Cassia occidentalis: Faux Coffee & Greens

You either cook the Cassia Clan right or they make you sick. Any questions?

Cassia occidentalis

Now that I have your attention, they are not as bad as a lot of the toxic plants around, especially if you’re an adult. But, the raw seeds in 2007 did cause the death of three children. On the other side, some Cassias have been used as a coffee substitute and pot herbs since ancient times.

The young shoots, leaves and unripe pods of the Cassia occidentalis, C. marilandica and C. tora, are edible AFTER boiling in a change of water to reduce the strong smell. The torrefied seeds are used as a coffee substitute, though nothing really substitutes for coffee.

Cassia seeds

That’s all fairly straight-forward until one adds that botanists just can’t leave a genus name be, so the Cassia are also known as Senna marilandia, S.occidentalis, and S. tora.

Cassia (KASS-ee-uh) comes from the Greek word Kassia (ka-SEE-ah.) It was a desert name for some unnamed plant. Marilandica (mary-LAND-ik-uh) means of Maryland, occidentalis  (ok-sid-en-tay-liss) of the western world, and tora (TORE-ah) what it means botanically I do not know… Tora is “lion” in Japanese, “now” in Greek.  Senna (SEN-uh) is an Arabic name for a thorny bush.

Cassias are found from about west Texas north to Iowa and Florida north to Massachusetts, with California sometimes tossed in.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Cassia occidentalis: Annual plant two to six feet tall, brownish-red young stems, leaves up to eight inches long, compound with eight to twelve ovate to lanceolate somewhat pointed leaves, about one to two inches long. Unpleasant odor when crushed. Flowers yellow, to one inch wide, in clusters, seedpod three to five inches long, to 3/8 inch wide, thin, slightly curved, with thickened edges with about 40 brown, flat seeds one half inch long.

TIME OF YEAR: Summer time

ENVIRONMENT: Rich soils, riverbanks, wastelands, pastures

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Raw seeds purgative, roasted and ground used like coffee, no caffein. Young leaves and pods cooked as greens, very young pods in salads. Cassia are toxic to grazing animals.  The plants smell mightily but it dissipated on cooking.

Cassia marilandica

Cassia tora

Cattails have many edible parts, top to bottom. Photo by Green Deane

Cattails: Swamp Supermarket

The United States almost won WWII with cattails.

No green plant produces more edible starch per acre than the Cat O’ Nine Tails; not potatoes, rice, taros or yams. Plans were underway to feed American soldiers with that starch when WWII stopped. Lichen, not a green plant, might produce more carbs per acre. One acre of cattails can produce 6,475 pounds of flour per year on average (Harrington 1972).

Cattail pollen

Two species of cattails are common in North America today. One is Typha latifolia (TYE-fuh   lat-ih-FOH-lee-uh)  the other Typha angustifolia (an-gus-tee-FOH-lee-uh.) Typha is from Greek and means “marsh” — now you how “typhoid” got its name and Typhoid Mary. Latifolia mean wide leaf, angustifolia means skinny leaf.  Besides that difference, the T. latifolia likes shallower water, the T. angustifolia deeper water, but it is not unusual to find them living side by side and also crossbreeding — L’angustifolia perhaps. Cattails get their name from their mature brown cylindrical flower spikes. When I was a kid we used to used the dried spikes as torches while skating in the winter time. The end of season fluffy “tails” make excellent tinder and the Indians used them insulation, mattresses and absorption.

There is so much to know about cattails that a book could be written just about them. First, no other plants in their mature stage look like the cattail, so it is difficult to misidentify. Younger plants can be misidentified with three toxic ones so always look for last year’s classic growth to confirm you have found cattails. Cattail are oval at the base, not flatish. They are also very mild tasting and without much aroma meaning if what you think you’ve got is a cattail and it is strongly flavored and or aromatic — not counting the smell of mud — you’ve got the wrong plant.

Flower spikes when green

It is said that if a lost person has found cattails, they have four of the five things they need to survive: Water, food, shelter and a source of fuel for heat—the dry old stalks. The one item missing is companionship.  Of course, the other thing to point out is that no matter where the water flows, down stream is civilization in North, Central and South America. Remember that when you are lost in the Americas. This does not hold true in Africa or Siberia. Many rivers in Africa are largest near their source then dry up as the water is used or evaporates. In Siberia rivers flow north towards the uninhabited arctic.

