Plant Portraits 13. Gifts from Ancient Mesoamerica

  (Note images in this series were generated with the assistance of modern AI tools. No actual human individuals are portrayed here. See the first installment of the series for further explanation)

 Although we think of our major agricultural crops as having originated in Eurasia, the peoples of the new world found uses for many of the unique plants found around them.

Although indigenous peoples may have been aware of rubber's property and made some use of 

it much earlier, the first documentation of rubber technology comes from the Olmec people 

of southern Mexico, some 3600 years ago. Here, an Olmec family taps a rubber tree in the 

forest for its latex. 

 

Olmec children play a traditional game with a rubber ball.

Fibers from the leaves of Agave spp. have been used by indigenous peoples throughout the 

Americas for millenia. Here, an ancient family in Mexico strips fiber from the leaves of 

Agave sisaliana. The fiber could be woven into a rough cloth, but was most important for making 

ropes, and hammocks.Cultivated Agave plants can be seen in the background.

Cacao was first cultivated and used for making beverages by the Olmec people some 3500 

years ago, though there is some evidence of earlier usage in northern South America. Such 

 use was greatly expanded by later civilizations like the Aztec.