It Is Hard To Say How Long These Plants Have Been Used For Food, But The First People Known To Eat This Plant Are The Calusa A

According to the Florida Native Plant Society - "Florida Native Plant" refers to those species occurring within the state boundaries prior to European contact, according to best scientific and historical documentation. More specifically, it includes those species understood as indigenous, occurring in natural associations in habitats that existed prior to significant human impacts - and alterations of the landscape.” The classification of indigenous plants as understood as those species occurring within a specific habitat or biogeographical region prior to significant human impacts is more precise in meaning. In one sense, indigenous implies origination and belonging to a particular place. Indigenous species would include those naturally occurring and self- reproducing species dispersed by wind, water, and birds in populations unaffected by human actions. Indigenous species are those species that have originated and belong in a particular place and a specific habitat which can be geographically identified.

There have been tribes of native people in Florida for the last 10,000 years. As new tribes came down from the main part of North America, these tribes changed. It is hard to say how long these plants have been used for food, but the first people known to eat these plants where the Calusa, Tacobaga and Timucua Indians. Several of these tribes have been documented to live right here in Pinellas County.

Willow tree bark was used to make aspirin. Wax myrtle leaves could be rubbed on the skin as insect repellent or used to make candles. Pine and cypress tree trunks were made into canoes. The branches and trunks of hickory trees were made into bows. River cane stems were used to make arrows. Palm and palmetto leaves were woven into mats and baskets and used to make the roofs of their huts.

is one of the oldest and most primitive of the living seed-bearing plants. These plants are slow growing. “Coontie” have a unique ability to pull its stem into the earth keeping the “Coontie” and its starch safe from fire and predation by herbivores. “Coonties” further discourage predation with a toxin, macrozamin.

The Indians would cut up pieces of the stems and pound them out into a powder as much as possible. They would then wash this in water several times and then let the starch sink to the bottom. The paste was taken and fermented, and then dried to a powder “Coontie” is one of the names the Seminoles had for this plant and it roughly means "flour root.”

1 When the white men came to Florida they also used the stems for food. Their name for this plant was "Arrow Root.” Around 1845, several factories sprung up all over south Florida to produce starch from the “Coontie.” One of the mills along the Miami River is said to have processed 10-15 tons of product per day at peak production. In south Florida, a natural population would grow very slow. It can take 30 years to grow a plant that might weigh five pounds. These factories produced starch until 1925.

Sea Grape

is a common plant on our beaches and shores. “Sea Grape” trees were once used for everything from medicine to furniture to food. The sap or resin from the tree (called “kino”) has been used in the process of tanning and dying and as an astringent for wounds. A tea can be made from the roots, leaves, and bark to treat hoarseness, asthma, hemorrhaging, and diarrhea. Cabinets and furniture have been made from the wood of the tree, and the leaves may have served as a substitute for paper.

2 “Yaupon holly” is one of the few plants native to North America that contains the ingredient caffeine. This chemical is concentrated in the leaves when they are first growing in the spring. Yaupon usually grows in coastal areas. Many of the native societies collected these leaves and roasted them, steeped the leaves in hot water. This is the making of the “The Black Drink” used as a ceremonial drink, usually drunk quickly to caused increased sweating and vomiting.

Bibliography

Small J. 1921. Seminole bread - The Coontie. Journal of The New York Botanical Garden

Ward, D. B. (editor). Rare and Endangered Biota of Florida, Vol. 5. University Press of Florida: Gainesville. 1997.

Milanich, Jerald T., Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe. University Press of Florida: Gainesville. 1995.

Hudson, Charles (editor). 1979. The Black Drink: A Native American Tea. University of Georgia Press. Athens