#nativeamericanuse

Fragaria virginiana // Wild Strawberry, Common Strawberry

Origin:  Native to Eastern North America

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Genus Fragaria comes from the Latin word Fraga for strawberries, most likely originating from “fragrans” in reference to the plant’s fragrant fruit.  Common name Strawberry comes from the historic practice of mulching the plant with straw, which fought the possible threat of fungal diseases.

Strawberries were cultivated by Native Americans and colonists as a food and medicinal source.  Commercially bought Strawberries today are a hybrid of Fragaria virginiana (which has an ideal sweet flavor) and Fragaria chiloensis (which produces larger berries).  

Zone:  5-9

Habitat:  Easily grown in fertile, moist to dry, well-drained soils in full sun to partial shade. Prefers organically rich, sandy loams.  Generally dislikes high Summer heat, humidity and strong winds.  Found in anthropogenic habitats, fields and meadows, and along shores of lakes and rivers.  

Mature Size:  0.25-0.75′ tall with 1-2′ spread.  Spreads with ground-hugging runners (stolons).

Leaves:  Trifoliate leaves with three coarsely toothed leaflets (leaflets grow to 2.5″ long).  Each leaf appears on a slender stalk (up to 6″ long).

Flower/Fruit:  Monoecious.  Five-petaled white flowers are about 3/4″ across, and have a multitude of yellow-anthered center stamens.  Flowers bloom in April-May in flat umbel-like clusters (4-6 flowers each) below the leaves. Flowers give way to achene-dotted ovoid fruits (up to 1/2″) which mature to red.  Seeds are embedded in the pits of the strawberries. 

[www.gobotany.newenglandwild.org]

Rubus allegheniensis // Common Blackberry

Origin:  Native to North America

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Genus Rubus means Red, and refers to a collection of plants with fruit consisting of small, rounded segments that make up a single larger berry.  Alternately called Appalachian Raspberry and Dewberry.

Harvested by both colonists and Native Americans in the 17 and 1800′s as a food source, and has also been consistently valued for medicinal properties, dyes, teas, and wine.

Zone:  3-9

Habitat:  Urban Growth community.  Prefers organically-rich, well-drained soils, but also tolerates clay-loam or rocky soil.  Grows best in full sunlight to partial shade.  Found in anthropogenic habitats, forest edges, and fields/meadows.  

Mature Size:  3-6′ tall with 2-4′ spread.    

Leaves:  Alternate.  Palmately compound leaves with long petiole have 3-7 ovate, doubly serrated leaflets.  Leaflets are dark green above, lighter green and pubescent below.

Flower/Fruit:  Monoecious.  Showy white flowers (1″ across) are borne in racemes consisting of up to 12 blossoms, each with 5 petals.  The flowers bloom during late Spring or early Summer before giving way to 3/4″ drupes later in the Summer.  The drupes begin white or green, but eventually turn red, then ultimately almost black.  They are seedy and have a sweet flavor when fully matured.

[www.gobotany.newenglandwild.org]

[http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/]

Typha latifolia // Common Cattail, Broad-Leaved Cattail

Origin:  Native to North America, Europe, Northern and Central Asia, and Northern Africa

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Genus Typha comes from Greek Typhos, meaning marsh, or Greek Typhe, meaning cat’s tail.  Common name comes from fuzzy, cylindrical fruiting spikes which resemble cat tails.  Alternate common names include Cat-o-Nine Tails, Bulrushes, and Cossack Asparagus.  

Used by both Native Americans and colonists as a food source and for various other purposes, including basket-making, matting/bedding, and rope-making.

Zone:  3-10

Habitat:  Easily grown in rich loams in full sun to part shade in water to 12” deep.  Found in anthropogenic habitats, fens, marshes, shores of rivers and lakes, and wetland margins.  Aggressive colonizers of human-disturbed areas.

Mature Size:  4-6′ tall with 4-6′ spread.  

