This Web site presents data collected by Dr. Deborah M. Pearsall and students at the University of Missouri's Paleoethnobotany Laboratory during the Phytoliths in the Flora of Ecuador project. The lab operates as part of the American Archaeology Division, which is under the direction of Dr. Michael J. O'Brien.

Phytoliths in the Flora of Ecuador has been funded by the National Science Foundation Archaeometry Program.

The first phase of the project, Methodology for Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction, from 1997-2000, involved the creation of a database of significant phytoliths from tropical South American plant taxa and some important New World domesticated plants. The second phase of the project, Establishing Vegetation Signatures and a Key to Diagnostics, from 2004-2007, included the identification of important root, tuber, and fruit taxa through starch grains and phytoliths.

The Supplementary Materials link will take you to a set of tables compiled from recent literature showing phytolith production in various plants, as well as a table summarizing the findings of the first phase of the project. We include some tables and photographs from a recent article by D. Pearsall, K. Chandler-Ezell, and A Chandler-Ezell: Identifying Maize in Neotropical Sediments and Soils Using Cob Phytoliths, Journal of Archaeological Science, vol: 30 2003.

You will also find supplementary figures and tables for the article by K. Chandler-Ezell, D. Pearsall, and J. Zeidler Root and Tuber Phytoliths and Starch Grains Document Manioc (Manihot escuelenta), Arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), and Lleren (Calathea sp.) at the Real Alto Site, Ecuador, Economic Botany, vol: 60(2) 2006.

For users of Tilia and Tilia·Graph, we have two Tilia Guides available for download.  Please note, however, that Tilia's author, Eric Grimm, has updated the programs.

Finally, if you would like to find out more about the people who work in the Paleoethnobotany Laboratory, click the Who We Are link.

 

How to cite this web site:

Pearsall, Deborah M. "Phytoliths in the Flora of Ecuador: the University of Missouri Online Phytolith Database." [http://www.missouri.edu/~umcasphyto]. With contributions by Ann Biddle, Dr. Karol Chandler Ezell, Shawn Collins, Neil Duncan, Amanda Logan, Meghann O'Brien, Sara Stewart, Cesar Veintimilla, Dr. Zhijun Zhao, and Bill Grimm. May 2008.