[Terrapreta] Fwd: PHOTOS ABOUT CATTAIL

[Richard Haard]

Yes , I have first hand experience the young shoots and are quite  
good. These shoots and cattail corn is what I consume from clean water  
sources. Note in reference below quality of rhizomes is higher in some  
nutrients than other root crops. Cattail also concentrates phosphorus  
and may be a soil fertility feedstock,

as biochar (there I'm covered)   ;>)

Rich

Just as with the liliaceae bulb the camas, Cattail use has been  
replaced by the standard agricultural mix but may play a role in the  
future

cattail biology

OTHER USES:
Native Americans and early European settlers utilized broadleaf  
cattail as a food source, a construction material, and a medicine.  
Broadleaf cattail has numerous uses and has been referred to as the  
"supermarket of the swamps" [185]. Liptay [133] indicated that tribal  
wars were waged over control of broadleaf cattail marshes.

Food source: Broadleaf cattail is entirely edible, and Native  
Americans utilized broadleaf cattail year-round. Newly emerged sprouts  
were eaten as a green vegetable in the spring. Flower stalks were  
boiled and eaten like corn on the cob. Broadleaf cattail pollen, which  
has a nutty flavor and is high in protein, was added to other flours.  
Rhizomes were dug and eaten in the fall and winter. They were cooked  
or dried, pounded, and used in flour [1,10,133]. Comparisons of the  
nutrient values of broadleaf cattail, rice, and potatoes revealed that  
broadleaf cattail shoots and rhizomes contained much more calcium,  
iron, and potassium than potatoes or rice [133]. Broadleaf cattail was  
utilized as a food source by the Kawaiisu of south-central California  
[239], the Cahuilla of southern California [13], the Apache and other  
southwestern Natives [26], Native people along the Atlantic Coast  
[51], the Menominee of northern Wisconsin, the Ojibwe in Michigan  
[185], and likely many others.

Construction/ornamental/ceremonial material: Broadleaf cattail had a  
tremendous number of household and ceremonial uses. Leaves were used  
to make mats, dolls, baskets, and shelters. The hairs of fruits were  
used as sound-proofing material, insulation, pillow and lifejacket  
stuffing, and as tinder for fire starting. A paste made from rhizomes  
was used to caulk leaky canoes [10,133]. Early European settlers used  
the hollow broadleaf cattail stems to make candles [50]. Native people  
of the Pacific Northwest wove leaves into bedding, kneeling mats,  
capes, hats, blankets, and bags. Seed fluff was used to dress wounds  
and to stuff pillows, mattresses, and diapers [172]. Fluff material  
from seeds was used by the Menominee of northern Wisconsin and the  
Ojibwe of Michigan to insulate boots and jackets [185]. The same  
material was used by tribes of the Missouri River region as diaper  
material, pillow filling, and cradle board padding. Broadleaf cattail  
stem pieces were used as ceremonial objects by the Omaha and Ponca  
people [70]. Natives of southern California used broadleaf cattail  
leaves to construct houses as well as bedding [13,239]. Navaho people  
wore bracelets and necklaces made of broadleaf cattail leaves during  
the Male Shooting Chant ceremony, and dancers were dusted with  
broadleaf cattail pollen in other ceremonies [53]. The northern  
Cheyenne of Montana incorporated broadleaf cattail leaves into their  
Sun Dance [95].

Medicinal use: Broadleaf cattail was most commonly used as a wound  
dressing. Rhizomes were ground into a salve for wounds [133]. The  
Cahuilla of southern California used broadleaf cattail rhizomes to  
stop bleeding [13]. The northern Cheyenne of Montana made a tea of  
roots and leaf bases to treat stomach cramps [95]. The Sioux mixed  
"downy" cattail fruits with coyote fat to treat smallpox sores [94].  
Tribes of the Missouri River region used fluff from broadleaf cattail  
seeds to make burn dressings [70]. For more on the past, current, and  
potential future uses of broadleaf cattail and other cattail species,  
see Morton [158].




