CATTAILS
About Cattails
Cattails are a one stop shop when it comes to useful plants. Not only are they abundant in our area, they also supply food and medicine. In addition they can be used for baskets, making shelters, lighting fires and more. Cattails are an essential survival plant with so many uses.
Primary use
Food source
Edible parts
Roots, stem, young tops
Medicinal
Roots as poultice for burns and sores. Gel from plant stalks for burns.
Foraging Plant information list
This is not a complete list, this is a list of the species I have directly witnessed in my travels here in Northwest Ontario. If you find something before I do, email me and let me know.
Lambs Quarters
Joe Pye Weed
Cattails
Labrador Tea
Creeping Charlie (Ground Ivy)
Chickweed
Clover (Red)
Clover (White)
Clover (Sweet White)
Fiddleheads
Fireweed
Goldenrod
Bull Thistle
New England Aster
Saskatoon (Service berry)
Blueberry
Pin Cherry
Hazelnuts
Raspberry
Red Currants
Cranberry
Thimble Berry
Cloud Berry
Squashberry (Low bush Cranberry)
Spruce Tips
Birch
Juniper
Willow
Identification
Tall whip like plant with a central stalk that caps with a sausage shaped body that matures from green to brown to fluff. Grows in standing water or very moist conditions. They are actually large grasses.
Where to look
Along roadsides in ditches, swampy areas, hollows where water accumulates.
