

a botanical zelig --

I mean, it just kind of

shows up everywhere.

Even when it wasn't

really there.

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