Re: The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in Mexico: further evidence for a North American domestication

Jack Linthicum wrote: on, 07/05/2008 20:57:
On May 2, 2:57 pm, Hayabusa <peregr...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, 01 May 2008 09:58:36 +0200, Peter Alaca



<p.al...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am not familiar with the details in the case here, but (I think I
read this in Diamond's Steel, Gunsn'Germs) it is fairly easy to spread
a plant parallel to a latitude because it remains more or less in its
own climate zone to which it is adapted, whereas nort-to-south
spreading crosses climate zones which takes much longer. Take wheat:
from northern Iraq to Greece wasn't much of a jump, but from Greece to
rainy Holland is.
A source on the first find ofsunflowerin the Ohio Valley is in
Nature 430, 201, 2004.
Hayabusa
Still 2-3000 years. Many plants crossed the barriers
in the last 500 years.
I know what you mean, but such boundaries do exist. Let me extrapolate
from the world of birds (as I am not closely familiar with plants): in
the US, the Mississippi is a strong climatic, floral and faunal
divide, so strong that the birdwatcher's guides treat the
Atlantic-Mississippi region and the Gran'Ol'River-Pacific region in
two different books; and there are few overlaps.

With regard to sunflowers, I happen to think that the evidence is
still too patchy to really permit conclusions - whether this cultural
plant originated in the Ohio Valley or in Central America. Right now
it looks like the oldest traces are from the NE, but if older evidence
is found in Mexico I would not fall on my back.

Hayabusa

Pics at the cite. The seed was not a sunflower but a bottlegourd.

"As yet there is no compelling evidence that the sunflower was grown
as a food crop in Mexico prior to European contact. In addition, the
complete absence of any early historical record for the sunflower in
Mexico argues against its presence in pre-Columbian times. Although no
dates or boundaries can be set, the wild sunflower may have grown in
northernmost Mexico in early times. A southward range expansion for
the species is probably very recent, perhaps in the last few hundred
years with the development of a modern road system. The widely used
common names of the sunflower in Mexico are in Spanish or with Spanish
words in them, which suggests that the sunflower is a post-contact
arrival."

As someone who grew up with the firm knowledge that all roads with
sunflowers growing in the margins led to Kansas, I accept the implied
apology.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/8475434537757k61/fulltext.html

The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in Mexico: further evidence for a
North American domestication

Charles B. Heiser1

> [...]

Thank Jack. That makes much mor clear to me about
the discussion than the NG article



Footnotes
1 Carbonized archaeological sunflower achene from San Andrés, Mexico:
not available. Various difficulties prevented securing the photograph
and permission to use it. In addition to the original source (Lentz et
al. 2001) it may be seen in Smith (2006) as well as on
http://www.pnas.org.cgi/content/full/103/33/12223. The achene as shown
in the photo is 8.2 mm long. Originally it was slightly longer; the
tip was broken off while it was at Indiana University.


The link fails, but I assume it is
"Eastern North America as an independent center
of plant domestication." PNAS USA 103:1223-1228.
which can be downloaded here as a pdf:
http://anthropology.si.edu/archaeobio/smith.htm

--
p.a.



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