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Offi cial Publication of the Botanical Society of America, Inc.www.amjbot.org

April 2014 Volume 101 Number 4

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Table of Contents

April 2014 · Volume 101 · Number 4

Cover Illustration: Plazas de mercado (open-air markets) in Puerto Rico, such as the one shown here in San Juan (Río Piedras), are highly diverse. The crops, grown in Puerto Rico or neighboring tropical countries, play a major role in Puerto Rican cuisine. As Puerto Ricans have migrated to many areas of the continental U.S., including the city of Hartford, Connecticut, which is climatically, agriculturally and culturally very different from Puerto Rico, they have carried their cuisine with them. In “Key plants preserve elements of culture: A study over distance and time of fresh crops in Puerto Rican markets in Hartford, Connecticut, ‘A moveable feast’” in this issue on pp. 624–636, Taylor and Anderson studied the conservation of Puerto Rican cuisine through surveys of Puerto Rican fresh produce markets in Hartford over time, 18 years, and space, by comparisons with source markets in Puerto Rico. In this transmillennial study, 84 plant crops (64 species; 32 families) were recorded for seven categories. The largest category was viandas (fresh, starchy “root” crops and immature fruits), followed by saborizantes (flavorings). The Puerto Rican community of Hartford demonstrated an extraordinary conservation of fresh crops, with most conserved in Hartford over the nearly two decades of this study and between Hartford and markets in Puerto Rico. The results led to two new concepts. The persistence of these largely tropical foods in a temperate market far removed from insular, tropical Puerto Rico shows the importance of basic foods as an element of cultural identification. The authors recognize this stability as an example of their newly coined concept of “culinary cultural conservation.” Second, their analysis of these fresh produce markets led to the conclusion that viandas, such as those highlighted in the cover image, are the most prominent in diversity, persistence over time and distance, volume, and in terms of consumers’ “willingness to pay.” Accordingly, they consider the viandas as a good example of their second new concept, a “cultural keystone food group,” a food group that is emblematic of a community’s culinary conservation. Image credit: David W. Taylor.

AJB Centennial ReviewRepeated evolution of tricellular (and bicellular) pollen

JOSEPH H. WILLIAMS, MACKENZIE L. TAYLOR, AND BRIAN C. O’MEARA 559

Anatomy and MorphologyComparative development of rare cases of a polycarpellate gynoecium in an otherwise monocarpellate family, Leguminosae

JULIANA VILLELA PAULINO, GERHARD PRENNER, VIDAL FREITAS MANSANO, AND SIMONE PÁDUA TEIXEIRA 572

Floral colleters in Pleurothallidinae (Epidendroideae: Orchidaceae)POLIANA CARDOSO-GUSTAVSON, LISA M. CAMPBELL, SOLANGE C. MAZZONI-VIVEIROS, AND FÁBIO DE BARROS 587

Freezing regime and trade-offs with water transport effi ciency generate variation in xylem structure across diploid populations of Larrea sp. (Zygophyllaceae)

JULIANA S. MEDEIROS AND WILLIAM T. POCKMAN 598Gelatinous fi bers and variant secondary growth related to stem undulation and contraction in a monkey ladder vine, Bauhinia glabra (Fabaceae)

JACK B. FISHER AND MARIO A. BLANCO 608

EcologyInterspecifi c differences in whole-plant respiration vs. biomass scaling relationships: A case study using evergreen conifer and angiosperm tree seedlings

DONGLIANG CHENG, KARL J. NIKLAS, QUANLIN ZHONG, YUSHENG YANG, AND JIANHUA ZHANG 617

Economic BotanyKey plants preserve elements of culture: A study over distance and time of fresh crops in Puerto Rican markets in Hartford, Connecticut, “A moveable feast”

DAVID W. TAYLOR AND GREGORY J. ANDERSON 624

Evolution and PhylogenyAllopatric diversifi cation, multiple habitat shifts, and hybridization in the evolution of Pericallis (Asteraceae), a Macaronesian endemic genus

KATY E. JONES, J. ALFREDO REYES-BETANCORT, SIMON J. HISCOCK, AND MARK A. CARINE 637

A comparison of 16 DNA regions for use as phylogenetic markers in the pleurocarpous moss genus Plagiothecium (Hypnales)

JUSTIN T. WYNNS AND CONNY B. ASMUSSEN LANGE 652Phylogeny, character evolution, and biogeography of Cuscuta (dodders; Convolvulaceae) inferred from coding plastid and nuclear sequences

MIGUEL A. GARCÍA, MIHAI COSTEA, MARIA KUZMINA, AND SAŠA STEFANOVIĆ� 670

Table of Contents CONTINUED

A plastid DNA phylogeny of tribe Miliuseae: Insights into relationships and character evolution in one of the most recalcitrant major clades of Annonaceae

TANAWAT CHAOWASKU, DANIEL C. THOMAS, RAYMOND W.J.M. VAN DER HAM, ERIK F. SMETS, JOHAN B. MOLS, AND LARS W. CHATROU 691

Systematics and PhytogeographyClimate niche modeling in the perennial Glycine (Leguminosae) allopolyploid complex

ROBERT S. HARBERT, ANTHONY H. D. BROWN, AND JEFF J. DOYLE 710

Brief CommunicationComparative analysis of complete chloroplast genome sequence and inversion variation in Lasthenia burkei (Madieae, Asteraceae)

JOSEPH F. WALKER, MICHAEL J. ZANIS, AND NANCY C. EMERY 722Gypsum soil restriction drives genetic differentiation in Fouquieria shrevei (Fouquieriaceae)

JONAS A. AGUIRRE–LIGUORI, ENRIQUE SCHEINVAR, AND LUIS E. EGUIARTE 730

Abbreviations Miscellaneous: AFLP, amplifi ed fragment length polymorphisms; a.s.l., above sea level; bp, base pair; BP, before present; BSA, bovine serum albumin; cpDNA, chloroplast DNA; CTAB, hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide; cv., cultivar; ddH2O, double-distilled water; dNTP, deoxyribonucleotide E.C., Enzyme Commission; EDTA, ethylene diamine tetra-acetic acid; f. sp., forma specialis; indels, insertions and deletions; ITS, internal transcribed spacer; LM, light microscopy; mya, million years ago; PAGE, polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; RAPD, random amplifi ed polymorphic dimorphism; SDS, sodium dodecyl sulfate; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; s.l., sensu lato; s.s., sensu stricto; subsp., subspecies; TEM, transmission electron microscopy Genetics: A, mean number of alleles per locus; D, mean genetic distance; Cl, consistency index; F, fi xation index; FIT, total deviation from Hardy-Weinberg expectations; FST, genetic diversity among populations; FIS, inbreeding within populations; GST, the proportion of genetic diversity among populations; He, Hardy–Weinberg expected heterozygosity; Ho, observed heterozygosity; MP, most parsimonious tree; n, individual chromosome number; Nm, mean number of migrants per generation; Pp, percentage of polymorphic loci; RI, retention index; x, base chromosome number Statistics and math: ANOVA, analysis of variance; CV, coeffi cient of variation; df, degrees of freedom; N, number of individuals; p, probability; P, level of signifi cance; PCA, principal components analysis; r, coeffi cient of correlation; SE, standard error; SD, standard deviation

624

American Journal of Botany 101(4): 624–636, 2014 ; http://www.amjbot.org/ © 2014 Botanical Society of America

American Journal of Botany 101(4): 624–636. 2014.

People have been bringing their crops with them as they travel to new locations at least as far back as we have historical records ( Sauer, 1952 ; Heiser, 1965 , 1979 , 1990 ; Crosby, 2003 ).

1 Manuscript received 9 August 2013; revision accepted 10 February 2014. The authors thank the University of Connecticut and the University

of Portland for support of this work. A number of the teachers, staff, administrators, and students from the former Bulkeley High School, as well as staff and residents at La Casa Elderly, helped promote aspects of the study and facilitated connections with knowledgeable members of the Hartford Puerto Rican community. Similarly, Dr. Fernández Van Cleve and Dr. González Soto (both from the Colegio de Ciencias Agrícolas, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez) were helpful with the commodities from markets in Puerto Rico, as were the vendors in the Frog Hollow/Park Street neighborhood, especially at El Mercado, La Plaza del Mercado and the Beanpot Restaurant in Hartford, and in the markets of Caguas, Ponce, and Río Piedras. Thanks to Mona Anderson and Aria Marco for helpful discussions. Aria also helped with fi eldwork, library work, and the development of the manuscript. David Taylor especially acknowledges the unwaivering support of and countless loving contributions to his work by Joyce C. Taylor and Michael J. Taylor.

2 Part of the title is taken from a remark made by Ernest Hemingway to his friend and biographer Aaron Hotchner, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” ( Hemingway, 2009 ). The phrase became the title of a book of collected essays on Hem-ingway’s life in Paris, published posthumously by his widow.

