Online - How Native Americans Domesticated New World Plants

Description

New World Plants That Hit the Big Time: The Amazing Story of How Native Americans Domesticated Corn, Beans, Squash, Chile Peppers and Chocolate. We'll discuss the fascinating history, domestication process and worldwide economic importance today of these crop plants that were domesticated first in the New World.

About the speaker: Before retiring as Director of the Plant Conservation Program at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 2017, Dr. Clary oversaw the Center’s native plant conservation program aimed at preserving common and rare Texas plant species in the Wildflower Center seed bank for future use, managing aggressive, invasive plants and stewarding rare and endangered Texas plant species. Dr. Clary has a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. She also holds a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied speciation patterns, taxonomy and biogeography of yucca plants. While in New Mexico, she co-founded the Castetter Laboratory for Ethnobotanical Studies, a research lab devoted to the study of prehistoric subsistence and the origins of agriculture in the Southwestern United States.