I. nil questions

Ron had referred elsewhere in this forum to DNA analysis showing that Ipomoea nil originated somewhere in South America as opposed to somewhere in Asia. My question to anyone who might know or have an educated guess is: approximately how long have the Japanese been growing it? My curiosity about this goes to patterns of ocean currents and aboriginal trade routes in the Pacific.

I've ruminated about this mystery before, but let me rattle on a bit more here. In the middle of the Pacific, imagine a triangle. Let's call the triangle "Polynesia", bounded on its three outer-most points by Hawaii (northern-most point), Easter Island (closest to South America) and New Zealand (closest to Indonesia). Within this triangle, Thor Heyerdahl hypothesized that Asia could have met up with South America. That's not how he put it, but (according to DH) Polynesian culture and archaeology support the theory that Polynesia was settled by east Asians from around Indonesia, and THAT bunch would have had to paddle AGAINST ocean currents to get to Polynesia.

Heyerdahl pointed out that the bunch from South America had an easier time getting to Polynesia, because they would have been paddling WITH ocean currents. He built a raft similar to what they might have used out of reeds and actually made it from the Pacific coast of South America to islands within the Polynesian triangle (Easter Island?).

For a long time, we all thought Japanese morning glories were - well - Japanese. So, especially with regard to Ipomoea nil, I'd love to have an idea how long ago that species might have arrived in Japan, considering the amazing journey it would have taken to get there.

My second question about I. nil is that the PlantFiles entry for I. nil 'Sazanami' puts that particular MG as winter-hardy to zone 5a (-20*F). Really?

bluespiral - interesting...

Here is one of Dr.Yoneda's comment on Ipomoea nil origins
http://taxa.soken.ac.jp/Asagao/E/locality/introduction.html

There is a somewhat analogous situation with regard to the origins of Ipomoea batatas in the SouthWest Pacific predating the introduction of Ipomoea batatas by European from the New World...

Check out the Ipomoea batatas links I added on this thread here...3rd post from the bottom...
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/557992/

The Ipomoea nil seeds may survive the cold of zone 5a after they are fully matured and dried...

TTY,...

Ron

Always a fascinating topic!

Dr. Yoneda's comments in the last paragraph of this page also sheds some light into his thoughts...with reference to I. batas as well.
http://taxa.soken.ac.jp/Asagao/E/locality/05.html

Reference number 3 would probably add substance and detail to current though at that time.

Arlan

Agreed. If I get caught up with a few things, it would be fun to look into botanical records from Captain Cook's 18th century expeditions and map morning glory species with South Amercan DNA according to what part of the Pacific Captain Cook found them in. I'm not sure what that would tell us, but I can't help wondering about it.

Whatever we find, the fact noted by Ron that wind and ocean currents, along with birds, can move plants and seeds great distances might make my questions moot about inferring anything about aboriginal patterns of movement in the Pacific from the dispersal of native South American plants. And then, there are some alternate routes I need to research before I talk about them.

A couple of useful directions:

There are some lists of plants according to when and where Captain Cook "discovered" them during his expeditions in the 1700s - following is just a start for hunting:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Calystegia+%2B+%22Captain+Cook%22&btnG=Google+Search

NARGS said the following site could help link new Latin names to old: http://www.efloras.org/flora_page.aspx?flora_id=1 but I haven't tested it yet

Sorry I don't have more time to do justice to this mystery right now - will be back

karen