5 Author for correspondence (e-mail: [email protected]), phone: 503-943-8513, fax: 503-943-7784

doi:10.3732/ajb.1300287

KEY PLANTS PRESERVE ELEMENTS OF CULTURE: A STUDY OVER DISTANCE AND TIME OF FRESH CROPS IN PUERTO RICAN

MARKETS IN HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, “A MOVEABLE FEAST” 1,2

DAVID W. TAYLOR 3,5 AND GREGORY J. ANDERSON 4

3 Department of Biology, University of Portland, Portland, Oregon 97203 USA; and 4 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269 USA

• Premise of the study: People retain culinary customs when they migrate. We tested this commitment via the study of Puerto Rican fresh produce markets in the continental United States over time, 18 yr, and space, by comparisons with source markets in Puerto Rico (PR).

• Methods: A survey of Puerto Rican markets in Hartford (HT), Connecticut in 1993–1994 was repeated in 2009–2010. A com-parative study was made at open-air markets in PR in 2009. Surveys recorded fresh crops, and interviews with vendors and Hartford Puerto Rican residents provided context.

• Key results: We recorded 84 plant crops (64 species; 32 families) for seven categories. The largest category was viandas (fresh, starchy “root” crops and immature fruits), followed by saborizantes (fl avorings). In the second HT survey, 80% of the crops were still present. And ~90% of the HT 1993–1994 crops and ~75% of the HT 2009–2010 crops were shared with markets in PR.

• Conclusions: On the basis of our results, we suggest two new concepts. The persistence of these largely tropical foods in a temperate market far removed from tropical PR shows the importance of basic foods as an element of cultural identifi cation. We recognize this stability as an example of “culinary cultural conservation”. Second, analysis of these fresh produce markets leads to the conclusion that viandas are the most prominent in diversity, persistence over time and distance, volume, and in terms of consumers’ “willingness to pay”. Accordingly, we consider the viandas a good example of a “cultural keystone food group”, a food group that is emblematic of a community’s culinary conservation.

Key words: culinary cultural conservation; cultural keystone food group; economic botany; ethnobotany; Hartford; keystone species; market crops; migrant cuisine conservation; Puerto Rico; viandas.

Of course, prehistorically and historically much of this transfer of food crops to new locations was simply to assure physical survival, to provide nutrition in an unknown environment. We suggest that bringing crops along in recent historical times is more likely to help migrants in a different way as well. That is, it provides fundamental elements of “home”, some key links to who the people are, and a source of comfort and familiarity in a stressful new environment. We have looked at this phenomenon using markets for fresh crops that serve the Puerto Rican popu-lation of Hartford, Connecticut in studies that span time and space.

The overall questions guiding the present study relate to the extent the Puerto Rican community of Hartford continues to use the foodstuffs typical of their native Puerto Rico (vs. the adop-tion of the more commonly available and less costly temperate alternatives), and what the essential components of these Puerto Rican foods are. We measured this conservation of cuisine by focusing on availability of fresh market crops, over nearly two decades. The fresh crops (vs. canned or dried) are particularly useful indicators given that many are imported from the tropics or subtropics and are perishable, and thus as a consequence, they are relatively expensive. Because of these factors, the fresh food products would not be sold consistently by vendors if there were not a strong and continuous demand. Of course, other Puerto Rican culturally important plant-based foods are ob-tained as canned or dried products, both in Hartford and Puerto Rico. For instance, rice and beans (including pigeon peas) obvi-ously form an integral part of Puerto Rican cuisine ( Pérez y

625April 2014] TAYLOR AND ANDERSON—CONSERVATION OF CUISINE

and perhaps that the migrant community was less connected to their culture. Given the modern, increasingly homogenized world where groceries, even ice cream, can be bought on the web, cultural connections transmitted through food are espe-cially easy to lose, and thus, perhaps such connections are all the more precious in migrant communities, and the retention of crops all the more meaningful. We measure the prominence of a cuisine component in the market by the relative diversity of crops that it comprises, the frequency of availability of those crops throughout the year, the proportion of the market space dedicated to those crops (their “volume”), and the willingness of consumers to pay more for the culturally connected crops than for other products that might be equivalent nutritionally.

The specifi c objectives of this study were to (1) determine which fresh plant crops were being sold in markets catering to the Puerto Rican community of Hartford, (2) determine the consistency of availability of these crops in Hartford through-out the calendar year, (3) determine the persistence of these pre-ferred produce crops in Hartford over a long time span (nearly two decades), (4) compare the diversity of fresh food crops in Hartford Puerto Rican markets (the “sink” in an ecological con-text) with that of markets in Puerto Rico (the “source”), (5) inter-view vendors and other members of the Puerto Rican community to determine how crops are used as components of the Puerto Rican cuisine, and (6) use the market and interview data to de-termine the most prominent fresh crops in the Puerto Rican diaspora.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Hartford 1993–1994 — In the fi rst part of this study, the fresh produce of Park Street area markets was inventoried for 13 consecutive months from Janu-ary 1993 through January 1994, to record the fresh plant products. Inventories were carried out on one to three market visits per month. Markets were inven-toried once per month in January, April, May, August, September, and October of 1993, twice per month in February, March, July, November, and December of 1993, and three times per month in June 1993 and January 1994.

Eight Park Street area markets were initially inventoried, but after the fi rst 3 mo of this study, it became clear that the smaller markets all were selling subsets of products available in the largest single market, El Mercado, on Park Street. The focus of the 13-mo inventory was subsequently on El Mercado, with occasional visits to other markets to ensure that any additional crops present at other sites in this neighborhood were included in the study.

During this 13-mo study, we interviewed market vendors and 65 other mem-bers of the Hartford Puerto Rican community to obtain qualitative information on the role of these crops in Puerto Rican cuisine and on background prefer-ences for various commodities. We carried out both structured and unstructured interviews about crop utilization, using open-ended question and free-listing techniques. The information provided in these interviews was the basis for the crop usage categories employed in this paper. The process of locating intervie-wees and carrying out interviews was continuous throughout the year. Intervie-wees were selected by snowball sampling, initiated with acquaintances of one of the authors (D. Taylor) via previous experience. The author’s personal con-nection with Puerto Rican teachers, staff, administration, and students from the former Bulkeley High School in Hartford (a public high school that at that time had more than 2000 students, approximately 80% of whom were Puerto Rican) was extremely valuable for this study because it allowed for comfortable, mul-tiple interviews in the homes of interviewees and networking with the elders of this community. Through this networking, contacts were made with social workers from elderly housing complexes in the Park Street neighborhood, lead-ing to interviews with groups of elderly residents. Interviewees were female and male and constituted a wide range of ages, occupations, and residence times outside of Puerto Rico. Interviews were held individually or with family groups, sometimes with three generations present. Sometimes larger groups of elderly citizens were interviewed with a social worker also present. Older inter-viewees were especially valuable in this study, given that in general they had a greater knowledge of crops and had spent more of their adult lives in Puerto

González, 2000 ), but these are foodstuffs that in dried form can be purchased wholesale by vendors in huge quantities and stored for long periods. We consider the fresh crops in the Hartford Puerto Rican community’s markets a good measure of their ef-fective, if not conscious, commitment to conserving the cultural cuisine of Puerto Rico. The additional diffi culty and cost of pro-curing largely tropical, and thus less common, crops and of maintaining perishable items demonstrates a level of invest-ment that is not associated with dry or canned products.

We concentrated on the Park Street area (Frog Hollow neigh-borhood) in Hartford. This is the main commercial hub for the Puerto Rican community, where Spanish is the most commonly spoken language and where the greatest concentration of food and other markets catering to this cultural group are found. This neighborhood is home predominantly to Puerto Ricans that have moved directly to the continental United States from Puerto Rico. Many residents do not own vehicles and thus shop for goods in their neighborhood. The products available at these neighborhood markets therefore can be used as an indication of what foodstuffs are valued by the local community.

Puerto Rican migration — Puerto Ricans have migrated to Hartford over the last 70 yr ( Cruz, 1998 ), forming a large and thriving community. The 2010 Census fi gures show that Puerto Ricans constitute more than 33% of the city’s 124 775-person population ( U. S. Census Bureau, 2010 ). The large-scale migra-tion of Puerto Ricans to Hartford, as well as other U. S. main-land cities, started as the result of changes in the agricultural sector of Puerto Rico. Under Spanish rule, and then as a part of the United States, Puerto Rico’s economy was based on agricul-ture through the fi rst part of the 20th century, mostly on the export crops coffee, sugar, and tobacco ( Picó, 2011 ). Starting in the 1940s, Puerto Rico’s Operation Bootstrap policy at-tempted to address large-scale poverty and unemployment by shifting the base of the insular economy to industry and tourism ( Maldonado, 1997 ). Operation Bootstrap also promoted migration to the labor markets in the U. S. mainland, with large numbers of Puerto Ricans, including those formerly involved in Puerto Rico’s agricultural sector ( Rudel et al., 2000 ), migrating, especially to New York City ( Maldonado, 1997 ). From New York City, Puerto Ricans migrated in search of employment to other cities in the Northeast, including Hartford ( Pérez y González, 2000 ) and then established communities in these areas ( Gonzalez, 2000 ). Puerto Rican migration to Hartford has continued over decades, as part of a larger trend, resulting in more Puerto Ricans on the mainland United States than in Puerto Rico ( PEW Hispanic Center, 2013 ). Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States, and many regularly migrate back and forth between Puerto Rico and cities such as Hartford as part of a two-way, circular, migra-tion pattern ( Maldonado, 1997 ; Duany, 2002 ). This migration pattern between these two regions helps maintain the exposure of migrants to the fresh products available in Puerto Rico, buff-ering erosion of the Puerto Rican cuisine in Hartford. Of course, the circular migration could also lead to reciprocal changes in the markets in Puerto Rico, promoted by additions and replace-ments from North America.