Leaves:  Narrow, upright, mostly basal, green leaves grow up to 7’ long. Leaves rise from base of a stiff, unbranched central stalk that rises equal to or slightly less than the height of the leaves.

Flower/Fruit:  Monoecious.  Each stalk is topped with two sets of minute flowers densely packed into a cylindrical inflorescence.  Yellowish male flowers are located at the top of the inflorescence, greenish female flowers are underneath.  Flowers bloom in Summer, then the male flowers rapidly disperse, leaving a naked stalk tip.  Pollinated female flowers turn brown as the seeds mature, forming the familiar cylindrical cattail fruiting spike (up to 9” long). Foliage turns yellow-brown in Autumn. Fruiting spikes usually persist to early winter before disintegrating. 

[www.missouribotanicalgarden.org]

[www.gobotany.newenglandwild.org]

Polypodium virginianum // Rock Polypody

Origin:  Native to North America and Eastern Asia

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Alternate common names include Virginia Polypody, Rockcap Fern or American Wall Fern.  Common names derive from the plant’s ability to grow in extremely rocky, steep conditions. Genus Polypodium means “Many leaves.” 

It was widely used by Native Americans as a medicinal herb to treat stomach pains, colds, coughs, and sore throats.

Zone:  3-8

Habitat:  Prefers moist, humusy, somewhat infertile soils that drain well in partial to full shade.  Found on cliffs, ledges, ridges, and rocky slopes.

Mature Size:  0.5-1′ tall with 0.5-1′ spread.  Can be difficult to establish, but once adapted will naturalizes over time into large colonies by branched, creeping rhizomes.

Leaves:  Erect to arching, leathery fronds are oblong-lanceolate to triangular, deeply-cut, and pinnately lobed.

Flower/Fruit:  Reproduces through production and dispersal of spores. Soro are circular or kidney-shaped.  Young fiddleheads appear in the Spring.

[www.missouribotanicalgarden.org]

Castanea dentata // American Chestnut

Origin:  Native to Eastern United States

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Genus name Castanea comes from the name of a town in Thessaly, where these trees reportedly grew in abundance. Species epithet (dentata) describes toothed margins of leaves.  

Castanea dentata is referenced in the first line of H. W. Longfellow’s poem, “The Village Blacksmith.”  “Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands...”

Native Americans used parts of this tree to treat whooping cough, heart conditions, and chafed skin.

Nuts are sweet and edible, and are associated with the holiday season. (”Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...”)

Zone:  5 to 8

Habitat:  Oak Hickory community.  Grow in moist, well-drained loams in full sun.  Forest edges.  Forests.  

Mature Size:  Once grew to 50-75′ tall with 50-75′ spreading crowns, but now American Chestnut trees are only seen as young saplings before dying off from a fungus blight introduced from China in 1904.

Leaves:  Alternate.  Simple.  Toothed, dull green leaves (6-10″ long) turn shades of yellow in the Fall.  

Bark: Smooth and brown when young.  Develops distinctive fissures and ridges as it matures.  Blight-infested bark is sunken and split, often with visible orange fungal bodies.

Flower/Fruit:  Monoecious.  Aromatic yellow-white male flowers borne in dense clusters on slender, 4-8″ catkins in June.  Female flowers appear in smaller catkins in June.  Flowers give way to small, sweet nuts encased in spiny burrs (2-3″ in diameter).  2-3 nuts are housed in each burr.  

[www.missouribotanicalgarden.org]

[www.gobotany.newenglandwild.org]

Mitchella repens // Partridge Berry

Origin:  Native to North America

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Genus name Mitchella honors John Mitchell (1711-1768), a Virginian physician and correspondent of Linnaeus. Species epithet (repens) means creeping.  Common name refers to Partridges, which enjoy the berries as a food source.  Other birds and mammals also eat the berries.  Another alternate common name is Twin Berry, because two flowers result in one berry.

Native Americans used the leaves to brew tea.

Zone:  3 to 8

Habitat:  Grows in organically-rich, medium-moisture, well-drained soils in partial to full shade.  Can tolerate some drought.  Found in bluffs, bogs, stream banks, and forests. 

