Chenopodium is a flowering plant that includes about 250 separate species which are native throughout the world. It is considered one of the most highly nutritious plants in the world, and is rich in protein, dietary fiber, fat, ash and a raft of useful minerals. Several different subspecies of chenopodium were independently domesticated at least half a dozen times all over the planet.

Most domestic forms of chenopodium were and are grown as a grain (or pseudo-cereal) crop, although some, like C. nuttalliae in central America, are also used as a spinach-like vegetable.


The oldest form identified to date is the South American form called quinoa developed in the Andes mountains about 7500 years ago; it eventually reached North America ca 1200 AD. But there is no doubt that other forms were independently domesticated, rather than spread by trade or adoption.

• China and Himalayas (C. giganteum), known locally as taak, bithua, khan, Longshan culture, ~2400-1900 BC
• Europe (C. album), lambsquarters, fat hen, European Iron Age, ~800-51 BC
• Mesoamerica (C. berlandieri ssp nuttalliae) chia, huautzontle, quelite or kelite
• Eastern North America (C. berlandieri ssp jonesianum) goosefoot, American Archaic, 1800 BC
• South America (C. pallidicaule) cañahua, kaniwa, Formative Andes, 1800 BC-AD 400
• South America (C. quinoa) quinoa, Las Pircas phase in Pre-ceramic Peru, 6500-3000 BC

Chenopodium in Eastern North America (ENA)

Two chenopodium species were domesticated in Eastern North America from local C. berlandieri. C. berlandieri ssp jonesianum is an identified cultigen which is dark in color and has a reduced seed coat.

In wild C. berlandieri, the seed coat, at 25-80 microns in thickness, takes up as much as 30% of the seed weight. The domestic seed coat is much thinner (under 20 microns).

The second species, which has not as yet been described as a separate taxon, is lighter in color and lacks the typical hard, black outer layer.

Domestic chenopod was deliberately cultivated from Arkansas to eastern Kentucky, and from northern Alabama north to central Ohio. It was an important and primary staple crop until about AD 900, when intensive maize-based agriculture became established in most of the midwest and southeast. The earliest chenopodium in North America to date was found at the Riverton site in southeastern Illinois, where both forms were discovered in deposits dated to 1800 BC. Wild chenopodium has been identified at several sites in the American southeast which date to at least 6000 BC, and perhaps a bit longer ago.

DNA studies (Kistler et al.) were recently conducted on chenopodium samples including modern samples throughout North America and Mesoamerica, and ancient samples from the Cloudsplitter and Haystack sites in Kentuky and the Holman site in Arkansas. These support the contention that North American chenopodium was locally domesticated, rather than imported as a domesticate.

Archaeological sites important to ENA chenopodium include Riverton (Illinois), Russell Cave (Alabama), Ash Cave (Ohio), Edens Bluff (Arkansas), and Salts Cave (Kentucky).

Sources

This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to the Plant Domestication, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.

Bruno MC. 2008. A morphological approach to documenting the domestication of Chenopodium in the Andes. In: Zeder MA, Bradley DG, Emshwiller E, and Smith BD, editors. Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms. Berkeley: University of California Press. p 32-45.

Kistler L, and Shapiro B. 2011. Ancient DNA confirms a local origin of domesticated chenopod in eastern North America.Journal of Archaeological Science 38(12):3549-3554.

Langlie BS, Hastorf CA, Bruno MC, Bermann M, Bonzani RM, and Condarco WC. 2011. Diversity In Andean Chenopodium Domestication: Describing A New Morphological Type From La Barca, Bolivia 1300-1250 B.C.Journal of Ethnobiology 31(1):72-88.

Lee G-A, Crawford GW, Liu L, and Chen X. 2007. Plants and people from the Early Neolithic to Shang periods in North China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(3):1087-1092.

López L, Capparelli A, and Nielsen A. 2011. Traditional post-harvest processing to make quinoa grains (Chenopodium quinoa var. quinoa) apt for consumption in Northern Lipez (Potosí, Bolivia): ethnoarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses.Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 3(1):49-70.

Gremillion KJ. 2004. Seed Processing and the Origins of Food Production in Eastern North America. American Antiquity 69(2):215-234.

Maughan PJ, Kolano BA, Maluszynska J, Coles ND, Bonifacio A, Rojas J, Coleman CE, Stevens MR, Fairbanks DJ, Parkinson SE et al. 2006. Molecular and cytological characterization of ribosomal RNA genes in Chenopodium quinoa and Chenopodium berlandieri.Genome 49:825-839.

Ruas P, Bonifacio A, Ruas CF, Fairbanks DJ, and Andersen WR. 1999. Genetic relationship among 19 accessions of six species of Chenopodium L. by Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA fragments (RAPD). Euphytics 105:25-32.

Smith BD, and Cowan CW. 1987. Domesticated Chenopodium in Prehistoric Eastern North America: New Accelerator Dates from Eastern Kentucky.American Antiquity 52(2):355-357.

Stokes P, and Rowley-Conwy P. 2002. Iron Age Cultigen? Experimental Return Rates for Fat Hen (Chenopodium album L.) Environmental Archaeology 7(95-99).

Yawadio Nsimba R, Kikuzaki H, and Konishi Y. 2008. Antioxidant activity of various extracts and fractions of Chenopodium quinoa and Amaranthus spp. seeds.Food Chemistry 106(2):760-766.