Objectives — Every culture’s cuisine is complex, and most have multiple components that play fundamental and distinct, and at times complementary, roles nutritionally and/or through their cultural importance. For our study, we considered any fresh crop to be of cultural importance if the absence of that component would induce a sense that the cuisine was incomplete

626 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY [Vol. 101

Rico. More time was spent with women interviewees than men because they typically had much more information about crop availability in markets and their preparation in Puerto Rican cuisine. All interviewees self-identifi ed as being Puerto Rican except for the main produce manager at El Mercado, who self-identifi ed as being Dominican (a point of some signifi cance as noted in the text following). This manager’s responses to questions regarding personal crop preferences and views of Puerto Rican cuisine were treated separately from those of other interviewees.

Hartford 2009–2010 — The second part of this study took place in October (two surveys) and November (one survey) of 2009 and July (one survey) of 2010, when El Mercado (renamed La Plaza del Mercado) was resurveyed to determine the comparative diversity of fresh crops available in the Hartford market nearly two decades later. La Plaza del Mercado remained the largest and most diverse market for fresh produce in the Hartford Puerto Rican community in 2009–2010, and therefore was used, once again, as the main source for com-parison. We also interviewed this market’s new produce manager, who, like his colleague in 1993, self-identifi ed as being Dominican.

Puerto Rico 2009 — In the third part of this study, markets were surveyed in Puerto Rico to compare the array of produce to that of Hartford. In November 2009, the fresh produce available in the main open-air markets, the plazas de mercado, in the cities of Caguas, Ponce, and San Juan (Río Piedras) was docu-mented. The plazas de mercado were used for this study because they are con-sidered to have the best representation of the crops used in the typical Puerto Rican diet (personal communication, Dr. Fernández Van Cleve, Colegio de Ciencias Agrícolas, UPR Mayagüez). Many members of the Hartford Puerto Rican community come either from these three cities in Puerto Rico or nearby areas, with an especially large representation of people from Caguas, the named sister city to Hartford. The choice of the specifi c market of Río Piedras in San Juan was based on the recommendation of Dr. Fernández Van Cleve and Dr. González Soto (also of the Colegio de Ciencias Agrícolas, UPR Mayagüez), who indicated that this would be the largest plaza de mercado on the island. It appeared that this market might constitute all of the market diversity in Puerto Rico, especially because many crops sold in markets throughout Puerto Rico are imported from the Dominican Republic, and pass through San Juan before being distributed throughout the island.

Thirty-eight vendors were interviewed in Puerto Rico, 80% of whom were in the plaza del mercado of Río Piedras, San Juan. Unstructured interviews were carried out, using open-ended questions, and focusing on the names, area of cultivation, and utilization of the different crops. Vendors were female and male, and approximately three-quarters of them self-identifi ed as being from the Dominican Republic.

Hartford and Puerto Rico — In all three parts of this study, interviews were carried out in Spanish, except in the very few cases in which interviewees pre-ferred to use English. In both Hartford and Puerto Rico, photographic vouchers were made of vendors’ stalls, and then plant products were purchased and pho-tographed off-site.

The species, variety, and cultivar names, as well as English common names used for the crops in this study are from Morton (1972) and Wiersema and León (1999) . The common names in Spanish are those that were used by intervie-wees in Puerto Rico and the Hartford Puerto Rican community.

The identifi cation of market crops, perforce, typically relies on incomplete data regarding the plants from which they came; virtually all products sold lack diagnostic features, such as reproductive parts, that would be important for spe-cies identifi cation through taxonomic keys. Despite this, most crops in the Hartford and Puerto Rican markets were readily identifi able because the species and cultivars are well known, literature sources provide good descriptions, and the common names for these crops are quite standardized among vendors and other interviewees. There were more challenges with the yam crops encountered in this study; names for yam crops differed between Hartford and Puerto Rican markets and among different vendors in Puerto Rico. The yam common names used in the Hartford market were not cultivar names, instead they usually only described the source of the imported materials. Given that a country such as Brazil or Costa Rica can export more than one type of yam, and, of course, that the same cultivar can be exported by more than one country, these names are of limited usefulness for determining species and cultivar identities. However, in the markets of Puerto Rico 2009, yam common names did not refer to the ex-porting country, but rather were unique identifi ers of particular species or culti-vars. This made the common names in Puerto Rico useful for determining yam identity. For example, what was called “ñame de Costa Rica” in Hartford was

called both “ñame fl orido” and “ñame de agua” in Puerto Rico. Given that “Florido” is a known name for a yam cultivar in Dioscorea alata grown in Puerto Rico and that “ñame de agua” (or its equivalent in English, “water yam”) is a widely used common name for D. alata , we deduced that the most likely identity of this yam in both Puerto Rico and Hartford 2009 markets was D. al-ata cv. Florido . Yam crops of the Hartford 1993–1994 market were largely identifi ed through use of common names that were conserved from 1993 to 2010, supplemented by photographic vouchers of most of the crops taken in 1993–1994. “Ñame de Colombia/Puerto Rico” from the Hartford 1993–1994 market is tentatively identifi ed here as D. rotundata cv. Guinea based on its prevalence in the Hartford 1993–1994 market ( D. rotundata was also prevalent in Puerto Rico 2009), and that all the other 1993–1994 yam crops were assign-able to the other species of yam known from the 2009 Hartford and Puerto Rico markets.

RESULTS

Crops of Hartford and Puerto Rico — Table 1 is comprehen-sive, with all of the plant products recorded at least once in markets of Hartford 1993–1994, Hartford 2009–2010, or Puerto Rico 2009. In this transmillennial study, 84 fresh crops repre-senting 64 species in 32 families were recorded (see cover im-age for representative crops in a Puerto Rican market: http://www.amjbot.org/content/101/4.cover-expansion ). Some crops merit further explanation. For instance, the green and mature forms of Cavendish bananas are treated as separate crops, as are green and mature forms of plantains. The green and ripe stages are treated as separate commodities because they have different culinary uses, and because vendors distinguished them and may sell either the green or ripe stage without selling the other. On the other hand, up to fi ve potential cultivars of mangos (that we learned were transported to Hartford from Colombia, Florida, Haiti, Mexico, and Puerto Rico) were recorded in the inventory, but were indistinguishable as separate cultivars; thus, mangos are treated under one name only.

Sources of domestication of listed crops — The information on proposed original source of domestication in Table 1 was derived from Purseglove (1968a , 1968b , 1975 ), Vaughan and Geissler (1998) , and Wiersema and León (1999) . Thirty-fi ve of the crops (42%) have New World origins, but notably, none are likely to have been fi rst domesticated in Puerto Rico. Five of the crops (6%) have a known origin in Africa, four (5%) are from the Pacifi c, and the remaining 39 crops (46%) with known origins are from Europe or Asia. Coconut is pantropical.

It is interesting to note that there are three instances in Table 1 of families that have both Old World (OW) and New World (NW) crops of considerable signifi cance to the Puerto Rican cuisine: Apiaceae (e.g . , OW: Coriandrum sativum , NW: Eryn-gium foetidum ), Araceae (OW: Colocasia esculenta , NW: Xan-thosoma spp.), and Dioscoreaceae ( Dioscorea species from Africa, Asia, and the neotropics).

Crops in Hartford: 1993–1994 — Usage categories— Table 2 shows the details of the intensive 13-mo survey. Interviewees generally agreed on the following usage categories (with fur-ther explanation below): azúcar (AZ, sugar), frutas (FR, fruit), legumbres (LE, legumes), saborizantes (SA, fl avoring or sea-soning agents in food), vegetales (VE, vegetables), and viandas (VI, fresh, starchy crops). These categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. For example, tomatoes could be placed in both vegetales and saborizantes categories, but here they are put in the saborizantes category due to their relatively more im-portant role in concoction of sauces. The azúcar category is


used here only for fresh sugarcane, whose stem is chewed for its refreshing juice. Members of frutas are used for their often sweet, but sometimes acidic or tart, fl avors and are typically eaten directly raw or are used to fl avor cold beverages. While all crops in the frutas category are true fruiting structures, some crops in other categories are also, botanically speaking, fruits. The legumbres category consists of the single type of legume seed, gandules ( Cajanus cajan; pigeon peas), that was sold fresh both in Hartford in 1993–1994 and Puerto Rico 2009. The vege-tales category includes mostly temperate vegetable crops that are often used as cold salad items.

