On Wednesday January 12 at 5:00 PM, Wendy Hodgson will present: Agaves in the Southwestern United States:  Discovering Lost Crops Among the Hohokam and Other Pre-Contact Arizona Cultures.

Ms. Hodgson is the Herbarium Curator Emerita and Senior Research Botanist at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix.  According to her, “Researchers have long recognized the importance of Agaves to MesoAmerica and its cultures.  However, their significance to these cultures has overshadowed and distorted the plants’ role for indigenous peoples in the Borderland region, which includes Arizona.  Pre-European contact farmers grew no less than six and possibly as many as eight or more domesticated Agaves in Arizona dating to at least A.D. 600. DNA sequence data, in addition to plant morphology, suggest that at least three may have originated in Arizona, suggesting the state as a secondary center of domestication.”

Due to the current surge in COVID cases, this presentation will be virtual.

To join the Zoom simulcast, click on the following link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83273595508?pwd=bGNqNTcwOEh6aTJZcE9wYXZUVmR4dz09

The webinar Passcode is: 012022