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Leafy Legacies Database
For Site Plant Indicators
HAR's Leafy Legacies Database For Site Plant Indicators is a growing archive of site plant indicators—a record of botanical echoes left by past human activity. Whether tracing persistent tree lines marking abandoned homesteads, resilient flora reclaiming industrial ruins, or subtle vegetal cues signaling long-buried archaeological features, this initiative brings historical ecology into focus. By crowdsourcing plant observations linked to site types, we refine the art of recognizing living heritage, helping archaeologists, preservationists, and history enthusiasts decode landscapes with greater precision. These overlooked ecological footprints—rooted in memory, disturbance, and adaptation—offer a fresh way to anticipate site visibility, strengthen conservation efforts, and deepen our ability to read the long shadows of history in the plants that persist. User-friendly archaeologist-bent field plant guides are forthcoming!
By engaging with this database and the Deep Time Commons, you agree to credit John S. Harris, with Harris Anthropological Research LLC (HAR) in any resulting presentations' and publications' acknowledgements. Additionally, please provide HAR with a copy of non-confidential works that arise from this resource.
Flower Image | Leaf Image | Stem/Bark Image | Seed/Fruit Image | Common Name | Genus | Species | Variety | Anthropogenic Vegetation Category | Describe in Greater Detail | Archaeological Site Type or Other Cultural Site/Landscape Type | Cultural Feature Type | Relational and Spatial Pattern Description | Degree of Synanthropy | State or Province | Country (if not U.S.A.) | Literature Reference | Reference Link | Number of Observations | Growth Habit | Other (Non-literature) Reference | Other Field Observations or Habitat Notes | Ethnographically Observed/Ethnohistorian Noted Behaviors and Interactions With Plant | Herbarium Specimen URL | Ethnographic, Ethnohistoric, or Archival Reference | Plant Indicator Verified | Preferred Growth Setting | Species Preferred Growth Settings | Species' Dispersal Mechanisms | Species Settings and Dispersal Method References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
wisteria | Wisteria | Anthropophytes, Concentration of apophytes, Botanical co-occurrences | May occur with decorative species like lilies, trumpet vine, Vinca minor, and periwinkle at domestic sites yards | Historic Sites, domestic sites | Yards, Residences | residential foundations and yards | Casual Synanthrope | NY | Harris, John, 2018. The Sylvan Blindspot: The Archaeological Value of Surface Vegetation and a Critique of its Documentation. Master's Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Scholarworks, Montana. | https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11214/ | 1 | VI | No | ||||||||||||||||
wolfberry (pale desert-thorn) | Lycium | pallidum | plant-site association, non-random distribution pattern, high sociability | Precontact sites, habitation sites, horticultural sites, botanical co-occurrence | kivas, architectural features, fields | Favors masonry rubble mounds of Ancestral Puebloan houses, co-occurs with other disturbance loving vegetation in reports | Tangential Synanthrope | NM, CO | Harris, John, 2018. The Sylvan Blindspot: The Archaeological Value of Surface Vegetation and a Critique of its Documentation. Master's Thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Montana, Scholarworks, Montana. | https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/11214/ | 7 | SH | Also see https://bioone.org/journals/journal-of-ethnobiology/volume-37/issue-2/0278-0771-37.2.218/Solanum-jamesii--Evidence-for-Cultivation-of-Wild-Potato-Tubers/10.2993/0278-0771-37.2.218.full | No | |||||||||||||||
yellowtuft | Alyssum | corsicum | plant-site association, high sociability, higher abundance | Historic Sites, mining sites | slag piles | inhabits heavy nickel ultramafic serpentine soils | Casual Synanthrope | Haute-Corse | France | Brooks, R.R., 1989. Phytoarchaeology. Endeavour, 13(2), pp.66-71. Pergamon Press.
| 1 | HE | No | ||||||||||||||||
yew | Taxus | plant-site association, non-random distribution pattern | cemetery, graveyard, churchyard | burial | Tangential Synanthrope | Augé, C.R., 2022. Field Manual for the Archaeology of Ritual, Religion, and Magic. Berghahn Books, 208. | 1 | TR | No | ||||||||||||||||||||
zinc violet | Viola | lutea | plant-site association, botanical co-occurrence, high sociability, higher abundance | may co-occur with Noccaea caerulescens subsp. calaminaris over mining deposits/slag piles | Mining sites | slag piles | Casual Synanthrope | North Rhine-Westphalia | Germany | Brooks, R.R., 1989. Phytoarchaeology. Endeavour, 13(2), pp.66-71. Pergamon Press.
| 1 | HE | No |