The saborizantes category includes crops such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and onions, that are ingredients in many dishes including salads, but are categorized here as saborizantes be-cause of the pivotal role that they play in sauces, together with other crops such as cilantro and recao (false coriander). These sauces, such as the iconic sofrito, add vibrant colors and tastes to many Puerto Rican rice, bean, soup, and meat dishes.

The viandas category includes fresh, starchy crops that are often served baked, boiled, fried, or stewed. In the context of Puerto Rican cuisine, the term viandas does not refer to non-fresh, starchy crops like rice, other grains, or grain products such as pasta or bread. There are essentially two types of vian-das in Puerto Rico: immature fruits whose starches have not yet converted to sugars, and underground storage units, that can be either roots or stems. Ripe plantains, despite having a higher sugar content, were included in this category by interviewees, apparently because they are always prepared cooked. Members of the Cucurbitaceae that are prepared cooked in Puerto Rican cuisine, i.e . , kabocha squash ( Cucurbita maxima ) and chayote ( Sechium edule ), were also typically included in this category by interviewees.

The prominence of viandas throughout the year— In total, 74 fresh crops representing 57 species in 28 families were re-corded in the inventory of the Hartford 1993–1994 market ( Table 2 ). Viandas, with 24 crops (32%), was the category with the most representatives, followed by saborizantes (20 crops; 27%), frutas (18 crops; 24%), and vegetales (10 crops; 14%). The azúcar and legumbres categories each had only a single fresh representative.

As shown in Table 2 , 49 crops (66% of total) were present in at least half of the inventoried months (7 or more months), 38 crops (51% of total) were present in at least 10 of the invento-ried months, and only 22 (30% of total) were present in at least 12 of the 13 inventoried months. Of the 22 crops present at least 12 mo, 15 (68%) were viandas, demonstrating dramatically the prominence of viandas for the entire year ( Fig. 1 ) .

Availability of genera of viandas— The prominence of the viandas is also demonstrated by the conservation of their ge-neric diversity throughout the year. Of the 11 genera of viandas in the market, all but two had representatives present for at least 12 months. The specifi c crops within some of these nine omni-present genera had very different availabilities, due to various factors. For example, in Musa , green Cavendish bananas and green plantains were each present 12 of 13 months, but green guineo rulos appeared to be limited to a specifi c 3-mo season. In Xanthosoma , it is not seasonality, but rather a difference in which part of the plant is harvested that accounts for the differ-ent availabilities of yautía species. In yautía amarilla, the pri-mary underground corm (termed “la madre”, “the mother”) is

usually harvested because it is more tender than the side cormels ( Morton, 1972 ). However, in yautía blanca and lila, it is the side cormels that are eaten, and multiple harvestable side cormels are produced. This apparently leads to a greater supply of yautía blanca and lila throughout the year, and also a correspondingly lower cost for these. A market vendor (Hartford 2009) ex-plained that most people buy yautía lila instead of yautía ama-rilla because of the lower price. However, vendors queried in both Puerto Rico and Hartford consistently said that yautía am-arilla is the best tasting of the three yautía cultivars. Morton (1972) and Purseglove (1975) also noted this preference for yautía amarilla in Puerto Rico.

Crops in Hartford 2009–2010 — Continued prominence of viandas— In October and November of 2009 and July of 2010, there were a total of 62 fresh crops in the Hartford market ( Table 3 ). Once again, it was the viandas, with 19 crops (31% of the market diversity), that constituted the cat-egory with the greatest number of representatives. The order of prominence of other groups followed that of Hartford from nearly two decades earlier: saborizantes (18 crops; 29%), frutas (13 crops; 21%), and vegetales (11 crops; 18%). Sugarcane was present, but there were no fresh legumes.

Many viandas are relatively expensive starch sources— Table 4 shows the prices for viandas, pasta, and rice in the Hartford 2009–2010 market. Of course, the price for pasta and rice is for dry product, thus effectively increasing the relative cost per calorie of all the other products listed, which are priced for wet weight. Surprisingly, green plantains (imported from Ecuador) were by far the cheapest, even less costly than U.S.-grown po-tatoes. But the point is this: the Hartford 2009–2010 market had 10 viandas crops that were more expensive than any potatoes or rice, and six viandas that were more costly than the highest priced pasta.

Hartford 2009–2010 compared with Hartford 1993–1994 — Three crops (2FR, 1VI) of the 62 in the Hartford market in 2009–2010 were new, i.e., not also present in 1993–1994 ( Table 3 ). Fifty-nine (80%) of the 74 crops present in the Hartford market in 1993–1994 were still present in 2009–2010 ( Table 3 ). The crops no longer sold in 2009–2010 included one legumbre, two saborizantes, fi ve viandas, and seven frutas. Put another way, 61% of the frutas, 79% of the viandas, 90% of the sabori-zantes, and 100% of vegetales crops, as well sugarcane, were persistent in the Hartford market over nearly a two-decade pe-riod. Of the 15 crops not found in 2009–2010, nine had been present minimally (for 4 mo or less) in 1993–1994, and 10 were from genera that were still represented in the 2009–2010 mar-ket by other crops.

Crops in Puerto Rico 2009 — As shown in Table 3 , 74 fresh crops were found in the markets in Puerto Rico, in the categories of viandas (22 crops; 30% of the diversity), saborizantes (22 crops; 30%), frutas (18 crops; 24%), vegetales (9 crops; 12%), azúcar (1 crop), and legumbres (1 crop). The additional usage category of semillas (SE, seeds) was created to accommodate breadnut ( Artocarpus camansi ), the single nonlegume seed crop present in Puerto Rico markets but not Hartford.

Puerto Rico 2009 compared with Hartford 2009–2010 and 1993–1994 — Fifty-four crops (73%) that were present in the 2009 Puerto Rico markets were also present in Hartford 2009–2010. Of the 20 crops (8FR, 4SA, 6VI, 1SE, 1LE) not in Hartford


TABLE 1. All fresh crops in Hartford 1993–1994, Hartford 2009–2010, and Puerto Rico 2009 markets.

Family Species Common names (Spanish/ English) Origin

Anacardiaceae Mangifera indica mango/ mango AsiaAnacardiaceae Spondias dulcis jobo/ golden-apple Pacifi cAnnonaceae Annona muricata guanábana/ soursop NeotropicsAnnonaceae Annona reticulata corazón/ custard-apple NeotropicsApiaceae Apium graveolens var. rapaceum apio/ celeriac EurasiaApiaceae Coriandrum sativum cilantro, cilantrillo/ coriander MediterraneanApiaceae Daucus carota zanahoria/ carrot MediterraneanApiaceae Eryngium foetidum recao, culantro/ false coriander NeotropicsAraceae Colocasia esculenta malanga palma, malangota/ NA AsiaAraceae Colocasia esculenta cv. Blanca malanga blanca/ white taro AsiaAraceae Colocasia esculenta cv. Lila malanga lila/ purple taro AsiaAraceae Xanthosoma atrovirens yautía amarilla/ yellow cocoyam NeotropicsAraceae Xanthosoma caracu yautía blanca/ white cocoyam NeotropicsAraceae Xanthosoma nigrum yautía lila, yautía morada/ purple cocoyam NeotropicsArecaceae Cocos nucifera coco/ coconut PantropicsAsteraceae Lactuca sativa lechuga/ lettuce MediterraneanBrassicaceae Brassica oleracea var. capitata repollo morado/ red cabbage MediterraneanBrassicaceae Brassica oleracea var. capitata repollo verde/ green cabbage MediterraneanBrassicaceae Nasturtium offi cinale berro/ watercress EurasiaBromeliaceae Ananas comosus piña/ pineapple South AmericaCaricaceae Carica papaya lechoza grande/ large papaya MesoamericaCaricaceae Carica papaya lechoza pequeña/ small papaya MesoamericaConvolvulaceae Ipomoea batatas batata amarilla/ yellow sweet potato NeotropicsConvolvulaceae Ipomoea batatas batata naranja/ orange sweet potato NeotropicsConvolvulaceae Ipomoea batatas batata roja/ red sweet potato NeotropicsConvolvulaceae Ipomoea batatas batata Koreana/ Korean sweet potato NeotropicsCucurbitaceae Citrullus lanatus sandía/ watermelon AfricaCucurbitaceae Cucumis sativus pepinillo/ cucumber AsiaCucurbitaceae Cucurbita maxima kabocha, calabaza/ kabocha squash South AmericaCucurbitaceae Sechium edule chayote amarillo/ yellow christophine MesoamericaCucurbitaceae Sechium edule chayote verde/ green christophine MesoamericaCucurbitaceae Sicana odorifera pepino angolo, pepino de Guinea/ cassabanana South AmericaDioscoreaceae Dioscorea alata ñame blanco de Brasil/ white Brazilian yam AsiaDioscoreaceae Dioscorea alata cv. Florido HT: ñame blanco de Costa Rica; PR: ñame fl orido,