One Boy Scout motto is “You name it and we’ll make it from cattails!” Cattails are the supermarket of the wilds. The young cob-like tips of the plant are edible as is the white bottom of the stalk, spurs off the main roots and spaghetti like rootlets off the main roots. They have vitamins A, B,

Cattail lower stalks

and C, potassium and phosphorus. The pollen can be used like flour.  I like their convenience as a trail nibble, or canoe nibble as it were. Just pull on one and where it pulls from the stalk there’s usually a tasty bite or two. I think the best part, though, are the new shoots off the main root. They’re start out looking like an alligator’s tooth then a pointed hook three or four inches long. The roots themselves need some processing and I’ll get to them in a moment.

The “Listronotus” grub grows larger

Cattails have a surprising function and history. The spread of cattails in a body of water is an important part of the process of open water being converted to marsh then dry land. They are native to both North America and Europe. In Europe cattails are called bulrushes or greater reed mace. They’re first mentioned — meaning mentioned in writing — in the United States in the 1830s and at that time were only found along the Atlantic seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico excluding Texas. They weren’t even reported in places like Wisconsin until after World War I. They weren’t a significant plant in the Dakotas until the 1960s. The native cattail, Typha gracilis, seems to have all but disappeared, hybridizing with the European version to form the two species mentioned here. Eastern natives used cattails extensively, not only for food, but for hemp and stuffing. In fact, one Indian word for cattails means “fruit for papoose’s bed.” The fluff was used in diapers and for menstruation.

Like most aquatic plants in the area the cattail is also home to a beetle grub that fish like. On a green cattail look for an outer leaf that is going brown at the bottom of the leaf and main stalk. You will find a grub, actually the larval form of an Arrowhead Beetle, of the Listronotus genus. The size will vary but they do grow big enough for a small hook and fish love them. As a weevil the grub is also probably edible by humans but I haven’t got around to trying one. You can find the same grub in the tops of bulrushes and wapato.

As mentioned earlier, cattails are the champion of starch production. The way you get the starch is to clean the exterior of the roots and then crush them in clean water and let them sit. The starch settles to the bottom then one pours off the water.  It may take several drain and settle sessions get rid of the fiber. I sampled the starch raw once and got a bit of a stomach ache.  Once you have just the starch it is excellent for cooking as you would any flour. Getting starch that way is quite labor intensive. Here are three other ways to get to the root starch:

Clean cattail roots

Dry the peeled roots (peel roots while they are wet–they are difficult to peel when dry). Chop roots into small pieces, and then pound them wtih a little water. When the long fibers are removed, the resultant goup powder can be dried and used as flour.   The roots also can be boiled like potatoes then the starch chewed out (spitting away the fibers) or you can also roast the root in a fire until the outer spongy core is completely black. Then chew the starch off of the fiber.  Don’t eat the fiber. It will give you a stomach ache. I know from personal experience. The advantage of the latter method is no pots or pans are needed. If you have fire and a pond you have a nutritious meal.  You can also put the roots on the barbecue.

Lastly, cattails, Typha latifolia, is suspeced in the fatal poisoning of several horses in Indiana, one case over 80 years ago. Symptoms included stiffness, disinclination to move, profuse perspiration, and muscular trembling.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Cattails grow to 9 feet; leaves are strap-like, stiff, spongy inside, rounded on back, sheathed together at base to appear “flattened” but oval; the cigar-looking “blossom” is very densely packed with tiny flowers, male flowers in top cluster, female flowers in bottom cluster. Roots grow horizontally. If there is a gap between the male and female parts of the plant it is T. angustifolia, or the narrow leaf cattail. If the male and female parts of the plant meet, it is T. latifolia, the common cattail.

TIME OF YEAR: Spikes, pollen and flowers in the spring, bottoms of stalks and root year best in fall and spring.

