It might have been the cold Spring, but we have an amazing crop of Wapato in the Gardens this year.  Wapato (Sagittaria latifolia) is an herb found in open wet areas. A member of the Alismataceae Family, its range includes most of North America. Archeological findings suggest Wapato farming when the Egyptians were building their pyramids (see the suburb of Vancouver, BC, Pitt Meadows Road, URL below). If you read the last URL, page through the #1-#5 selections about the other type of potato, part of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. Solanum tuberosum is a root vegetable native to the Americas.  Legends suggest the Athabascans and Tlingit once grew potatoes, allowing for high populations like found in Ireland.  Carbon dating of Peru’s potato uses go back 8,000 years. Why not on Alaska’s western edge?  Potatoes require winter storage and care; perhaps they too were extinguished by a tsunami?  This is important because calories per acre of planting are 18, 12, 6, 2 for potatoes, corn, wheat, and soybeans respectively.  Potatoes support large human populations that we suspect may have once populated the Pacific Coast.  Before you say “speculation,” what is taught today is speculation also.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittaria_latifolia
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=sagittaria+latifolia 
https://www.sfu.ca/archaeology-old/museum/peb/wapato1.html 
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/northwests-earliest-garden-discovered-british-columbia-180961560 
https://www.archaeology.org/issues/374-2003/letter-from/8449-four-corners-potato?fbclid=IwAR1ylM2mPsYbbFsp6DCg56KU64xCjFDiPdcoJBDSXyz4NGJ7sUnkY7Mtl-8#art_page5

Lewis & Clark’s diaries suggest they were saved from starvation when they passed by the Portland confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers filled for many square miles with Wapato beds.  What part of this plant did the Native Indigenous farms produce for food?

leaves
bulbs
stems

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