ñame de agua/ water yamAsia

Dioscoreaceae Dioscorea cayenensis ñame amarillo de Jamaica/ yellow Guinea yam AfricaDioscoreaceae Dioscorea rotundata cv. Guinea HT: ñame blanco de Colombia, Puerto Rico;

PR: ñame habanero, ñame de Guinea/ white Guinea yamAfrica

Dioscoreaceae Dioscorea trifi da mapuey/ cush-cush South AmericaEuphorbiaceae Manihot esculenta yuca/ cassava NeotropicsFabaceae Cajanus cajan gandul/ pigeon pea AsiaFabaceae Tamarindus indica tamarindo/ tamarind AfricaFlacourtiaceae Dovyalis hebecarpa aberia/ ketembilla AsiaLauraceae Persea americana aguacate/ avocado MesoamericaLiliaceae Allium cepa cebolla blanca/ white onion AsiaLiliaceae Allium cepa cebolla hispana/ yellow onion AsiaLiliaceae Allium cepa cebolla roja/ red onion AsiaLiliaceae Allium sativum ajo/ garlic EurasiaMalvaceae Abelmoschus esculentus guingambo/ okra AfricaMoraceae Artocarpus altilis panapén/ breadfruit Pacifi cMoraceae Artocarpus camansi pana de pepita/ breadnut Pacifi cMusaceae Musa acuminata guineitos, guineo niños/ baby bananas AsiaMusaceae Musa acuminata guineo maduro/ ripe Cavendish banana AsiaMusaceae Musa acuminata guineo rojo/ red banana AsiaMusaceae Musa acuminata guineo verde/ green Cavendish banana AsiaMusaceae Musa × paradisiaca guineo rulo, mafafo/ NA AsiaMusaceae Musa × paradisiaca plátano maduro/ ripe plantain AsiaMusaceae Musa × paradisiaca plátano verde/ green plantain AsiaMyrtaceae Psidium guajava guayaba/ guava NeotropicsPassifl oraceae Passifl ora edulis parcha/ passionfruit South AmericaPoaceae Saccharum offi cinale caña de azúcar/ sugarcane Pacifi cPoaceae Zea mays maíz/ corn MesoamericaPunicaceae Punica granatum granada/ pomegranate AsiaRosaceae Fragaria × ananassa fresa/ strawberry EuropeRubiaceae Genipa americana jagua/ genipap NeotropicsRutaceae Citrus aurantiifolia limón, limón verde/ lime AsiaRutaceae Citrus aurantium naranja agria/ bitter orange AsiaRutaceae Citrus limetta limón dulce/ sweet lime AsiaRutaceae Citrus limon lima agria, limón amarillo, limón agrio/ lemon Asia


TABLE 1. Continued.

Family Species Common names (Spanish/ English) Origin

Rutaceae Citrus reticulata mandarina/ tangerine AsiaRutaceae Citrus sinensis china/ orange AsiaRutaceae Citrus × paradisi toronja/ grapefruit AsiaSapindaceae Melicoccus bijugatus quenepa/ genip South AmericaSapotaceae Manilkara zapota sapote/ chicle MesoamericaSolanaceae Capsicum annuum jalapeño/ jalapeno NeotropicsSolanaceae Capsicum annuum pimiento cubanelle/ cubanella pepper NeotropicsSolanaceae Capsicum annuum pimiento rojo/ red bell pepper NeotropicsSolanaceae Capsicum annuum pimiento verde/ green bell pepper NeotropicsSolanaceae Capsicum chinense ají dulce, ajicitos dulces/ sweet pepper NeotropicsSolanaceae Capsicum frutescens ají picante/ hot pepper NeotropicsSolanaceae Solanum lycopersicum tomate/ tomato NeotropicsSolanaceae Solanum melongena berenjena/ eggplant AsiaSolanaceae Solanum tuberosum papa/ gray potato South AmericaSolanaceae Solanum tuberosum papa roja/ red potato South AmericaVitaceae Vitis vinifera uva/ grape EurasiaZingiberaceae Zingiber offi cinale jenjibre/ ginger Asia

Notes : NA, no English common name is known. When different common names were used by interviewees in Hartford (HT) and Puerto Rico (PR), those are noted separately.

2009–2010, 12 crops (60%; 5FR, 4VI, 2SA, 1LE) were present in Hartford in the earlier survey (1993–1994). Thus, only eight (11%) of the 74 crops in Puerto Rico markets were unique there, i.e., not found in Hartford 1993–1994 or 2009–2010. Two of the crops (FR) shared by Puerto Rico and Hartford 2009–2010 markets were not in Hartford 1993–1994. Overall, 64 crops (87%) that were present in the 2009 Puerto Rico markets were also present in the 1993–1994 Hartford market.

Crops found in Hartford but not Puerto Rico — Three crops (2FR, 1VI) were unique to Hartford 1993–1994. Only the Ko-rean sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas , was unique to Hartford 2009–2010. Seven crops (3FR, 2VE, 2VI) were found in both Hartford 1993–1994 and 2009–2010 markets but not in Puerto Rico.

A comparison of the structure of the markets — Figure 2A shows that Hartford 2009–2010 had fewer crops in each cate-gory, except for vegetales, but, overall, the structure of all three sampling periods (Puerto Rico 2009, Hartford 1993–1994 and 2009–2010) is similar. The relative proportions of the different categories across the three sampling periods also remained sim-ilar, as clearly displayed in Fig. 2B . The structure of the market has basically remained the same over both distance and time.

DISCUSSION

Crop consistency over time and space — Hartford markets over time— There was impressive consistency in the array of crops, and in particular in the viandas, over the nearly two decades of the study: 80% of the crops present in Hartford 1993–1994 were still present when the market was resurveyed in 2009–2010. As noted, most of the crops that were absent in 2009–2010 were not common in 1993–1994, and furthermore, many were highly perishable tropical/subtropical fruits. Thus, it is possible that their perhaps sporadic presence in the 2009–2010 markets did not coincide with our sampling. It is also possible that they were already being phased-out from the market during our original survey and were simply gone in 2009–2010. The fact that most of the crops absent in 2009–2010 were still represented by congeners with similar dietary roles makes it tempting to hypothesize that such congeners are

functional equivalents that can replace each other in the Puerto Rican cuisine without any noticeable effect. However, inter-views with members of this community regarding, perhaps cryptic, functional differences among congeners, as well as personal preferences, indicate that this is not necessarily true. This is illustrated in our discussion of congener crops, in a later section.

Crops unique to Hartford 2009–2010— The great majority of the crops found in Hartford 2009–2010 were also in the markets of Puerto Rico. Some of the unique Hartford crops were characteristic of temperate/cool climates and easily ob-tained from local farms (e.g., strawberries). The tropical/warm climate crops found in the Hartford 2009–2010 market but not in Puerto Rico include two fruits, pomegranate and guava, and the yellow Guinea yam ( Dioscorea cayenensis ). The fruits are more seasonal and perishable and are likely present in Puerto Rico at times that did not happen to coincide with our sam-pling. However, the yellow Guinea yam exemplifi es a different scenario.

The presence of the yellow Guinea yam in Hartford markets was not surprising given the ethnic diversity in the city. Hartford vendors explained that while Latino customers will sample the yellow yam, it is primarily offered in their market for their (more limited) Jamaican clientele (Jamaica also was cited by vendors as the source for the yellow-fl eshed yam). Purseglove

Fig. 1. Percentage of total available crops from different usage catego-ries present for different durations in Hartford 1993–1994 markets. Usage categories: FR (frutas/fruits), SA (saborizantes/fl avorings), VE (vegetales/vegetables), and VI (viandas/fresh, starchy crops).


TABLE 2. Monthly availability of fresh crops in Hartford 1993–1994 market.

