XVI International Botanical Congess

Great Basin indigenous hunter/gatherers have long been associated with various techniques of plant manipulation, including tilling, copicing, pruning, broadcast sowing, supplemental watering, etc. Most of this work was done by women, some as part of wild product harvesting and some as separate environmental maintenance activities. Although a few groups adjacent to the agricultural Southwest also tended a few cultigens, none of those who practiced the other techniques seems to have worked with any species other than wild forms. In this paper, the data on manipulation of several species such as Chenopodium, Amaranthus, Cyperus, Dicholostema, Mentzelia, Calochortus, Helianthus, Nicotiana, etc., are combined to suggest some new directions of inquiry into the possibility of semi-domestication in the Great Basin, and the possible roles played by these techniques.