ENVIRONMENT: Grows where it is wet, rivers, ponds, ditches, lakes, close to shore or farther out.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Numerous, boiled immature and mature flowers, pollen in bread, stalks as a trail nibble, root starch for sustenance, root stems shoots as vegetables.   The roots can be boiled and the starch stripped or sucked off the fibers. They can be dried, the starch grated off the fibers and the starch used as flour. You can crush the roots in water, let the starch settle, pour off the water, then use the starch. Or you can but the roots on embers and roast until black, then peel the black layer off and chew or such the starch off the fibers. Also the core of the roots can be roasted until dry and used as a coffee substitute.

Scalloped Cattails

Take two cups of chooped cattail tops and put them into a bowl with two beaten eggs, one-half cup melted butter, one-half teaspoon each sugar and nutmeg and black pepper. Blend well and add slowly one cup of scalded milk to the cattail mixture and blended. Pour the mixture into a greased casserole and top with grated Swiss cheese —optional — and add a dab of butter. Bake 275 degrees for 30 minutes.

Cattail Pollen Biscuits

The green bloom spikes turn a bright yellow as they become covered with pollen. Put a large plastic bag over the head (or tail) and shake. The pollen is very fine, resembling a curry-colored talc powder. Pancakes, muffins and cookies are excellent by substituting pollen for the wheat flour in any recipe. Cattail Pollen Biscuits: Mix a quarter cup of cattail pollen, one and three-quarters cup of flour, three teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoon salt, four tablespoons shortening, and three quarters a cup of milk. Bake, after cutting out biscuits, in 425-degree oven for 20 minutes. For an even more golden tone, you may add an additional quarter cup of pollen.

Cattail Pollen Pancakes

Mix one-half cup pollen, one-half cup flour, two tablespoons baking powder, one teaspoon salt, one egg, one cup of milk, three tablespoon bacon drippings. Pour into a hot skillet or griddle in dollar, four-inch pancake amounts.

Cattail Casserole

Two cups scrapped spikes, one cup bread crumbs, one egg, beaten, one-half cup milk, salt and pepper, one onion diced, one-half cup shredded cheddar cheese. Combine all ingredients in a casseroles dish and place in an oven set to 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve when hot.

Monstera deliciosa: Hmm Hmm Good!

Large Delight. That’s what Monstera deliciosa means…. It was an edible I did not know about until pointed out to me by my friend Maribou, who has experience in the ornamental trade. There is always something new to learn in the foraging world.

Ceriman fruit

This is a tropical plant so you won’t find it in the wild much above Central Florida except in protected places. However it is one of the most common house and business plants in North America so keep your eye out for it. (Update three Years Later: Locally some excellent fruiting examples can be found climbing large oaks in Leu Gardens in Orlando. In fact, this past Jaunary [2011] they survived six nights of upper 20s F. and are fruiting!)

The Monstera deliciosa (mawn-STEER-ruh dee-liss-see-OH-suh) is one of several toxic arums that produce edibles. Just about every member of that family is laced with needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate called raphides.  The crystals cause a burning sensation during consumption and can actually cause swelling of the throat leading to suffocation. If the crystals are swallowed they can also precipitate in the kidneys. Not good. Death from raphides is extremely rare if ever these days. Many members of the family can be made edible and some loose part of their toxicity upon ripening. Such is the case with the M. deliciosa and a few others.

Also called the “Windowleaf” the M. deliciosa a popular plant with large glossy leaves that have deep splits. They are also perforated with oblong holes and are often confused with some philodendrons. A liana, given a chance it will climb into the tops of high trees. It rarely branches and can reach more than 70 feet in length. Young leaves are heart shaped without holes. They cling close to a tree hence its other name “shingle plant.” Older leaves, with the slits and holes, also stand away from the tree.

The "monster's" leaf

Around age three the plant flowers. The inflorescent is a jack-in-the-pulpit like spadix and spathe, think a spike with a flowing cape around the back of it and above, or a spike with a shield behind and around part of it. It’s creamy and fleshy with tiny flowers. The cape is boat-shaped and surrounds the spike, which takes over a year to mature. It swells into an aromatic fruit (called Ceriman) that looks like a small green corn cob with hexagonal scales. When ripe its flavor is like a combination of banana and pineapple. Unripe it will burn your mouth intensely.