Mature Size:  0-0.5′ tall with 0.5-1′ spread.  Forms mat-like colonies, as stems will root at nodes.  

Leaves:  Opposite.  Oval, glossy, dark-green leaves grow up to 3/4″ long. Leaves appear in pairs at end of stem.  Can have whitish veining.  

Flower/Fruit:  Funnel-shaped, white flowers (about 1/2″ long) appear in Spring in pairs.  Flowers exude pleasant fragrance and are followed by round, bright red berries.  Edible berries ripen in late Summer.  A pair of flowers give way to a single berry, resulting in another common name of Twin Berry.  

[www.missouribotanicalgarden.org]

[www.gobotany.newenglandwild.org]

Juglans nigra // Black Walnut

Origin:  Native to Eastern United States

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Genus Juglans comes from the Latin names “jovis” meaning of Jupiter.  “Glans” means acorn.  Common name and species epithet (nigra) refer to the dark bark and nuts.

This native tree has been called our best friend in times of war and peace. Native Americans and early settlers used it for food, dyes, ink, medicine, fence posts, gun stocks and furniture.  They also boiled the sap for syrup and supposedly threw the husks into ponds to poison fish, making them easier to catch.

Juglans nigra is highly prized for both its edible nuts and beautiful, dark wood that is used for various commercial applications like furniture, cabinetry, and gunstocks.  

Zone:  4 to 9

Habitat:  Oak Hickory community.  Prefers moist and organically-rich, well-drained soils in full sunlight.  Intolerant of shade.  Found in anthropogenic habitats, forests, fields, and meadows.  

Mature Size:  75-100′ tall with 75-100′ spread with oval to rounded crown. Sends down deep taproot.  Mature trees have long trunks with absence of lower branches.  

Leaves:  Alternate.  Odd pinnate leaves are glossy and fragrant when crushed. Leaflets grow 6-9″ long and turn an undistinguished yellow in the Fall.

Bark:  Fissured, sharply ridged, dark gray-black bark forms diamond patterns.

Flower/Fruit:  Monoecious.  Yellow-green flowers appear in May-June, male flower in drooping catkins and female flowers in short terminal spikes that give way to edible nuts.  Nuts are encased in smooth, yellow-green husks (2-3″ diameter) that blacken and rot away when ripe in the Fall. 

[www.missouribotanicalgarden.org]

Sassafras albidum // Sassafras

Origin:  Native to Eastern North America

Etymology/Cultural Associations:  Sassafras is the American Indian name for the plant, adopted by the Spanish and French settlers in Florida in the middle of the 16th century.  Species epithet (albidum) refers to whitish, glaucous underside of leaves.  

Used by many Native Americans tribes, including Cherokee, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Delaware, Oklahoma, Houma, Iroquois, Koasati, Mohegan, Nanticoke, Rappahannock, and Seminole.  It was used for a wide variety of medicinal purposes.

Zone:  4 to 9

Habitat:  Barrier Beach community.  Grows easily in average, medium, well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, acidic, loamy soils, but tolerates dry, sandy soils.  Commonly found in anthropogenic habitats, woodlands, and woodland edges.  

Mature Size:  30-60′ tall with 25-40′ spread.  Dense, pyramidal crown.  Forms colonies due to suckering habit.  Sends down deep taproot. 

Leaves:  Alternate.  Simple. 4-7" long leaves appear in three shapes: ovate, mitten-shaped and three-lobed.  Leaves are bright green above and glaucous below, and produce an aromatic mucilage.  Exhibits vivid yellow, purple and red Fall color. 

Flower/Fruit:  Dioecious.  Attractive, greenish-yellow flowers appear in clusters in the Spring.  Pollinated flowers on female trees give way to small pendant clusters of bluish-black berries borne in scarlet cup-like receptacles on scarlet stalks.  Fruits mature in September. 

[www.missouribotanicalgarden.org]

[www.gobotany.newenglandwild.org]

[plants.usda.gov]