[MPWG] Looking for info on Sweet Flag

[Chip Carroll]

Try looking up: Aswini Pai on Google.  I don't have her current contact 
information.

Aswini was a graduate student at Ohio University studying Calamus and has a 
wealth of information on it.

Also I have read (not sure where) that trappers throughout the east would 
routinely plant it along their trap lines so that it was available to them 
when they were out running their lines and would be away from home for long 
periods of time.  It was used by trappers for upset stomach and stomach 
ailments according to what I remember reading.

We have found small patches on this property in what is now a mature 
hardwood forest.  It was growing near wet/spring sites and not far from an 
old farm site from the 1800's.  The settlers may have planted it there or 
it may have been planted beforehand by trappers or Native Americans.

Very interesting.

Chip




At 03:44 PM 3/29/2006, you wrote:

>I am looking for information concerning the possible correlation between
>Sweet Flag (Acorus americanus -possibly A. calamus) and heritage resource
>sites.  A number of publications and web sites have pointed towards this
>notion, for instance, the Flora of North America states, "Native Americans
>probably played a significant role in the present day distribution of
>Acorus americanus because Sweet Flag rhizomes and plants were valued by
>many groups and were objects of trade.  Disjunct populations occur in
>localities that are often near old Native American village sites or camping
>areas."  However, a botanical survey in the Dempsey Divide Study Area of
>Oklahoma is the only research I have come across to substantiate this
>interesting observation.  I understand it was used both medicinally and
>ceremonially, but what about this use caused it to be so highly valued as
>to affect its distibution in North America.  Any ideas?
>Thanks!
>
>
>
>
>
>*************************************
>Brandee Wenzel
>Wilderness Technician -BWCAW
>bwenzel at fs.fed.us
>*************************************
>
>
>
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Chip Carroll
NTFP Research Education & Demonstration Coordinator
Rural Action Forestry
Appalachian Forest Resource Center
33560 Beech Grove Rd.
Rutland, Ohio 45775
phone: 740-742-4401
fax: 740-742-8303
www.ruralaction.org/forestry.html

www.appalachianforest.org

www.growginseng.org  
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