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A "Quick Blitz" Tutorial on
Plants of the
Tall Grass Prairie PeninsulaThis tutorial is made to accompany the forthcoming book, The Tall Grass Prairie Peninsula: Its Role in Shaping American Culture. The tutorial deals mostly with the chapter on prairie plants (obviously) but to some extent also with the chapter on the praire as a cradle of agriculture.
If you have never taken a hypertext tutorial or want to review how they work take a look at the Instructions for Hypertext Tutorials. In any case, remember that if you just scroll through this file instead of using the links to go from frame to frame nothing will make sense.
This is not really a typical, full blown tutorial with significant discussion and explanation of the material. It is just a "blitz quiz" designed to be a quick review, and maybe even a fun one. Hope you enjoy it.
Click here to begin the tutorial.
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
This document: http://www.prairienet.org/prairienations/PlantBlitz/index.html
Prairie Nations Home Page: http://www.prairienet.org/prairienations
Author: Jim Fay
Comments to: jfay@prairienet.org
Nothing down here. You shouldn't be here. This is out of any frame. Remember, to make this tutorial work you must click on the links to move through the frames. Nothing will make sense if you just scroll through the frames.
Click here to get back to the tutorial.
Instructions for Hypertext Tutorials
Hypertext tutorials are made up of a progression of frames with horizontal lines at the top and bottom to denote the boundaries of the frame. The "Instructions" you are reading now consists of a single frame. If you have your browser window greatly minimized the frame may not fit on the screen. If that is the case you will need to scroll down to read the entire frame. And, of course, there is nothing wrong with that.
However, in any tutorial it is important to follow the progression forward and backward by clicking on links to move from one frame to the next. You may, of course, use the back and forward arrow buttons of your browser to go back to review material and frames already covered. But you cannot just use the scroll bar or mouse wheel to scroll up and down the file through the various frames. If you do that nothing will make sense at all.
Nothing down here. You shouldn't be here. This is out of any frame. Remember, to make this tutorial work you must click on the links to move through the frames. Nothing will make sense if you just scroll through the frames.
Click here to get back to the tutorial.
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1. ...settlers called it 'ripgut' grass
[Answer]
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2. What is this?
[Answer]
. 3. True or False. Corn or maize cultivation came up the Mississippi River from South American via the Gulf of Mexico.[Answer]
4. What is this?
[Answer]
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5. If the pollen of this plant is found in an archaeological sample, the sample documents a disturbed area, not undisturbed or unsettled prairie.[Answer]
6. What is this?
[Answer]
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7. ...has leaves that, like those of compass plant, tend to face an east-west direction.
[Answer]
8.
[Answer]
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9. ...cultivated 7,000 years ago on the prairie...
[Answer]
. 10.
[Answer]
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11. ...unwelcome invader often mistaken for thistle.
[Answer]
12.
[Answer]
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13. ...8,000 year old sandals
14.
[Answer]
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15. True or false. A sumpweed forager/cultivator will, intentionally or not, tend to harvest more thick coated seeds than thin coated seeds.
[Answer]
16.
[Answer]
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17. ...turkey foot seed head..."
[Answer]
18.
[Answer]
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19. ...Helianthus with roots foraged in antiquity and grown as a cash crop today.
[Answer]
20.
[Answer]
. 21. ...that stalk might have gold in it (or might not)..."
[Answer]
22.
[Answer]
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23. ...knotweed (Polygonum) seeds that are conical in shape
[Answer]
24.
[Answer]
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25. ...known as panic grass for its large, open, panicle seadhead.
[Answer]
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26. What prairie grass has this ligule:
[Answer]
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27. ...purple hedgehog flower.
[Answer]
28. What's the grass that grows in compacted driveways and roadsides and that was cultivated 2,500 years ago?
[Answer]
29.
[Answer]
. 30. ...a favorite plant of cordage makers --and butterflies.
[Answer]
31.
[Answer]
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. 32. ...cultivated 4,000 years ago for its oily seed
[Answer]
33.
[Answer]
. 34. ...a cloud of tiny pink roses
[Answer]
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35. ...looks like a slender, branched out milkweed with a skinny "green bean" pod.
[Answer]
36.
[Answer]
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37. True or false. Alluvial flood plain or mudflat plants were those most heavily exploited by tall grass prairie aboriginals.
[Answer]
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38.
[Answer]
. 39. Your nine-year-old neighbor saw a documentary on the prairie and wants to plant some prairie wildflowers next to the driveway. He asks you recommend one. Which would you recommend: Black Eyed Susan or Shooting Star?
[Answer]
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40. What characteristic of ovifera or egg gourds made them so valuable to the prairie people of antiquity?
[Answer]
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1. ...settlers called it 'ripgut' grass.
Cordgrass or Sloughgrass, Spartina pectinata. They gave it that name for what it did to their horses. Anyone who has ever walked through a stand of cordgrass would certainly understand.
. 3. True or False. Corn or maize cultivation came up the Mississippi River from South American via he Gulf of Mexico.False. Maize cultivation had a roundabout journey to the tall grass prairie peninsula by way of the western states. And it was more or less rediscovered or reinvented at each step along the way. Innovation does not diffuse effectively in a north-south direction.
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5. ...tiny five part seedheadGoosefoot, Chenopodium
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7. ...has leaves that, like those of compass plant, tend to face an east-west direction.
Prairie Dock, Silphium terebinthinaceum Jacq.
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9. ...cultivated 7,000 years ago on the prairie...
