Sugar crop

Article By:

Stewart, Dewey Crops Research Division, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland.

Kaffka, Stephen R. Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, California.

Last reviewed:June 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.665300

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• Sugar crops, published September 2015:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Any of the crops produced as major sources of sugar, syrup, and other sugar substances. Sugar crops include sugarbeet (also spelled sugar beet), sugarcane (Fig. 1), sweet sorghum, sugar maple, sugar palm, honey, corn, and chicory. Sugar is a broad term applied to a large number of carbohydrates that have a more or less sweet taste. The primary sugar, glucose, is a product of photosynthesis and occurs in all green plants. Through chemical unions, diverse sugars and starches are elaborated and become the major reserve food in the storage organs, fruits, and saps of plants. In most plants, the sugars occur as a mixture that cannot be readily separated into its components. In the saps of some plants, the sugar mixtures are condensed into syrup. See also: Carbohydrate; Farm crops; Glucose; Photosynthesis; Sugars (sweeteners); Taste

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