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Table of Contents

• Iowa’s Earliest Residents
  • Rummells-Maske Site
  • Carlisle Cache
• Prairie Peninsula in Iowa Over the Last 18,000 Years
• Cast of Plants
  • Sunflower
  • Little Barley
  • Goosefoot or Lamb’s Quarters
  • Marshelder or Sumpweed
  • Erect Knotweed
  • Maygrass
  • Gourds and Squashes
  • Maize or Corn
  • Beans
  • Tobacco
• How Do We Know?
• Cultivated or Domesticated?
• Major References for Crops of Ancient Iowa

Maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana Walter)

Maygrass is an annual native grass found throughout the southern U.S. It is a winter annual with starchy seeds that ripen in May and June. Maygrass seeds are difficult to distinguish from a closely related perennial, reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea). Reed canary grass is indigenous to Iowa while maygrass is not. Most archaeological discoveries found in Iowa are considered likely to represent cultivated maygrass rather than reed canary grass.

Maygrass seeds found in paleofeces from dry caves in Kentucky directly demonstrate that the plant was part of the prehistoric diet. The seeds are high in carbohydrates, low in fat, and a rich source of dietary iron and thiamin. It has a higher protein content than other starchy and oily seeded plants and nuts used by Woodland peoples. Like other starchy-seeded plants, maygrass was probably prepared by parching and boiling. The seeds may also have been ground.

Maygrass first occurs in Late Archaic sites dating 2,000—3,000 years old. In Iowa cultivated maygrass appears in 2,000 year old Middle Woodland contexts at sites like Gast Farm (13LA12) and Sand Run West (13LA38.) It was cultivated into the late prehistoric period.

Major References

Asch, David and William Green 1992
Crites, Gary D. and R. Dale Terry 1984
Green, William and Shelly Gradwell 1995

Iowa Sites

Site Number	Major Reference	Family	Genus and Species	Iowa Culture
13AM403	Powell, 2005	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris caroliniana	O
13BV1	Jones, 1993	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris caroliniana	MC
13CK15	Jones, 1993	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris caroliniana	MC
13DA264	Asch, 1996	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris sp.	GO
13LA1	Hollinger, 1999; 2005	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris sp.	O
13LA12	Dunne, 2002; Hodgson, 1992	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris sp.	MW/ELW
13LA38	Asch and Green, 1992	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris caroliniana	MW/LW
13LA309	Powell, 2001	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris caroliniana	LW
13LE110	Zalucha, 1999	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris sp.	MLW
13LE117B	Zalucha, 1999	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris sp.	ELW
13WD88	Dunne, 2005	GRAMINEAE or POACEAE	Phalaris sp.	GO

 

Key

MW	Middle Woodland
ELW	Early Late Woodland
MLW	Middle Late Woodland
LW	Late Woodland
GO	Great Oasis
MC	Mill Creek
O	Oneota

Two photographs of maygrass

 

Image credit:
Larry Allain @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database
Melanie Riley and Mary Kathryn Rocheford, OSA (map)