Incorporating Chenopodium berlandieri into a Seasonal Subsistence Pattern: Implications of Biological Traits for Cultural Choices.

Abstract

Local ecological knowledge of culturally important plants informed food choices by Indigenous peoples across North America. Recovery of such knowledge through ecological and genetic studies of contemporary populations increases understanding of variation in seasonal availability and economic value, potentially enhancing interpretation of the archaeobotanical record. We compared habitat, seed yield, and nutritional value of seed in up to ten wild populations of net-seed goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri) from four survey regions in Manitoba, North Dakota, Missouri, and Ohio with evidence of pre-contact cultivation and domestication of C. berlandieri. We assessed cultivation impacts and variation in seasonal timing by growing seed from three Manitoban populations in two common gardens. Population density, plant size, and seed yield increased sixfold from north (Manitoba) to south (Ohio) in wild populations, with genetic differences between Manitoban populations remaining evident in gardens. However, cultivation (e.g., watering, weeding) in well-worked soil extended timing of seed harvest and increased seed yield beyond the range of wild populations. Nutritional profiles from five populations were similar across the survey regions but differed from domesticated quinoa in their higher fiber and slightly lower energy content. Our results suggest that both plasticity and genetic factors influence productivity of C. berlandieri populations as a seed source. Genetic variation in seasonal timing would have provided choice between populations and flexibility in incorporating C. berlandieri into a seasonal subsistence strategy. Simple cultivation techniques would have substantially increased yield, thereby enhancing reliability and economic returns.

Genomic Sequence of Canadian Chenopodium berlandieri: A North American Wild Relative of Quinoa

“…Plants were grown from seeds collected at the SV and AB sites in Manitoba, Canada, near Winnipeg [ 8 , 19 ]. The seeds showed a distinctive pitted pattern underneath the pericarp ( Figure 1 ).…”

“…Chenopodium berlandieri plants were previously collected at various sites along the Red River in southern Manitoba [ 8 , 19 ]. Leaf and seed material was stored dry.…”

“…Seeds were also stored from daughter generations of plants grown under controlled field conditions, starting from the initially collected wild plant seeds. For barcoding and whole genome sequencing, plants were newly grown from second-generation seeds from the SV site [ 8 , 19 ]. Commercial quinoa seeds were purchased from West Coast Seeds, Inc. (Vancouver, BC, Canada) (variety RedHead), germinated, and grown for fresh leaf material in the greenhouse of the Université de Montréal Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale (IRBV).…”

“…These observations indicate that C. berlandieri was not just cultivated but at least partially domesticated, thousands of years ago. Given that C. berlandieri is native to Canada, and that C. berlandieri appears to share the nutritional advantages of quinoa [ 8 ], the idea of re-domesticating it for cultivation is intriguing. A similar idea has been proposed for the diploid native North American C. ficifolium [ 9 ].…”

Experimental Cultivation of Eastern North America's Lost Crops: Insights into Agricultural Practice and Yield Potential

“…Since the publication of Smith's (1992) Rivers of Change nearly three decades ago, which synthesized much of this research on live plants and populations, very little has been written about the ecology or variation of the living lost crop progenitors. Moreover, with the exception of Yarnell's (1978) experiments with sumpweed, no one had published the results of their attempts to cultivate the free-living progenitors of the lost crops until recent experimental studies on erect knotweed (Mueller 2017b) and goosefoot (Halwas 2017). While harvests of free-living stands give us some idea of how productive the lost crops could have been, we have no practical knowledge of how cultivating these plants would have structured, constrained, or enabled the development of ancient human ecologies and economies.…”