XVI International Botanical Congess

Reports of the demise of indigenous Eastern North American crops after the adoption of maize have been exaggerated. At Cahokia and other Midwestern sites, Chenopodium berlandieri ssp. jonesianum, Phalaris caroliniana, and Polygonum erectum were intensified along with maize during the rise of Mississippian chiefdoms. New archaeological records of Iva annua var. macrocarpa show that it did not go extinct before European contact, as once thought. Helianthus annuus var. macrocarpus and Cucurbita pepo ssp. ovifera var. ovifera flourished throughout precolumbian times and are significant economically today. Both cultural and ecological factors probably operated in the persistence of pre-maize crops as important components of post-maize agricultural systems. Food remains from ritual feasting at Cahokia and mortuary offerings at the Kuykendall Brake site, Arkansas, are particularly illuminating.