Wildflowers, Trees, and Grasses (and a Few Birds) in Texas Archeology

“The Texas flora and fauna we enjoy today have millennia-deep relationships with the indigenous people of Texas,” according to paleoethnobotanist Dr. Leslie Bush. Indigenous people relied upon the plants in their environment for food, fiber, basketry, dyes, medicine, weaponry and more.

Paleoethnobotanists, says Dr. Bush, “identify bits of plants preserved in archeological sites, usually in the form of charcoal and occasionally as waterlogged or desiccated plant parts.” In her presentation to the HLBWS at its January 5 meeting, Dr. Bush will outline how archeologists recover and identify plant remains. Then she will home in on those plants that were used in Central Texas for food and other purposes. She also will highlight a few particularly interesting bird “finds” along the way.

Dr. Bush is the owner/operator of a consulting practice, Macrobotanical Analysis. She earned a PhD in Archeology from Indiana University-Bloomington and has almost 20 years’ experience identifying and analyzing plant macroremains. She has worked on archeological sites in 19 states.

The presentation is on Thursday, January 5, 2023, at the AgriLife Extension Service, 607 N. Vandeveer, in Burnet. Doors open at 9:30 a.m., a brief business meeting starts at 10:00 a.m., and Dr. Bush’s presentation follows immediately. The meeting is open to the public.

Plans for the morning include a pre-meeting bird walk at 8:00 a.m. in Haley Nelson Park, off Hwy. 29, weather permitting.