Living with the Land
After the holiday season, when many of us have made precious memories sitting around the table with our loved ones, it becomes easier to recognize just how much food anchors our sense of community. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and so many other celebrations center around harvest and gratitude. Food is often what brings us together, allowing us to slow down and give thanks for what we have.
The connection we feel to our land after a plentiful meal is
one that echoes in human history. For thousands of years humans have depended
on the plants around them not only to eat but also to connect, by marking
seasons, healing illnesses, building homes, and creating tools.
The study of these relationships is called ethnobotany, which
is the study of how humans interact with and relate to the botanical world.
During this reflective time of year, ethnobotany offers a meaningful way to look at Florida’s landscape through a different lens. It allows us to explore how people have lived within this land long before modern times, and how we can become more curious and appreciative of the plants we see out on our preserves every day.
*** Important note: Foraging is strictly prohibited on Hillsborough County's Conservation & Environmental Lands Management (CELM) properties. Do not eat
or collect any plants from preserves and never consume any plant unless you
are absolutely certain it is safe and you are not allergic. The information
below is purely educational and not intended as a guide for use.***
Below are nine native plants that help illustrate how deeply people and plants have shaped each other.
1. Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)
The Saw palmetto is one of the most iconic plants of Florida and the Southeastern United States. Ecologically, this shrub helps to stabilize sandy soils, provides shelter for wildlife, and play's a key role in our fire adapted ecosystems. This plant can be found across a variety of habitats and likewise it boasts a wide variety of uses. Indigenous communities used the tough fronds to thatch their homes, allowing for proper ventilation while also repelling the rain during our stormy months. The berries of the saw palmetto have been used medicinally to treat dysentery, stomach aches, and prostate enlargement. There remains a lucrative business in the sale of saw palmetto berry supplements internationally, and the harvest of saw palmetto berries is now controlled under permits to ensure conservation.
2. Ohio Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)
The Spiderwort has long been valued as a food and medicinal plant. The entire plant is edible and can be consumed raw or cooked. Indigenous communities used the young leaves and shoots as a cooked green, and also brewed the plant into teas used to treat stomach aches and as a laxative. The leaves of this beautiful perennial have a mucilaginous substance similar to aloe vera, which can be used to treat insect bites and small wounds.
3. Cabbage Palm (Sabal palmetto)
Florida’s state tree earned its status through utility and ubiquity. The Calusa were recorded as using the leaves for the Cabbage Palm as a loincloth and shawl. Southern indigenous tribes even traded the fronds to Northen tribes, were they were used for cordage and basket weaving. The Timucua used the fronds for thatch, and are currently still in use by the Seminole and Miccosukee in southern Florida. Additional uses of the palm include trunks for posts, arrows, berries for syrup, and the terminal bud or 'cabbage' as a food source, and we can still find it today as 'heart of palm'. Cabbage palms thrive across wetlands, hammocks, and coastal areas, surviving storms and flooding with ease.
4. Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris)
Longleaf pine forests once dominated much of the Southeast covering millions of acres across the southeastern United States. This pine was essential to indigenous communities, providing wood for construction and resin as an adhesive and sealant. Pine tar was widely used by the US, creating a wide-reaching industry who employed the tar for sealing wood, water proofing, and as an anti-septic topical treatment. The inner bark and seeds, however, are edible and were consumed as famine food by the early Glades people, and the needles of the pine were cooked or consumed raw. The Longleaf Pine is considered to have antibacterial, irritant, parasiticide and expectorant properties, explaining its wide range of medicinal uses.
Yaupon holly is the only native caffeinated plant in North America and is sold today as a tea. Indigenous communities brewed its leaves into a stimulating tea called "Black drink", which they used during ceremonies and rituals. The tea was consumed as a spiritual cleanser and came to be a staple plant amongst many indigenous communities, being traded northward and event transplanted outside of the coastal plain range for easier access. The Black Drink was often consumed before important events such as a council meeting, a harvest, hunting, or battle. When consumed, self-induced vomiting was done as a form of spiritual cleansing, a practice that informed its current botanical name.
6. American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
Beautyberry is instantly recognizable by its bright purple fruit, an eye-catching sight that led to its cultivation in Europe as an ornamental plant. William Bartram described Beautyberry in Georgia as being cultivated for food by indigenous groups in great quantities. Indigenous peoples crushed the leaves and rubbed them on their skin to repel mosquitoes, a practice later supported by scientific research. Beautyberry also has a wide medicinal use including edema, malaria, gallstones, urinary problems, antiviral teas, and even as a steam for "Snake sickness". The berries can be made into a jelly and can be found in some stores today.
Elderberry grows along streams and wetlands and has long been used for food, teas, dyes, and immune-supporting remedies. The plant was also used by the Seminoles to treat stomach aches, and even as a toy blowgun. Other communities used the elderberry for fevers, headaches, and anti-inflammatory treatments. Flowers are also edible and can be used in breakfast food, and the berries are often cooked into syrups and preserves or even used as a dye given their deep color.
This small tree is found within temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions. Its berries are favored by birds, particularly swallows. Wax myrtle berries have traditionally been boiled to extract wax for candles, resulting in a transparent light green wax. The leaves of the Wax Myrtle are also pleasantly aromatic and have been used to flavor foods. The water that was used to boil the plant was also used medicinally to treat dysentery, and other tribes used the plant as a pain reliever. While the plant is still considered medicinal and is used in many herbal remedies, the most common modern use of this plant is to improve the foam in beer.
