Peaches were introduced to the Americas via Spanish colonization during the late 16th and 17th centuries, but their spread outpaced that of Europeans. By the mid-to-late 17th centuries, colonists venturing further into the interior of the continent encountered dense peach orchards that included new varieties cultivated by Indigenous communities. For Indigenous Americans, peaches became both culturally and economically important heritage that they carried with them during the forced relocations of the 19th century, which further spread the crop. Despite the environmental and cultural impact of peaches in America, the biogeography of their spread and influence has remained ambiguous owing to a lack of fine-grained chronological data. Writing in Nature Communications in September 2024, an interdisciplinary team of authors, including members of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, report what are currently the earliest absolute dates for preserved peach pits in North America and map the Indigenous spread of peaches across the region over time. Holland-Lulewicz et al. synthesized new radiocarbon dates on peach pits with archaeological data and contemporary historical accounts to demonstrate a 100-year lag between initial Spanish contact in 1513 and the onset of Indigenous cultivation in the Oconee Valley. Following that lag, Indigenous sociopolitical structures then facilitated rapid spread within the following half-century, and peach cultivation was coopted into the ecological niche created by centuries of forest management and arboriculture. The authors note that the complexities of early European colonialism involving Indigenous labour taxation would also have had a role in the diffusion of peaches, and suggest that similar research into the spread of other contemporary plants and foods will help us to understand how Indigenous histories have shaped modern ecologies. We highlight this paper in our Year in Review collection as an example of how interdisciplinary collaboration and ways of knowing can elucidate ecological histories of culturally and economically important plants.
Original reference: Nat. Commun. 15, 8245 (2024)
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