Eastern Agricultural Complex

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Eastern Agricultural Complex

Eastern Agricultural Complex was a group of plants that originally formed the basis of agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
in eastern North America north of Mexico. These plants included squash (Cucurbita pepo
Cucurbita pepo

The species Cucurbita pepo is a cultivated plant of the genus Cucurbita. It includes varieties of squash, gourd, and pumpkin.*Acorn squash...
), little barley (Hordeum pusillum
Hordeum pusillum

Hordeum pusillum or Little barley is a species of Poaceae. It is native to the United States. The seeds are edible, and this plant was part of the Pre-Columbian Eastern Agricultural Complex of cultivated plants used by Native Americans in the United States....
), goosefoot or lambsquarter (Chenopodium berlandieri
Chenopodium berlandieri

Chenopodium berlandieri, also called Pitseed Goosefoot, Southern Huauzontle, and Lambsquarters, is a species of Chenopodium native to North America, where it is very common in temperate regions and distributed throughout much of the continent....
), erect knotweed (Polygonum erectum
Polygonum erectum

Polygonum erectum is an annual plant species with upright or ascending stems. It is a common weed in disturbed locations with dry soils in North Eastern USA were it is called Erect knotweed....
), maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana) sumpweed or marshelder (Iva annua
Iva annua

Iva annua is an herbaceous annual plant native to much of North America. Iva annua var. macrocarpa was formerly cultivated by Native Americans in the United States in the Eastern United States and specifically near modern day Illinois for its edible seed....
), and sunflower (Helianthus annuus).

Of these plants, sunflower and sumpweed have edible seeds rich in oil, erect knotweed has starch

Starch

File:Amylose2.svgFile:Amylopektin Sessel.svgStarch or amylum is a polysaccharide carbohydrate consisting of a large number of glucose units joined together by glycosidic bonds....
y seeds, maygrass and little barley are grass

Grass

Grass is the common word that generally describes monocotyledonous green plants. The family Poaceae are the "true grasses" and include most plants grown as grains, for pasture, and for lawns ....
es that yield grains that may be ground to make flour, and goosefoot is a leafy vegetable related to spinach

Spinach

Spinach is a flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and southwestern Asia. It is an annual plant , which grows to a height of up to 30 cm....
.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Eastern Agricultural Complex'

Start a new discussion about 'Eastern Agricultural Complex'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Eastern Agricultural Complex was a group of plants that originally formed the basis of agriculture

Agriculture

Starch

Grass

Spinach

Spinach is a flowering plant in the family of Amaranthaceae. It is native to central and southwestern Asia. It is an annual plant , which grows to a height of up to 30 cm....
. The squash that was originally part of the complex was raised for edible seeds and to produce small containers (as with gourd

Gourd

A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae, or a name given to the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants of the genus Lagenaria....
s), not for the thick flesh that is associated with modern varieties of squash. (Note that erect knotweed is a distinct species from the Japanese knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatum) that is considered an invasive species

Invasive species

Invasive species is a phrase with several definitions. The first definition expresses the phrase in terms of non-indigenous species that adversely affect the habitats they invade economically, environmentally or ecologically....
in the eastern United States today.)

The agricultural record suggests that humans were collecting these plants from the wild by 4000 BC, then gradually modifying them by selective collection and cultivation over a period of centuries.

Slowly, these crops were replaced by the more productive crops developed in Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
: maize

Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
, bean

Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genus of the Family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed.The whole young pods of bean plants, if picked before the pods ripen and dry, can be tender enough to eat whole, whether cooked or raw....
s and additional varieties of squash. Although cultivation of maize in Mexico may date back as far as 10,000 years ago, it penetrated into regions dominated by the EAC around perhaps the first millennium BCE, and highly productive adapted strains became widely used around 900 CE. The spread was so slow because the seeds and knowledge of techniques for tending them had to cross inhospitable deserts and mountains, and because new varieties of plants had to be developed to suit the cooler climates and shorter growing seasons of the northern regions of the continent. It seems that maize was adopted first as a supplement to existing agricultural plants, but gradually came to predominate as its yields increased. Ultimately, the EAC was thoroughly replaced by maize-based agriculture; most EAC plants are no longer cultivated, and some of them (such as little barley) are regarded as pests by modern farmers.