Use Common names (Spanish/ English) J F M A M J J A S O N D J2No. months

present

AZ caña de azúcar/ sugarcane x x x x x x x x x 9FR corazón/ custard-apple x 1FR guanábana/ soursop x x 2FR guayaba/ guava x x 2FR fresa/ strawberry x x x 3FR granada/ pomegranate x x x 3FR jobo/ golden-apple x x x 3FR lechoza pequeña/ small papaya x x x 3FR mandarina/ tangerine x x x x 4FR piña/ pineapple x x x x 4FR quenepa/ genip x x x x 4FR guineo rojo/ red banana x x x x x x x 7FR china/ orange x x x x x x x x x 9FR guineitos/ baby bananas x x x x x x x x x x 10FR guineo maduro/ ripe Cavendish banana x x x x x x x x x x 10FR lechoza grande/ large papaya x x x x x x x x x x 10FR mango/ mango x x x x x x x x x x 10FR toronja/ grapefruit x x x x x x x x x x x 11FR uva/ grape x x x x x x x x x x x 11LE gandules/ pigeon peas x x 2SA ají picante/ hot pepper x x 2SA limón dulce/ sweet lime x x x 3SA tamarindo/ tamarind x x x x x 5SA naranja agria/ bitter orange x x x x x x 6SA cebolla hispana/ yellow onion x x x x x x x x 8SA tomate/ tomato x x x x x x x x 8SA pimiento rojo/ red bell pepper x x x x x x x x x 9SA pimiento verde/ green bell pepper x x x x x x x x x 9SA cebolla blanca/ white onion x x x x x x x x x x 10SA cebolla roja/ red onion x x x x x x x x x x 10SA jenjibre/ ginger x x x x x x x x x x 10SA ajo/ garlic x x x x x x x x x x x 11SA lima agria/ lemon x x x x x x x x x x x 11SA limón/ lime x x x x x x x x x x x 11SA ají dulce/ sweet pepper x x x x x x x x x x x x 12SA coco/ coconut x x x x x x x x x x x x x 12SA jalapeño/ jalapeno x x x x x x x x x x x x 12SA pimiento cubanelle/ cubanella pepper x x x x x x x x x x x x 12SA cilantro/ coriander x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13SA recao, culantro/ false coriander x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13VE berro/ watercress x 1VE guingambo/ okra x x 2VE pepinillo/ cucumber x x 2VE maíz/ corn x x x 3VE repollo morado/ red cabbage x x x x x 5VE lechuga/ lettuce x x x x x x x x x x 10VE zanahoria/ carrot x x x x x x x x x x 10VE berenjena/ eggplant x x x x x x x x x x x 11VE repollo verde/ green cabbage x x x x x x x x x x x 11VE aguacate/ avocado x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI ñame de Brasil/ white Brazilian yam x x 2VI guineo rulo, mafafo/ NA x x x 3VI ñame blanco de Costa Rica/ water yam x x x x 4VI panapén/ breadfruit x x x x 4VI papa roja/ red potato x x x x x x 6VI mapuey/ cush-cush x x x x x x x 7VI apio/ celeriac x x x x x x x x 8VI ñame amarillo de Jamaica/ yellow Guinea

yamx x x x x x x x 8

VI yautía amarilla/ yellow cocoyam x x x x x x x x 8VI chayote amarillo/ yellow christophine x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI guineo verde/ green Cavendish banana x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI malanga blanca/ white taro x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI ñame blanco de Colombia, Puerto Rico/

white Guinea yamx x x x x x x x x x x x 12

VI papa/ gray potato x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI plátano maduro/ ripe plantain x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI plátano verde/ green plantain x x x x x x x x x x x x 12


TABLE 2. Continued.

Use Common names (Spanish/ English) J F M A M J J A S O N D J2No. months

present

VI yautía blanca/ white cocoyam x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI yautía lila, yautía morada/ purple cocoyam x x x x x x x x x x x x 12VI batata naranja/ orange sweet potato x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13VI batata roja/ red sweet potato x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13VI chayote verde/ green christophine x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13VI kabocha, calabaza/ kabocha squash x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13VI malanga lila/ purple taro x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13VI yuca/ cassava x x x x x x x x x x x x x 13

Notes : “Use” categories: AZ (azúcar/sugarcane), FR (frutas/fruits), LE (legumbres/legumes), SA (saborizantes/fl avorings), VE (vegetales/vegetables), and VI (viandas/fresh, starchy crops). Months are abbreviated with their fi rst letter, starting with January 1993 and ending with January 1994 (J2). An “x” indicates presence in the market.

(1975) explains that this yam is generally more popular in Ja-maica than in the eastern Caribbean. This is an example of how offering items targeted to different cultural groups broadens the customer base and can confuse interpretations from market sur-veys alone (i.e., surveys without interviews). These new crop “insertions” into a market (sensu Nguyen, 2006 ) may result in an expansion of the migrant community cuisine. By living in Hartford, the Puerto Rican shoppers are not just exposed to and potentially infl uenced by the crops of the “majority commu-nity” (perhaps best epitomized by the produce section of any local mega-market), but they also are exposed to the crops of other minority communities—like the yellow Guinea yam. This, of course, in time, might lead to a blurring of the cultural iden-tity associated with food preferences (more discussion below), to a homogenization of the markets, and eventually, perhaps to a loss of the original cultural identity.

Crops unique to Puerto Rico— Most of the crops found in Puerto Rico were also present in Hartford 2009–2010. The ma-jority of those absent in Hartford 2009–2010 were fruits of warm/tropical climates that are highly perishable, and probably spo-radic in their availability to Hartford markets. Diffi culties with shipping and freshness of some crops could have also been an issue, such as with the fresh seeds of breadnut that were available at every market in Puerto Rico. The lack of this crop in Hartford markets is likely due to the high oil and low organic acid content of these seeds, making them prohibitively diffi cult to export in unprocessed, fresh form ( Adeleke and Abiodun, 2010 ). Some of the unique Puerto Rico crops were limited by local and small production, so much so that they were only being sold by a single vendor in a single market. An example of this was malanga palma/malangota; its sole vendor explained that he harvested these enormous pieces of rhizome (up to 1.5 m in length and 20 cm in diameter) from his small farm and sold them to families for making special “pasteles de Navidad” (vianda paste and meat wrapped in leaves). In summary, none of the crops absent from Hartford constitutes an exception that suggests a principle re-garding conservative culinary behavior in migrant groups.

Congener crops are not necessarily interchangeable in function— The presence of Dioscorea rotundata cv. Guinea in Puerto Rico markets and its absence from Hartford 2009–2010 might seem to indicate that other white yam crops, such as D. alata cv. Florido, are able to functionally replace it in Hart-ford. However, according to vendors in Puerto Rico, there are differences in culinary function between the different types of white yam. Vendors interviewed in Puerto Rico regarding

components of the common sancocho stew indicated that al-though D. rotundata and D. alata appear the same inside, D. rotundata is harder and takes longer to cook. This means that D. rotundata stays intact during the normal cooking time for san-cocho, whereas D. alata falls apart early. Accordingly, D. ro-tundata is preferred for sancocho, and D. alata is used more as a side dish. This example suggests that the different yam crops in Hartford or Puerto Rico markets are not necessarily inter-changeable in function, and that, at least in Puerto Rico, people do recognize differences that affect food preparation. People make fi ne distinctions regarding their foods, and they (at least fi rst-generation migrants) may carry these distinctions with them when they move to new locations. However, other factors, such as cost, may affect such preferences. Dioscorea alata is higher yielding than D. rotundata ( Purseglove, 1975 ); as a re-sult, it is probably cheaper and easier for vendors to sell in Hart-ford. It is possible that the lower-yielding D. rotundata is preferred by Hartford Puerto Rican shoppers, but only becomes affordable when imported the short distance from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. Perhaps it is not only in supermarkets dependent upon highly mechanized agricultural production where people are subject to reduction in food quality as a con-sequence of wholesale cost-savings ( Hightower, 1973 ).

Origin of Puerto Rican plant-based cuisine — Crops are domesticates from other lands— There is no evidence that any of the New World crops in this study were fi rst domesticated in Puerto Rico. Pre-Columbian travel and crop exchange by Am-erindian groups undoubtably brought a mixture of crops from neighboring lands ( Sauer, 1952 ; Heiser, 1965 ; Pagán-Jiménez, 2011 ; Picó, 2011 ) to Puerto Rico, where they were used by the indigenous Taínos. After the arrival of Europeans to Puerto Rico in the middle of the previous millennium and their subse-quent use of African slaves there, the plant foods employed there became a mixture of African, European, and indigenous Taíno ( Espenshade, 2000 ; Pagán-Jiménez, 2011 ), although the Taíno population was largely exterminated soon after contact with the Europeans. The Puerto Rican cuisine of today there-fore is relatively young and has heterogeneous origins, not un-like the Puerto Rican population itself. The mixture of food crops cultivated and consumed in Puerto Rico has subsequently become further enriched by later groups of immigrants and mi-grants from all parts of the world. Particularly when compared to Old World crops in the same genus that serve a similar di-etary function, one might expect that crops native to the Carib-bean basin, due to their longer historical presence in the region, would play the most central role in current Puerto Rican cuisine.


“Yam Zone”, where these crops are involved in religious and social ceremonies ( Arua, 1981 ; Hahn, 1995 ). Dioscorea trifi da is the only food yam native to the New World (northern South America); D. alata originated in Asia, and D. rotundata and D. cayenensis are native to the west coast of Africa ( Ayensu and Coursey, 1972 ; Purseglove, 1975 ). None of the food yams used

However, this is not necessarily true, as illustrated by the yam example in the section following.

Old World vs. New World yam crops in Puerto Rican cuisine today— The cultural importance of yams in some of the areas where they originated is well known, particularly in the African

TABLE 3. Comparison of fresh crops present in Hartford 1993–1994, Hartford 2009–2010, and Puerto Rico 2009 markets.