Ozark Wild ‘Egg’ Gourd, Cucurbita pepo var. ovifera or Cucurbita pepo ssp. ovifera var. ozarkana
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11. ...unwelcome invader often mistaken for thistle.
Cut-leaved Teasel, Dipsacus laciniatus
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13. ...8,000 year old sandals
If you need another hint, here is a detail of a leaf:
[Answer]
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...8,000 year old sandals
If you need another hint, here is a detail of a leaf:
Rattlesnake Master, Eryngium yuccifolium
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15. True or false. A sumpweed forager/cultivator will, intentionally or not, tend to harvest more thick coated seeds than thin coated seeds.
False. Thin coated seeds will tend to germinate and be ready to harvest at the same time, so more of them will be harvested than of the thick coated seeds that germinate at various times.
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17. ...turkey foot seed head..."
Big Blue Stem, Andropogon gerardii
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19. ...Helianthus with roots foraged in antiquity and grown as a cash crop today.
Jerusalem Artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus
. 21. ...might have gold in it (or might not)..."
Horsetail, Equisetum. Because the stalk is so gritty with minerals (crafters today use it to clean gourds and pumpkins without scratching them) you can believe, if you want to, that among those minerals might be gold.
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23. ...knotweed (Polygonum) seeds that are conical in shape
P. erectum
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25. ...known as panic grass for its large, open, panicle seadhead.
Switchgrass, Panicum virgatum
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26. What prairie grass has this ligule:
Indian Grass, Sorghastrum nutans
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27. ...purple hedgehog flower.
Purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea
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28. What's the grass that grows in compacted driveways and roadsides and that was cultivated 2,500 years ago?
Little Barley, Hordeum pusillum
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29.
Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum) [next question]
. 30. ...a favorite plant of cordage makers --and butterflies.
Butterfly Milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa
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31.
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) flower
33.
Close-up of a Giant Ragweed (Ambrosia trifida) seedhead
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5. If the pollen of this plant is found in an archaeological sample, the sample documents a disturbed area, not undisturbed or unsettled prairie.
Giant Ragweed, Ambrosia trifida. (And if the area was disturbed, this plant will probably have been there.)
. 32. ...cultivated 4,000 years ago for its oily seed
Sunflower, Helianthus annus
. 34. ...a cloud of tiny pink roses
Queen of the Prairie, Filipendula rubra
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35. ...looks like a slender, branched out milkweed with a skinny "green bean" pod.
Indian Hemp or Dogbane, Apocynum cannabinum
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36.
Horsetail (Equisetum)
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37. True or false. Alluvial flood plain or mudflat plants were those most heavily exploited by tall grass prairie aboriginals.
False. Alluvial flood plain or mudflat plants were not used aboriginally, nor did they figure appreciably in the development of agriculture. This is true not only for North America but for Egypt and Mesopotamia. (Really? Tell me more.)
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Admittedly, the Egyptian empire was the "gift of the Nile," a gift in the form of an alluvial flood plain created by the annual flooding of that river. Annual floods also figure prominently in the even earlier prehistory and history -- and the mystique -- of Mesopotamia and very old cities such as Jericho.
In the early and mid 1990's people tried to make the development of North American agriculture fit this Old World model, even though it simply did not fit the facts. Alluvial flood plains account for only a miniscule portion of this "cradle of agriculture," and none of the plants that were domesticated were essentially alluvial flood plain plants. Sumpweed grows on the margins of alluvial flood plains but is more a bottomland prairie plant. Sunflower is a bottomland/upland plant. Chenopodium berlandieri thrives in prairie bottomlands but is more at home in the high plains and dry contexts. It thrives in Death Valley.
Moreover, once the insights gained from studying very early North American agriculture were applied to Old World agriculture a different picture emerged. The three plants that were the basis for the Mesopotamian agricultural revolution -- emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, and barley -- are native, not to alluvial soils, but to uplands.
By the end of the 1990's the alluvial flood plain theories of agriculture were pretty much abandoned even by its staunchest defenders. The domestication of both plants and animals was seen as happening, not on alluvial flood plains, but on grasslands.
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38. What is this?
Prairie Dropseed, Sporobolus heterolepsis
. 39. Your nine year old neighbor saw a documentary on the prairie and wants to plant some prairie wildflowers next to the driveway. He asks you recommend one. Which would you recommend: Black Eyed Susan or Shooting Star?
Black Eyed Susan. It is an early colonizer, hardy, and adaptable. Its blooms last a long time. It's probably the favorite "wildflower."
The Shooting Star has a much more precise niche and is much more delicate than is probably going to be appropriate for a nine year old boy. (It's delicate beauty is remarkable, though.)
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40. What characteristic of ovifera or egg gourds made them so valuable to the prairie people of antiquity?
The shell protected the seeds literally for years so those seeds could be foraged any time within that period.
This concludes the "blitz quiz" on prairie plants. Hope you enjoyed it.
2. What is this?
Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa)
4. What is this?
Compass Plant (Silphium laciniatum)
6. What is this?
Indian Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum)
8.
Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra)
. 10.
Little Barley (Hordeum pusillum) seed head after the tip has started breaking off.
12.
Egg gourd (Cucurbita pepo var. ovifera) seeds with some of the pulpy mass still attached.
14.
Cattails (Typha latifolia), of course.
16.
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
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18.
Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
20.
Indian Hemp (Apocynum cannabinum)
22.
Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium)
24.
Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosum)