''Iva annua'', the annual marsh elder or sumpweed, is a North American

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical ...

in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

that was historically cultivated by Native Americans for its

edible seed An edible seed is a seed that is suitable for human or animal consumption. Of the six major plant parts, seeds are the dominant source of human calories and protein. A wide variety of plant species provide edible seeds; most are Flowering plant, a ...

Description

''Iva annua'' is an annual herb up to 150 cm (5 feet) tall. The plant produces many small flower heads in a narrow, elongated, spike-like array, each head with 11–17 disc florets but no ray florets.

Distribution

It is native to northeastern Mexico (

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

) and to the central and southern United States, primarily the

Great Plains The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...

and

Mississippi Valley The Mississippi River is the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest Drainage system (geomorphology), drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson B ...

as far north as

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

. There are some populations in the eastern US, but these appear to represent introductions.

Uses

''Iva annua'' was cultivated for its edible seed by Native Americans around 4,000 years ago in the central and eastern United States as part of the

Eastern Agricultural Complex The Eastern Agricultural Complex in the woodlands of eastern North America was one of about 10 independent centers of plant domestication in the pre-historic world. Incipient agriculture dates back to about 5300 BCE. By about 1800 BCE the Native ...

. It was especially important to the indigenous peoples of the

Kansas City Hopewell The Kansas City Hopewell were the farthest west regional variation of the Hopewell tradition of the Middle Woodland period (100 BCE – 700 CE). Sites were located in Kansas and Missouri around the mouth of the Kansas River where it enters the M ...

culture in present-day

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. The edible parts contain 32 percent protein and 45 percent oil. However, like its relative

ragweed Ragweeds are flowering plants in the genus ''Ambrosia'' in the aster family, Asteraceae. They are distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, especially North America,allergen An allergen is a type of antigen that produces an abnormally vigorous immune response in which the immune system fights off a perceived threat that would otherwise be harmless to the body. Such reactions are called allergies. In technical terms ...

and possessing a disagreeable odor. Probably for these reasons it was abandoned after more pleasant alternatives (such as

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...

) were available and, by the time Europeans arrived in the Americas, had long disappeared as a crop.

References

External links

* *
Plants Profile for ''Iva annua'' (annual marsh elder)

Germplasm Resources Information Network−GRIN: treatment of ''Iva annua''
* Includes photographs.
Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6095678 annua Pseudocereals Flora of the Great Plains (North America) Flora of the United States Flora of the South-Central United States Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of the Great Lakes region (North America) Flora of the Appalachian Mountains Flora of Tamaulipas Flora of Veracruz Edible nuts and seeds Crops originating from Pre-Columbian North America Native American cuisine of the Southeastern Woodlands Pre-Columbian Great Plains cuisine Crops originating from the United States Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora without expected TNC conservation status

Description

Distribution

Uses

See also

References

External links