UseCommon names

(Spanish/ English) HT 93–94 HT 09–10 RP CA PO

AZ caña de azúcar/ sugarcane x x xFR china/ orange x x x x xFR chironja*/ NA x xFR corazón/ custard-apple xFR fresa/ strawberry x xFR granada/ pomegranate x xFR guanábana/ soursop x xFR guayaba/ guava x xFR guineitos/ baby bananas x x x x xFR guineo maduro/ ripe

Cavendish bananax x x x x

FR guineo rojo/ red banana x xFR jobo/ golden-apple x x x xFR lechoza grande/ large papaya x x x x xFR lechoza pequeña/ small

papayax

FR mandarina/ tangerine x x xFR mango/ mango x x x x xFR parcha/ passionfruit xFR pepino angolo, pepino

de Guinea/ cassabananax x

FR piña/ pineapple x x x x xFR quenepa/ genip x x xFR sandía/ watermelon x x xFR sapote/ chicle x xFR toronja/ grapefruit x x x x xFR uva/ grape x x xLE gandules/ pigeon peas x x x xSA aberia/ ketembilla xSA ají dulce/ sweet pepper x x x x xSA ají picante/ hot pepper x x xSA ajo/ garlic x x x xSA cebolla blanca/ white onion x x x x xSA cebolla hispana/ yellow

onionx x x x x

SA cebolla roja/ red onion x x x x xSA cilantro/ coriander x x x x xSA coco/ coconut x x x x xSA jagua/ genipap x xSA jalapeño/ jalapeno x xSA jenjibre/ ginger x x x xSA lima agria/ lemon x x x x xSA limón/ lime x x x x xSA limón dulce/ sweet lime x x x xSA naranja agria/ bitter orange x x x xSA pimiento cubanelle/

cubanella pepperx x x

SA pimiento rojo/ red sweet bell pepper

x x x

SA pimiento verde/ green bell pepper

x x x x x

SA recao, culantro/ false coriander

x x x x x

SA tamarindo/ tamarind x x xSA tomate/ tomato x x x xSE pana de pepita/ breadnut x x xVE aguacate/ avocado x x x x

UseCommon names

(Spanish/ English) HT 93–94 HT 09–10 RP CA PO

VE berenjena/ eggplant x x x xVE berro/ watercress x x xVE guingambo/ okra x x xVE kabocha, calabaza/ kabocha

squashx x x x x

VE lechuga/ lettuce x x xVE maíz/ corn x x x xVE pepinillo/ cucumber x x xVE repollo morado/ red cabbage x xVE repollo verde/ green

cabbagex x

VE zanahoria/ carrot x x x xVI apio/ celeriac x x x x xVI batata amarilla/ yellow

sweet potatox

VI batata Koreana/ Korean sweet potato

x

VI batata naranja/ orange sweet potato

x x x x

VI batata roja/ red sweet potato x x x xVI chayote amarillo/ yellow

christophinex x x x

VI chayote verde/ green christophine

x x x

VI guineo rulo, mafafo/ NA x xVI guineo verde/ green

Cavendish bananax x x x x

VI malanga blanca/ white taro x xVI malanga lila/ purple taro x x x x xVI malanga palma, malangota/

NAx

VI mapuey/ cush-cush x x xVI ñame amarillo de Jamaica/

yellow Guinea yamx x

VI HT: ñame blanco de Colombia, Puerto Rico; PR: ñame habanero, ñame de Guinea/ white Guinea yam

x x x x

VI HT: ñame blanco de Costa Rica; PR: ñame fl orido, ñame de agua/ water yam

x x x x x

VI ñame de Brasil/ white Brazilian yam

x

VI panapén/ breadfruit x x x x xVI papa/ gray potato x x x xVI papa roja/ red potato x xVI plátano maduro/ ripe

plantainx x x x

VI plátano verde/ green plantain x x x x xVI yautía amarilla/ yellow

cocoyamx x x x

VI yautía blanca/ white cocoyam

x x x x x

VI yautía lila, yautía morada/ purple cocoyam

x x x x x

VI yuca/ cassava x x x x x

Notes : Hartford is abbreviated as HT. Puerto Rican markets are Río Piedras (RP), Caguas (CA), and Ponce (PO). “NA” indicates that no English common name is known for this crop. When different common names were used by interviewees in Hartford (HT) and Puerto Rico (PR), those are noted separately. *Chironja = hybrid of orange (china) and grapefruit (toronja). An “x” indicates presence in the market.


TABLE 4. Prices of viandas relative to rice and pasta in the Hartford 2009–2010 market.

Common name (Spanish/ English) Price/lb (US$) Exporter

plátanos/ plantains (green)

0.27 Ecuador

papas/ potatoes 0.30–0.79 USAyuca/ cassava 0.49–0.79 Costa Ricaguineos/ Cavendish bananas (green)

0.49 Colombia

arroz/ rice (dry weight) 0.50–0.90 USAbatatas/ sweet potatoes 0.79 Dominican

Republicpasta/ pasta (dry weight) 0.99–1.29 USA, Italyyautías/ cocoyams 0.99–1.49 Costa Ricachayote verde/ green alligator pear

1.03 Costa Rica

malangas/ taros 1.39–1.79 Nicaraguañames/ yams 1.59–2.99 Jamaica, Costa

Ricapanapén/ breadfruit 1.79 Dominican

Republicapio/ celeriac 2.99 Dominican

Republic

Note : Price ranges refl ect differences over time and in some cases among different crops within the same genus.

Fig. 2. Relative structure of Hartford 1993–1994 (HT93), Hartford 2009–2010 (HT09), and Puerto Rico 2009 (PR) markets based on (A) number of crops present and on (B) percentage of total crops present. Usage categories are: FR (frutas/fruits), SA (saborizantes/fl avorings), VE (vegetales/vegetables), and VI (viandas/fresh, starchy crops).

D. trifi da was more important in Puerto Rico in earlier times and has been supplanted by the Old World yams due to their larger size (more fl esh per peeled surface area), higher yields (yields are especially high in D. alata , Purseglove, 1975 ), or greater storability. The observation that D. trifi da was the only yam in the Puerto Rican market with protective wax coating points to it as perhaps being more prone to early rotting than the other yams. It is also possible that D. trifi da never played a major role in the diet of Puerto Rico’s inhabitants and that they never developed a strong cultural attachment to it because of the other “root” crops native to northern South America that were available in Puerto Rico around the same time ( Espenshade, 2000 ; Pagán-Jiménez, 2011 ). Northern South America was an important region for the prehistoric use of native, starchy, un-derground crops (e.g., Ipomoea batatas , Manihot esculenta , and Xanthosoma species), possibly by fi shing communities who used plants essentially for starch ( Sauer, 1981 ). The presence of these other starchy crops in the pre-Columbian era might have led to lower cultural stature for D. trifi da in the Caribbean, un-like the high cultural stature that was enjoyed by African or Asian yams in their native regions ( Ayensu and Coursey, 1972 ). Of course, even if the original Amerindians of Puerto Rico had formed a strong cultural attachment to D. trifi da , that attach-ment might have been lost after the arrival of the Spanish and the subsequent destruction of the indigenous culture. Perhaps just as the Amerindian population was replaced by the Europeans and their slaves, so too were some of their crop plants and cuisine.

Foods of slavery become celebration foods— Some of the most sought-after and celebrated crops in Puerto Rican cuisine, purchased now in Hartford at high prices relative to other nutri-tionally equivalent foods, almost as luxury foods, originally were brought to the Caribbean from the Old World to either feed slaves or to be produced on plantations through slave la-bor. Key examples of such crops include: Dioscorea alata and D. rotundata , bananas, plantains, sugarcane, breadfruit, and gandules. Despite the tragic practices surrounding the arrival of these crops to Puerto Rico, the crops, like the Africans them-selves, have come to form an integral part of what it is to be Puerto Rican. The complicated routes by which some Old World crops have become established parts of the Puerto Rican

in Puerto Rico or Hartford markets are native to Puerto Rico. However, there is evidence that D. trifi da was used in Puerto Rico in pre-Columbian times ( Pagán-Jiménez, 2011 ). Di-oscorea alata and D. rotundata arrived much later in Puerto Rico, in early post-Columbian times, transported in the holds of slave-trade ships ( Purseglove, 1975 ). Given the greater histori-cal connection of D. trifi da with the Caribbean and the gener-ally high regard of it as food in that region ( Purseglove, 1975 ), one might expect this species to be the yam with greatest promi-nence in the markets of Puerto Rico. However, we found that while D. alata cv. Florido and D. rotundata cv. Guinea were sold by almost every vendor in all three Puerto Rico markets studied, D. trifi da was only sold by a single vendor in one mar-ket (i.e., Río Piedras). The limited representation of D. trifi da in the Puerto Rican markets cannot be ascribed to the seasonality of the crop, given that we recorded it in Hartford 1993–1994 during June and July and September through January. Perhaps


that nine of these genera had representatives present for at least 12 of 13 mo in the Hartford market. As noted, the crops within some of these nine genera had different availabilities in Hartford 1993–1994, but there was always at least one vianda crop from each of those genera available during those 12 mo. Thus, there seems to be enough demand to maintain diversity in the viandas in the Hartford Puerto Rican market, at least at the generic level.

