phytolith

botany

Learn about this topic in these articles:

In origins of agriculture: Research techniques
Phytoliths are microscopic silica bodies produced by many plants; as a plant grows, an individual phytolith forms in a cell to aid in the physical support of the plant structure. Each phytolith retains the shape of the cell in which it was formed, and these…
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In origins of agriculture: South America
Lowland sites have yielded the phytoliths of domesticated plants such as bottle gourd (Lageneria siceraria), squash, and corn that date to between 8000 and 7000 bp. However, this evidence is controversial because phytoliths cannot yet be directly dated.
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