In new findings published recently in the journal Annals of Botany, researchers have discovered agave plant species cultivated by some early cultures, including the Hohokam people. The agave plant has been economically and socially important in the Americas for at least 9,000 years.
Researchers have discovered ancient, unmodified agave varieties cultivated by early cultures, underscoring their importance for sustainable agriculture in today's changing climate conditions. Pictured above is a picture of agave. Image source: Wendy Hodgson/Annals of Botany
Before people cultivated corn, the agave plant was one of their main sources of carbohydrates. Archaeological research shows that the Hohokam people increased their agricultural potential by building agave dry farming terraces. As population density increased and clustered, agricultural features such as terraces and cairns became distinctive of the culture's farming practices.
While crops native to the Americas (corn/corn, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, etc.) are now common throughout the world, nearly all of these plants were extensively modified by European settlers and their descendants.
Since the 1980s, in parallel with archaeological exploration, Desert Botanical Garden researchers have continued to document and study agaves in Arizona, the Southwest, and northern Mexico. Through their work, they rediscovered and named five of the six known agave species that represent remnant populations of plants that were domesticated and cultivated by pre-human contact in today's Arizona landscape: murpheyi, delamateri, phillipsiana, sanpedroensis, verdensis and yavapaiensis. Although these agave were once cultivated on a large scale, over the centuries some varieties of them continue to survive in ancient, cultivated fields in modern landscapes from southern Arizona north to the Grand Canyon.
These precontact domesticated agaves are morphologically distinct from wild agaves in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico and from wild and domesticated species in Central America. These remaining clones offer us a rare opportunity to study plant species that have changed little since their last cultivation in prehistory.
Researchers here believe that protecting these newly discovered agave species is especially important today, as interest in and research on wild relatives of contemporary crops increases. Especially those that grow in hot, dry environments, climate change makes these plants more attractive for agricultural development.
Wendy Hodgson, first author of the paper, said: "The involvement of archaeologists and Aboriginal people makes our work more productive, and we hope this work will advance our understanding of today's landscapes as the legacy of past human activity rather than as pristine environments. We hope this work will advance our understanding of today's landscapes as the legacy of past human activities rather than pristine environments that predate human contact." "Humans were brilliant agriculturists who selected, domesticated and grew crops in the arid Southwest. We have a unique opportunity to study how and what kinds of agave were grown by ancient farmers, which is particularly relevant today when we need to explore the benefits of growing drought-adapted crops using sustainable ecological farming methods."