Cattails are dynamic, yet humble

(This article appears in the April 2018 issue of Take Root Magazine)

When you see bunches of cattails lining the edges of water, do you think about using them to weave mats? Stop bleeding? Make pancakes? Stuff life jackets? Bind diarrhea? Ease chest pain? You will now! And that’s the short list of the uses of this weedy reed, humbly humming along in low water, often just off the highway.

Cattails thrive in the Willamette valley, living along our waterways and marshy places. They are a tall, up to 10 feet, herbaceous aquatic plant, growing from a stout rhizome base.

This plant has a long history of helping animals and people, natives and newcomers.

For animals, cattails provide shelter to small fish, waterfowl, and muskrats. Muskrats eat the plant, and use it to build their homes. If you’ve ever wondered what a muskrat is, they are described as “robust voles” weighing up to 4 lbs.

Several Native America tribes of western Oregon, including Kalapuya, Molalla, Umpqua, Rogue River, Clackamas, Tillamook, made thorough use of cattails. The most common uses were shelter, home furnishings, food, toys, medicine, and crafts.

During the summer, the Kalapuyas would make temporary fishing, hunting, or root gathering camps. They weaved and connected Cattail plants to make mats. These mats were stitched together and thrown over a wigwam, tipi, or longhouse frame to make a shelter that was water tight and wind resistant. If not used as shelter, the mats turned into flooring and places to sit. Cattails also make excellent baskets.

As food, all parts of the cattail are edible. The rootstock can be boiled or roasted, or dried and ground into flour. The flower heads can be roasted for a nutty tasting snack. The early American settlers often made cattail flapjacks and breads with the plant’s pollen in the mix. The sap between the leaves is a starch and used to thicken soups.

The plant pitched in during World War II. The downy seeds were used to stuff life jackets. They also filled pillows and mattresses.

Environment
Here is a big word: phytoremediation. This is what it means when plants are used to remove pollutants from contaminated environments. The term, when broken down, says it all. Phyto means plant. Remedium means restoring balance.

There are several local and national examples of phytoremediation projects currently in use at military sites, as well as fuel and industrial production sites. Cattails specific uses include reducing toxins associated with arsenic, pharmaceuticals, and explosives.

Basically, clusters of cattails are effective filtration stations. They are powered by clean technology: nature.

Medicinal
Eastern and Western uses are strikingly similar despite the distance, no telephones or telegraphs, and no electronic data sharing- way back in the early days of healing.

Native American medicine

• Cattail pollen is hemostatic (stops bleeding) and astringent (tightens skin). It is placed directly on an injury to control bleeding.
• It is taken internally for internal bleeding, menstrual pain, and chest pains.
• Pollen is mixed with honey to apply to bruises, sores, or swellings.
• Leaves are boiled for external skin wash.
• To stop diarrhea or dysentery, drink the root flour in a cup of hot water, or eat the young flower heads.
• Use the fuzz from mature female flower heads for scalds, burns, and diaper rash.
• Use fresh, pounded root directly as a poultice on infections, blisters, & stings.

Chinese medicine
Cattail pollen, or Pu Huang, in Chinese, is described as having a sweet and neutral nature and flavor. The meridians impacted are heart, liver, and spleen.

As with Native American medicine, it is also used to stop bleeding and reduce pain. Pain areas to be treated are the same: cardiac, chest, abdominal pain, post-partum pain (and bleeding) and painful menstruation (excessive bleeding). It is also listed to treat UTIs.

Ritual/ ceremony
The Apache Girls’ Sunrise Ceremony is part of the Native American religious tradition.

The Apache consider the pollen from the cattail plant to be a sacred substance that represents the life-giving quality of the earth. To invoke its healing power for the young women, guests sprinkle the pollen on the heads of the participants.

The ancestor of all Apache people is Changing Woman. The ceremony is a coming-of-age ritual that remembers and honors the past and present. This ritual summons the healing element of Changing Woman into the lives of the current generation.

Plants are generous. They are givers. Sure, a few give us things we don’t want, like rashes, but for the most part, they are providers of so many good things. They give food, shelter, medicine, and decoration. They are responsible for a lot of what makes up our daily lives. Just look around. Try to find something that doesn’t somehow trace back to a plant.

What is a cattail called?

• American English: Cattail, punks, or corn dog grass
• British English: Bulrush
• Latin: Typha Latifolia
• Japanese: Hoo
• Korean: pohwang
• Chinese: Pu Huang