On May 20, 2008, at 3:29 PM, chris braun wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I read that the rhizomes of typha (i.e. cattail) may be eaten by  
> people and have even a high nutritional value...Does any of you has  
> actually knowledge and/or experience about this use of typha ?
>
> Sincerely yours,
> Christelle
>
>
> On May 20, 2008, at 11:50 PM, Kevin Chisholm wrote:
>
>> Dear Richard
>>
>> Richard Haard wrote:
>>> There are some other realities.
>>>
>>> Seasonally dry fields can be only of marginal use for agriculture
>>> there may be a period when field is accessible
>>> we grow cattails at our nursery as 1 and 2-0 plants.
>>
>> I don't know thew terminology, but I presume this is for 1 and two
>> plants in separate clumps. If so, then this would be very much  
>> easire to
>> hargest than would be a tangled mat.
>>> Starch accumulates well in fall roots. Does this also happen in wild
>>> populations?
>>
>> I am not sure, but I believe it does; the plants store energy and
>> nutrients so that tehy can come back to life after teh dormancy  
>> season.
>>
>>> Equipment can be adapted. I have suggested a lifter-shaker as is  
>>> used
>>> in our bare root nursery, there is also potato digger which in the
>>> nearby skagit valley works in very mucky soils during winter
>>
>> Certainly, equipment can be adapted. In teh case where teh land has a
>> "dry season" where it can be traversed, or in teh case where there  
>> is a
>> "hard bottom, beyond which teh machine won't sink, harvesting  
>> should not
>> be overly difficult.
>>>
>>> lastly floating harvester/dredge can be adapted from system used by
>>> clam diggers.
>>
>> The problem here would be the forces involved. Big forces = big  
>> buoyancy
>> requirements = big machinery, or the need for a hard bottom, to  
>> support
>> "spuds" that will take the digging load.
>>>
>>> Basics on real usefulness of 'wild stands' and mitigating env  
>>> impacts
>>> needs to be studied. Strictly biomass for methane production? or
>>> capturing starch for ETOH ? the former would only require mowing  
>>> like
>>> pasture and not digging.
>>
>> As I understand it, the starch is stored in the root system, and the
>> "above ground" growth is mainly cellulostic. There are probably  
>> cheaper
>> sources of cellulostic biomass in areas where cattail biomass grows.
>>>
>>> It may be best to set up cultivated stands with plants of uniform  
>>> age
>>> at least after initial harvest.
>>
>> I get very discouraged at the potential for Cattail Harvest when I  
>> see
>> the entanglement in local bogs with deep soft bottoms. However, there
>> may very well be an opportunity for "Cattail Plantations" that are  
>> laid
>> out in ways to permit easy harvesting, and perhaps they can be
>> harvested  in a manner that makes regrowth and subsequent  harvesting
>> easier. For example,  perhaps a  "strip harvest pattern" would make  
>> it
>> easy for subsequent harvests.... the strips to be harvested would  
>> have
>> "weak strips" on both sides, and they may be much more readily  
>> harvested.
>>
>> Perhaps "wild cattail harvesting" is a loser, but that a Cattail
>> Plantation that was part of a municipal sewage treatment system could
>> make enormous good sense, both environmentally and economically. From
>> what I understand, a Cattail Plantation could make an excellent  
>> Tertiary
>> Sewage Treatment Plant.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Kevin
>>>
>>> On May 20, 2008, at 11:21 AM, Kevin Chisholm wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear Brian
>>>>
>>>> Brian Hans wrote:
>>>>> I frequent Thailand quite often and live in Wisconsin. /T.
>>>>> angustifolia/  is in both places, thick. Cattails represent a
>>>>> tremendous annual C and NPK... source that is virtually 100%
>>>>> recycled into CO2 and worse, CH4 and loss of Nutrients down stream
>>>>> (Ocean dead zones). Human fix more N than biology does, and all  
>>>>> that
>>>>> P, K digging doesnt just evaporate... there is far too much C and
>>>>> NPK being pumped into our environment.
>>>>> I vote that we develop the ability to harvest cattail marshes. I
>>>>> think (as an ecologist) that we can do this with more benefit than
>>>>> damage. A invasive spp. monoculture marsh doesnt offer a whole lot
