[Sherman Logan]

Quite a number of plants were independently domesticated in North America.

But it does not appear any of them produced enough food to significantly change the society of the time.

Unlike maize, when it came along, which created a population explosion and huge changes in society wherever it went.

Cahokia in 1200 was twice the size of London.

[muawiyah]

Beans were domesticated in the Americas. There are hundreds of common and thousands of less common varieties.

I think beans, squash and corn ~ together ~ "the three sisters" ~ are recognized by everyone as foundational to all cultures in the Americas. Even today modern descendants of wealthy Europeans sit down to dinner to the exact same meals enjoyed by American Indians 5,000 years ago.