This is a lovely video from Eric Toensmeier on the Eastern Agricultural Complex – a collection of native American plants that were domesticated and wild cultivated before the arrival of the Mesoamerican squashes, beans and corn that we think of as the traditional American crops. (If you’d like to read more about the traditional cultivation of these ‘Three Sisters’, then have a look at Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden.)

The labels zip by quite fast, so this is a list of the plants mentioned in the film.


  • Sunflower, Helianthus annus, still a popular crop worldwide used for oil production.

  • Amaranths, Amaranthus spp., still widely grown for greens or grain.

  • Chenopods such as lamb’s quarters and quinoa. The one shown in the film is Chenopodium berlandieri, huauzontle – used in Mexico as a broccoli.

  • Panic grass, Panicum sonorum

  • Little Barley, Hordeum pusillum

  • Hog peanut, Amphicarpa bracteata

  • Perennial wild bean, Phaseolus polystachias

  • Woolly bean, Strophostyles helvola

  • Groundnut, Apios americana

  • Jerusalem artichoke, Helianthus tuberosus

  • Black nightshade, Solanum ptychanthum

  • Perennial ground cherry, Physalis longifolia

  • Maypop, Passiflora incarnata

  • Pepo squashes, Cucurbita pepo, domesticated before the arrival of the Mesoamerican squashes

  • Bottle gourd, Lagenaria siceraria, brought to the Americas over 10,000 years ago – and already domesticated.

The domestication of these plants was largely abandoned when the more-developed crops arrived from the south. But as Eric points out, these were once thought worthy of domestication and development, and could the important food crops of the future.