An heirloom plant is an open-pollinated cultivar that was commonly grown during earlier periods in human history, but which is not used in modern large-scale agriculture.

Since most popular heirloom plants are vegetables, the term heirloom vegetable is often used instead.

Before the industrialization of agriculture, a much wider variety of plant foods was grown for human consumption.

In modern agriculture in the Industrialized World, most food crops are now grown in large, monocultural plots owned by corporations.

In order to maximize consistency, few varieties of each type of crop are grown.

These varieties are often selected for their productivity, their ability to withstand the long trips to supermarkets, or their tolerance to drought, frost, or pesticides.

Nutrition, flavor, and variety are frequently secondary and tertiary concerns, if at all a concern.

Heirloom gardening can be seen as a reaction against this trend..

For more information about the topic Heirloom plant, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Monoculture — Monoculture describes systems that have very low diversity. In agriculture, "monoculture" describes the practice of relying on a very small number of ...  > read more

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Tomato — The tomato is a short-lived perennial plant, grown as an annual plant, typically growing to 1-3 m tall, with a weakly woody stem that usually ...  > read more

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