This high demand for viandas and their consistent diversity throughout the year is surprising for a number of reasons, in-cluding that many cost more than other sources of starch (e.g., rice and pasta). Also, all of the viandas serve a similar dietary role: providing a foundational carbohydrate/starch in the meal, thus appearing to create a redundancy of function in the market. Additionally, viandas are among the most challenging crops to sell fresh in the Hartford market, given that they are mostly imported from the tropical zones. This contrasts with some other crops, such as tomatoes (a key saborizante), that are grown in temperate areas, including during winter months (hothouse cultivation). Yet viandas are the most frequently available us-age category. Furthermore, the majority of plant-based starch calories in the Puerto Rican diet (whether in Puerto Rico or an-other location such as Hartford) may come from other sources, such as bread (wheat fl our) and rice ( Tucker et al., 1998 ). Rice, in particular, is obviously important with preparations such as arroz con habichuelas (rice with beans) or arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) as typical foods ( Pérez y González, 2000 ). Thus, the diversity and year-round availability of vian-das is notable and may be indicative of the importance of the group as a food, as a starch source, but perhaps also as a tribute to its cultural role.

Hartford interviewees explained that the diversity of fresh, starchy crops is important to their cuisine because sometimes the different types of viandas (essentially each “type” constitut-ing a different genus) are used in different ways. For example, some of the viandas are fried as savory chips, or fried and mashed (e.g., the masa in the iconic mofongo), while others are usually eaten boiled as a side dish or included in stews (e.g., the traditional sancocho). Interviewees explained as well that even when various viandas are prepared similarly or in the same dish, the appreciation for the preparation is greater when there is a diversity of viandas. It is for all of these reasons that we conclude that the viandas can be considered the most prominent of the usage categories in the fresh crop markets; it is a key group, perhaps a “keystone” group, as we suggest below.

Conclusions — The data show a strong conservation of crops from Puerto Rico to Hartford (over distance) and in the Hartford Puerto Rican community over time—in spite of some crop “de-letions and insertions” (sensu Nguyen, 2006 ). It certainly does seem to be the case that, paraphrasing the Hemmingway quote, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in [Puerto Rico] as a young [person], then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for [Puerto Rican cuisine] is a moveable feast.” The strong and continuing demand over time for these crops in the Hartford Puerto Rican community, representative of what we suggest is a strong cultural identity tied to this cui-sine, is notable for a number of reasons. Among these are the heterogeneous and largely Old World combination of both peo-ples and crops and the association with slavery and extermina-tion of native populations that are part of the history of Puerto Rico. It is perhaps counterintuitive that this might lead to fi del-ity for a cuisine. In addition, the Puerto Rican community in

cuisine is exemplifi ed by the gandul. Although the gandul is originally from India, it arrived in Africa over 4000 yr ago and was an important crop there long before the slave trade from West Africa to the Caribbean ( van der Maesen, 1995 ). These high-protein seeds (21% dry mass; van der Maesen, 1995 ) are typically used by Puerto Ricans for the popular rice dish “arroz con gandules”. As with so many crops, gandules went from be-ing used for the subsistence of slaves to being an icon of cul-tural identity that is now considered an important part of Puerto Rican food identity, and is recreated wherever the Puerto Rican population has traveled.

Geographic (re)unifi cation through cuisine— The fact that present-day Puerto Rican cuisine is a combination of crops from the Old and New World is perhaps most striking when consider-ing Old and New World crops from the same family used to-gether. One example is in the Araceae, with the New World yautías ( Xanthosoma ) being sold side-by-side with the Old World malangas ( Colocasia ), as two “root” crop viandas. Cilantro, a domesticate from the Old World, and recao, a native of the New World, both from the Apiaceae, provide another example. These two herbs are used together as two major ingredients in the sauce sofrito, the fl avor base of many Puerto Rican dishes. The unifi ca-tion of geographically disparate members of the same botanical families in Puerto Rican cuisine mirrors the interaction of peoples from diverse cultural backgrounds to form a community and a cultural cuisine that today is “Puerto Rican”.

Importance placed on crops grown in Puerto Rico— The cul-tural identity of fresh crops in Puerto Rican cuisine is celebrated to an even greater extent when they are grown in Puerto Rico. In Hartford markets there were few crops advertised as coming directly from Puerto Rico, but when this was the situation, in-terviewees indicated it constituted a major selling point. Not surprisingly, more crops advertised as Puerto Rico-grown were available in Puerto Rico, and most vendors in Puerto Rico touted at least one of their crops to be locally grown. Vendors often sold both imported and locally grown “del país” versions of the same crop side-by-side, and consistently charged a higher price for the produce grown in Puerto Rico. Interviewees ex-plained that they would be willing to pay more for locally grown crops because they believed these crops to be fresher and more fl avorful, and also because they had cultural pride in “buying local”. Vendors in Puerto Rico explained that the presentation of different crops can indicate to a shopper if it is locally grown or not. For example, locally grown cassava will not be covered with preservative wax, and locally grown “root” crops of all types are caked with red or gray soil while imported crops have had to be cleaned before entering the country. So, interestingly, shoppers in Puerto Rico place higher value on, and correspond-ingly are willing to pay a higher price for, a “root” crop, locally grown, that is covered with soil.

Viandas are prominent — The category that stood out in all three surveys was the viandas. The prominence of viandas is demonstrated by the largest number of crops and the largest volume in the markets, and by far the greatest frequency across the calendar in our 13-mo Hartford study. The importance of viandas also extends to their utilization in Puerto Rican cuisine, constituting the only category of fresh market crops that offers a substantial caloric contribution to the diet.

The taxonomic diversity of this group in the market, with crops from 11 genera in 10 families, is impressive, as is the fact


Garibaldi and Turner (2004) defi ned their “cultural keystone species” concept as referring to “the culturally salient species that shape in a major way the cultural identity of a people, as refl ected in the fundamental roles these species have in diet, materials, medicine, and/or spiritual practices.” As in the work of Cristancho and Vining, they derived examples from indige-nous and in situ cultures.

Here, we take this idea in a somewhat different direction to consider the foods, and/or food groups , that are important to a migrant community in a region culturally and climatically/agriculturally different from their homeland. That is, in our particular study, viandas might be considered the most promi-nent component of the Puerto Rican fresh produce marketplace, and thus we argue might be considered the keystone group. Our variation on this concept is to recognize the “keystone” as dis-tinguishing a food group that is emblematic of this communi-ty’s cultural cuisine. In a more general sense, we suggest that perhaps this version of keystone, a cultural keystone food group, can be used to identify cultural conservatism in cuisine, perhaps especially for, or within, migrant and immigrant groups. Rec-ognition of such categories, when they can be identifi ed, may also facilitate comparative studies among cultural groups, mak-ing the studies easier to analyze and perhaps more quantitative (e.g., Winter and McClatchey, 2009 ).

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Hartford is surrounded by, and immersed within, a broader community that utilizes different crops. Furthermore, many of the key crops of the Puerto Rican community are perishable and imported mostly from tropical regions, and are thus less acces-sible and more expensive than the temperate nutritional equiva-lents available. All of that would seem to argue against the fi delity for the crops from “home”, against what we call “culi-nary cultural conservation”. We propose this concept and a sec-ond one to characterize these preferences. The second moniker we propose, “cultural keystone food group”, relates to the ap-parent focus on viandas as, in some ways, the most prominent food group in the Hartford market. We suggest these concepts may have broader application in ethnobotanical studies.

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Viandas as a cultural keystone food group — Furthermore, analysis of the data regarding the fresh produce in markets leads to the inevitable conclusion that it is the starchy crops, the vian-das, that are the most prominent in diversity, persistence, and volume in the market, and in the sense that economists use as the ultimate measure, the “willingness to pay” ( Just et al., 1982 ; i.e., people are willing to pay more for some viandas than other starch sources, such as pasta and rice). Ecologists recognize a keystone species as the key species in the construction and main-tenance of a community ( Paine, 1969 ). Cristancho and Vining (2003, 2004) and Garibaldi and Turner (2004) extended these ideas to studies of people and the plants and animals they de-pend on, that serve to help construct or stabilize their culture. The history of using a cultural analog for the keystone species concept extends back to 2000 (there is a more complete discus-sion of the gestation and publication history of this idea in the Endnotes section of the paper by Cristancho and Vining, 2004 ). Cristancho and Vining (2004 , p.155) proposed that their “cul-turally defined keystone species” concept applies to “those plant and animal species whose existence and symbolic value are essential to the stability of a cultural group over time.”

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