12-01-2017, 08:59 PM
(12-01-2017, 08:50 PM)Koen Gh. wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.The quotes you selected seem very theory-driven, rather forced to prove a certain point. (And the little green critter nearby would make a much better alligator).
I guess an American theory is possible, with many "if's". I'd need much more solid cultural/historical evidence before I'd believe any of those plant IDs.
Some of the plant IDs might be correct, since there are plants that originate in both the New and Old World, but I just read an assertion in the article that the plant IDs somehow prove that they are New World plants.
Given the great amount of overlap between New and Old World plants (especially if you include plants that look the same on both continents even if they are different species), I don't think anyone can make the assertion from plant IDs alone that they come from the New World.
Even though I like the idea of a possible New World origin and have tried for a long time to find evidence for it, I can't convince myself that they are New World plants because there's a pretty clear picture of Ricinus in the VMS. If it's Ricinus (I'm about 80% sure that it is), it didn't exist in the New World until the 16th century when colonists brought it over.