I've lived in the midwest all of my life, and grew up eating Rhubarb Pie that my grandmother made. The Rhubarb she used was from her garden, and is likely the d

I've lived in the midwest all of my life, and grew up eating Rhubarb Pie that my grandmother made. The Rhubarb she used was from her garden, and is likely the decedent of my original German homestead family from several generation back. Recently I've come to learn that Rhubarb is not native. Which was surprising to me because I see it everywhere. It came over from our European immigrants and has been hanging out ever since. Last spring I was hiking in a forest in ND, and came across a beautiful patch of rhubarb. This got me thinking -- where did this patch of Rhubarb come from? If all local Rhubarb eventually can be traced back to the mother plant brought over from Europe as immigrants made their way west, could we use genetic markers to trace individual patches back to specific homesteads, and ultimately to specific counties of origin in Europe? This kind of thing fascinates me. According to the linked article, the plant originally came from China. So in theory, only part of the story would be told by linking a patch back to Europe. You could continue to trace back all the way to China.