Wetlands are wonderful places, as people have known for thousands of years. Their rich soil and abundant water make for excellent crop land, usually once some of the abundance of water has been drained away. At Halstead Meadow, a wetland in Sequoia National Park, a group of crop plants sprouted out from the ashes in patches burned in the 2021 KNP Complex wildfire. These agricultural plants – wheat, sunflower, millet, sorghum, and corn – grew only in the summer of 2022, and only in areas where the KNP fire had burned away the top 4-6 inches of organic wetland soil. The seeds had probably been lying dormant, buried under wetland soil, since they were planted over a century ago before Sequoia National Park existed. Back then a cattleman named Sam Halstead had used this meadow for grazing, and apparently for growing a few crops! I collected leaf and seed samples from each of these plants and they’re sitting in my freezer. I’m hoping to find a expert in crop varieties who would be willing to analyze the genetics of these plants to see if they belong to old crop lineages. Wetlands preserve a wealth of fascinating stories.
