Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2017 Seeds as Artifacts of Communities of Practice: The Domestication of Erect Knotweed in Eastern North America Natalie Graham Mueller Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Botany Commons, and the History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons Recommended Citation Mueller, Natalie Graham, "Seeds as Artifacts of Communities of Practice: The omeD stication of Erect Knotweed in Eastern North America" (2017). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1133. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/1133 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Anthropology Dissertation Examination Committee: Gayle J. Fritz (Chair) Tristram R. Kidder Xinyi Liu Fiona Marshall Kenneth Olsen Seeds as Artifacts of Communities of Practice: The Domestication of Erect Knotweed in Eastern North America by Natalie G. Mueller A dissertation presented to The Graduate School of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2017 St. Louis, Missouri © 2017, Natalie G. Mueller Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... ix Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ xiii 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Archaeological Background .................................................................................................. 3 1.2 Erect Knotweed Background ................................................................................................ 8 1.3 Summary of Results ............................................................................................................ 11 1.4 References ........................................................................................................................... 14 2. An Extinct Domesticated Subspecies of Erect Knotweed in Eastern North America: Polygonum erectum L. subsp. watsoniae (Polygonaceae) ............................................................ 22 2.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Polygonaceae Systematics and Potential Progenitor Taxa .................................................. 27 2.3 Achene Morphology and Dimorphism ................................................................................ 33 2.4 Materials and Methods ........................................................................................................ 35 2.5 Results and Discussion ........................................................................................................ 39 2.6 Taxonomic Treatment ......................................................................................................... 45 2.6.1. Diagnosis. ........................................................................................................................ 45 2.6.2 Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 45 2.7 References ........................................................................................................................... 46 3. Documenting Domestication in a Lost Crop ( Polygonum erectum L.): Evolutionary Bet- Hedgers under Cultivation ............................................................................................................ 50 3.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 50 3.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 51 ii 3.3 Recognizing domestication syndrome in knotweed ............................................................ 52 3.4 The hypothetical effects of human mediated selection on fruit heteromorphism ............... 55 3.5 The hypothetical effects of human mediated selection on fruit or seed size ....................... 56 3.6 Materials and Methods ........................................................................................................ 58 3.6.1. The Archaeological Photosample.................................................................................... 58 3.6.2 The Herbarium Photosample. ........................................................................................... 60 3.6.3 Morphometrics and non-metric criteria............................................................................ 62 3.7 Results ................................................................................................................................. 65 3.8 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 74 3.9 Conclusions ......................................................................................................................... 79 3.10 References ......................................................................................................................... 80 4. Evolutionary Bet-Hedgers under Cultivation: Investigating the Domestication of Erect Knotweed ( Polygonum erectum L.) using Growth Experiments .................................................. 89 4.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 89 4.2 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 90 4.3 Reducing Germination Heteromorphism: Bet-Hedgers under Cultivation ......................... 93 4.3 Materials and Methods ........................................................................................................ 96 4.3.1 Herbarium and Field Survey. ........................................................................................... 96 4.4 Growth Experiments ......................................................................................................... 100 4.5 Results ............................................................................................................................... 101 4.5.1 Survey population descriptions. ..................................................................................... 101 4.5.2 Seasonal composition of harvests. ................................................................................. 105 4.5.3 Germination Heteromorphism and Early Growth. ......................................................... 106 4.5.4 Plant spacing and yields. ................................................................................................ 109 4.5.5 Harvest morphology ....................................................................................................... 109 4.6 Implications: Reconstructing Agricultural Practice in the Eastern Woodlands ................ 111 4.6.1 Adaptive transgenerational plasticity. ............................................................................ 111 4.6.2 Domestication................................................................................................................. 114 4.7 Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 118 4.8 References ......................................................................................................................... 120 iii 5. Carbonization, Differential Preservation, and Sampling Biases in Domestication Studies: An Erect Knotweed ( Polygonum erectum L.) Case Study ............................................................... 127 5.1 Abstract ............................................................................................................................. 127 5.2 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 128 5.3 Carbonization Background ................................................................................................ 132 5.4 Materials and Methods ...................................................................................................... 135 5.5 Carbonization experiments: Results