An Analysis of Pollen from Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest: the South Profile of the Gully Located within Site B

Nineteen soil samples from Site B, an early nineteenth-century site located in Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest (Virginia) were submitted to the Fiske Center for palynological analysis. Over 100 distinct taxa were recovered from the eleven samples that were considered to be well preserved enough to allow for a representative reconstruction of past environmental conditions. When viewed collectively, the recovered taxa describe a landscape consisting of both managed ornamental grounds and areas of open soil such as those consistent with agricultural and heavily utilized fields, augmenting and confirming historical records of land use at Poplar Forest.