![]() ![]() The author Peter Goodchild reports giant ragwee seeds were a source of grainĪn article on the plant at Michigan State University for the W.J.Beal Botanical Garden says: “…some archaeologists have suggested that … the seeds were impractical as a food source. What about humans eating the hard seeds or foliage? There’s a lot of speculation but few hard facts. ![]() Sheep and horses also like to eat the plant. It’s on the menu for the Eastern Cottontail, Meadow Vole, grasshoppers which eat the leaves, Dark-eyed Junco, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Bobwhite, Purple Finch, Mourning Dove, American Goldfinch, and the Red-bellied Woodpecker. In fact Ragweed is one of the few seed-bearing plants that stands above deep snow providing valuable creature food during the winter. But we know animals certainly ate them and still do. Another study says no reporting that there are large seeds in nature as well. One study says yes because the seeds that were found were larger than found in nature. One debate in the ethnobotanical community is whether the natives cultivated a huge version of Giant Ragweed or not. And unlike soybean which has to be cultivated, Ragweed is a weed that can do all right on its own. Oil would have been extremely important to native populations and could be again if we were ever forced to provide our own food. You absolutely cannot live without some source of fat. While one could argue this is much to do over some oil but fat is essential to survival. ![]()
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