>>>>> of biodiversity and ecology anyhow except as a kidney. And by
>>>>> removing C and NPK... from the system, we are very much enhancing
>>>>> that filtering capability of the marsh. Farmer gets his C and NPK
>>>>> back for a small price.
>>>>
>>>> Certainly, it would be nice to be able to harvest Cattails, but how
>>>> can this be done??? The roots tangle together in a most  
>>>> uncooperative
>>>> manner, such that they need heavy machinery to deal with them. Some
>>>> people feel that Cattail roots are anchored around the Gates of  
>>>> Hell.
>>>> :-)
>>>>
>>>> In natural circumstances, they generally seem to grow in bottomless
>>>> bogs, that are great places to lose heavy machinery. :-)
>>>> What would you suggest as a practical concept for growing and
>>>> harvesting Cattails?
>>>>
>>>> Best wishes,
>>>>
>>>> Kevin
>>>>> I cant wait for a portable gasifier tractor that can be run like a
>>>>> combine... in my lifetime.
>>>>> Brian
>>>>> */Richard Haard <richrd at nas.com>/* wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>  Michael
>>>>>  It's a stretch on this list but Ben and I have Been discussing
>>>>>  this for over a year in the context of biofuels utilizing the
>>>>>  starch in the rhizomes and also reinventing agriculture  by
>>>>>  utilizing land considered marginal for purposes of traditional
>>>>>  farming and native plants that might become new crops with
>>>>>  additional uses for food, fiber and economic endeavor for local
>>>>>  farmers. We've been working over this topic on the gasification
>>>>>  list but I suppose Ben posted here because we are more oriented  
>>>>> to
>>>>>  farming/growing plants.
>>>>>  For me the link to terra preta is the link to agriculture as is /
>>>>>  was practiced by native peoples in different parts of the world.
>>>>>  In my part of the world a well known ethnobotanist, Dr Nancy
>>>>>  Turner, was editor for a book (conference proceedings)
>>>>>  titled keeping it living
>>>>>  <http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/DEUKEC.html>   in
>>>>>  which the authors countered the popular supposition that the
>>>>>  native peoples of the PNW  were simple hunter gathers and instead
>>>>>  they were actively cultivating plants long before contact with  
>>>>> the
>>>>>  Europeans.
>>>>>  from the review
>>>>>
>>>>>   Keeping It Living tells the story of traditional plant
>>>>>  cultivation practices found from the Oregon coast to Southeast
>>>>>  Alaska. It explores tobacco gardens among the Haida and Tlingit,
>>>>>  managed camas plots among the Coast Salish of Puget Sound and the
>>>>>  Strait of Georgia, estuarine root gardens along the central coast
>>>>>  of British Columbia, wapato maintenance on the Columbia and  
>>>>> Fraser
>>>>>  Rivers, and tended berry plots up and down the entire coast.
>>>>>
>>>>>  Especially interesting to me is the fact that the method of
>>>>>  cultivation of these native peoples was passive in a natural
>>>>>  environment and also that some of the early settlers respected  
>>>>> the
>>>>>  heritage of these original peoples and as they settled into their
>>>>>  places, intermarried, took the effort to learn their methods and
>>>>>  uses of native plants. A long time friend of mine now deceased  
>>>>> was
>>>>>  fourth generation descendant who had kept this knowledge alive.
>>>>>  For some time I would interview her on this topic and one story
>>>>>  she told me was about her childhood living on San Juan Island
>>>>>  during the great depression years and it was their knowledge and
>>>>>  use of native plants that kept them alive.
>>>>>  Perhaps , just like terra preta there is something here that may
>>>>>  show us how we are going to be making our energy and food after
>>>>>  the oil is gone.
>>>>>  Thanks for the link to NZ Typha species. There are 4 species in
>>>>>  Argentina including the ubiquitous Typha latifolia of North  
>>>>> America.
>>>>>  Rich
>>>>>  On May 18, 2008, at 2:24 AM, Michael Bailes wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha 
>>>>>> ~orientalis
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Typha%7Eorientalis 
>>>>>> >
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattail
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  Why is it important?
>>>>>>  m
>>>>>>
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