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Early Holocene Pecan, Carya Illinoensis, in the Mississippi River Valley Near Muscatine, Iowa☆

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

E. Arthur Bettis III ,
Richard G. Baker ,
Brenda K. Nations  and
David W. Benn
E. Arthur Bettis III
Affiliation:
Iowa Department of Natural Resources-Geological Survey Bureau, 123 North Capitol, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 USA
Richard G. Baker
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 USA Department of Botany, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 USA
Brenda K. Nations
Affiliation:
Iowa Department of Natural Resources-Geological Survey Bureau, 123 North Capitol, Iowa City, Iowa 52242 USA
David W. Benn
Affiliation:
Center for Archaeological Research, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri 65804 USA
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Abstract

A fossil pecan, Carya illinoensis (Wang.) K. Koch, from floodplain sediments of the Mississippi River near Muscatine, Iowa, was accelerator-dated at 7280 ± 120 yr B.P. This discovery indicates that pecan was at or near its present northern limit by that time. Carya pollen profiles from the Mississippi River Trench indicate that hickory pollen percentages were much higher in the valley than at upland locations during the early Holocene. Pecan, the hickory with the most restricted riparian habitat, is the likely candidate for producing these peaks in Carya pollen percentages. Therefore, pecan may have reached its northern limit as early as 10,300 yr B.P. Its abundance in Early Archaic archaeological sites and the co-occurrence of early Holocene Carya pollen peaks with the arrival of the Dalton artifact complex in the Upper Mississippi Valley suggest that humans may have played a role in the early dispersal of pecan.

Type
Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 102 - 107
Copyright
University of Washington

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Footnotes

☆

Iowa Quaternary Studies Group Contribution No. 24.

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