Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/29/domesticated-erect-knotweed.html
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I’m dreaming of a world where this is the most important Mueller investigation we have to think about…
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“Erect Knotweed cake” doesn’t have that same roll-off-the-tongue mouthfeel as “tortilla.”
We could change the name.
Kiwi (fruit) was deemed a better market name for the Chinese gooseberry, and although 猕猴桃 rolls nicely off my tongue, I do not think you could pronounce it correctly.
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Good point, I wonder what the original Illini or Chickasaw word for the plant is. It probably sounds a lot nicer.
Closest I can find is wheat in Chickasaw language:
tili’ko’ nihi’
I looked for erect knotweed, polygonum erectum, buckwheat, grain, etc. All I could find was wheat.
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Ask those guys, maybe they’ll have an answer (certainly not me, I barely know my hometown neighbor’s Cree language…)
Imagine all that knowledge that was lost. It’s like all those dinosaur fossils or greek tragedies that we will never find.
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Fascinating.
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One could re-dub it something like “American/Native buckwheat,” since it’s in that family. Not the same roll-off-the-tongue, but not so awkward (on multiple levels), either.
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maize was already edging out crops like erect knotweed.
Oh, I work with some of those, not fun…
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Yes. and it is another fragment in retracing lost knowledge.
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