'Lost crops' could have fed as many as maize

phys.org ^ | 12/23/2019 | by Talia Ogliore, Washington University in St. Louis

[BenLurkin]

Writing in the Journal of Ethnobiology, Natalie Muellert, assistant professor of archaeology in Arts & Sciences, describes how she painstakingly grew and calculated yield estimates for two annual plants that were cultivated in eastern North America for thousands of years—and then abandoned.

Growing goosefoot (Chenopodium, sp.) and erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum) together is more productive than growing either one alone, Mueller discovered. Planted in tandem, along with the other known lost crops, they could have fed thousands.

Archaeologists found the first evidence of the lost crops in rock shelters in Kentucky and Arkansas in the 1930s. Seed caches and dried leaves were their only clues. Over the past 25 years, pioneering research by Gayle Fritz, professor emerita of archaeology at Washington University, helped to establish the fact that a previously unknown crop complex had supported local societies for millennia before maize—a.k.a. corn—was adopted as a staple crop.

The lost crops include a small but diverse group of native grasses, seed plants, squashes and sunflowers—of which only the squashes and sunflowers are still cultivated. For the rest, there is plenty of evidence that the lost crops were purposefully tended—not just harvested from free-living stands in the wild...

Mueller discovered that a polyculture of goosefoot and erect knotweed is more productive than either grown separately as a monoculture. Grown together, the two plants have higher yields than global averages for closely related domesticated crops (think: quinoa and buckwheat), and they are within the range of those for traditionally grown maize.

[BenLurkin]

ping

[ClearCase_guy]

they could have fed thousands.

"Why feel billions when you can feed ... thousands?" -- Dr. Evil

[a fool in paradise]

Ping

[FreedomPoster]

Ping

[SamAdams76]

I had a dream recently where I was in Egypt during the time they were building the pyramids. I remember all these ropes that people were climbing with bricks under their arms. They were building the pyramids! So much have been like 1300 BC or something.

Anyway, I remember in the dream that I was standing at a long table and it was evidently my task to feed the laborers that were building those pyramids. So there I was constantly putting food out on the table and that food was Fig Newtons.

Yes, Fig Newtons. I was laying those Fig Newtons out on that table, stacking them like dominoes.

Fig Newtons in 1300 BC. Why do I have dreams like that? I haven't had a Fig Newton in about 20 years.

[BenLurkin]

Sounds...foreboding...

[jonascord]

I’ve always thought that, given eating a Fig Newton or a brick, it would be a coin toss decision... They are right up with styrofoam Circus Peanuts...

[null and void]

I haven't had a Fig Newton in about 20 years.

20 years, 2300 years, in dream time, same diff...

[bgill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOlD0JZhM4

Oh, maize what we call corn. Just imagine how many would have been fed if only Monsanto hadn’t corrupted practically all corn and made farmers plow up their crops that were using unlicensed/permitted by Monsanto.

Imagine the carbon footprint increase with all those thousands more people in the world eating her corn and grains.

[Larry Lucido]

Newtonian physics!

[bgill]

What, no Strawberry Newtons?

[Darksheare]

And it’s not my fault either.

[bigbob]

I dunno... a salad of Erect Knotweed doesn’t sound too tasty

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks BenLurkin. Could have, but didn't, so they switched to corn. Maize is for U of M fans.

[SunkenCiv]

Chenopodium is a genus of numerous species of perennial or annual herbaceous flowering plants known as the goosefoots, which occur almost anywhere in the world. Wikipedia

Family : Amaranthaceae
Scientific name : Chenopodium
Higher classification : Chenopodioideae
Rank : Genus
Tribe : Atripliceae
Order : Caryophyllales
Lower classifications : Pigweed, Quinoa, Chenopodium pallidicaule, Chenopodium giganteum

[SunkenCiv]

Polygonum erectum, commonly called erect knotweed, is a North American species of herbaceous plant in the buckwheat family. It is found primarily in the northeastern and north-central parts of the United States, but with scattered populations in... Wikipedia

[desertfreedom765]

But what do they taste like?

More importantly can you make Beer or Wine out of them!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[PGR88]

If you were old enough to have seen this, it never left your sub-conscious.