You can ripen the fruit off the plant if you collect it when the fruit’s first scales begin to lift up and the fruit is very pungent. Wrap in a paper bag and wait until the kernels begin coming off. You can then brushed the kernels off revealing the edible flesh underneath. The flesh is cut from the core like pineapple is and eaten. Try little first, a little fingernail-size piece. Chew it for a minute — a full minute even if it dissolves — then spit it out. Then wait 10 minutes. TEN full minutes, not nine. Ten. You want to make sure the raphides are gone. If they are in your mouth will have a burning sensation. (Relax, it will pass in an hour or so. Sucking on a lemon, or swishing with lemon juice will help.)  Eating immature fruit which still has the kernels firmly attached will definitely get you a does of raphides.  The seeds of the deliciosa are also edible when cooked or roasted.

Should you be in warm areas of the Americas the fruiting spike of the Chirrivaca (Monstera dilacerata mawn-STEER-ruh dee-lah-sear-AT-ta)  is also edible (it looks like the M. delisiosa but does not have holes in its leaves.)   The Monstera pertusa (mawn-STEER-ruh per-TOOS-ah) fruit spike is also edible and has numerous local names. The fruit spike of the Montrichardia arborescens (mon-trik-AR-dee-ah ab-or-ESS-ens) is edible as are its cooked or roasted seeds. An article in the Journal of Economic Botany says root is also eaten but I do not know how they prepare it to get rid of the raphides. Dry heat is usually the way. The M. arborescens has other uses as well. The fibers in the stem are used for cordage, the berries and fruiting spike used for fish bait, and the tissue in the stem can be used to make paper.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

IDENTIFICATION: Huge, dark green, deeply-lobed, leathery leaves up to a yard long and wide, long stems, growing on a vine up to 70 feet long. Blossom is a large cream-colored spadix and spathe. Blooms around age three.

TIME OF YEAR: Usually blossoms in warm months

ENVIRONMENT: Grows in the shade, climbs trees.

METHOD OF PREPARATION: When fruit begins to lose scales, take off plant and ripen in paper bag. When you can brush the kernels off it is ready to eat but try a little first to make sure it is rid of raphides.

Caulerpa prolifera

Caulerpa: Warm-Water Salad and Pest

Caulerpa ssp.would seem to be a paradox. Eaten around the world by thousands for thousands of years but called a killer and toxic by modern man. How does one sort that out?

Caulerpa racemosa

Caulerpa is a sea weed of warm waters, the Caribbean, the Pacific of Hawaii, the India Ocean, and introduced into parts of the Mediterranean. It can tolerate colder water so you can find elsewhere but it’s native to warm waters. Of late it has been found in the lower portion of Indian River Lagoon, a 156-mile long estuary on Florida’s east coast.

Caulerpa, said KAWL-er-puh, becomes a “killer” when taken out of its natural environment and put some place where there are few things around to eat or oppose it. Why would it get moved around? People emptying their salt water aquariums. Seems the Caulerpa is a nice nitrogen-absorbing plant for your living room aquaculture but folks dump their south sea hobby when they’re bored with it. The non-native Caulerpa takes root, literally, and drives out native sea weeds. Some native fish and crustaceans are not used to and to them it is toxic. And that is how the edible becomes a toxic killer of internet warnings. Well… almost. What about human toxicity

Caulerpa taxifolia

Caulerpa has fed many for millenniums. Two studies, in 1984 and 2000, say Caulerpa is not toxic to people, well.. at least not to lab rats who got fed Caulerpa. It may be that some people have an allergy to it. One case, however, did come under scientific scrutiny and Caulerpa just might have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A non-native kind of Caulerpa was released into the Mediterranean where a bream, the Saupe (Sarpa salpa) eats it. A 1993 report said an Israeli woman had symptoms of “ciguatera” poisoning but there was no ciguarera reported in the area. Ciguatera occurs chiefly in the Caribbean most often caused by eating barracuda, and depending upon what it ate.  The Saupe she ate, however, had been eating non-native Caulerpa off the coast of Israel. So the Caulpera became suspect. One theory is the Saupe eats a lot of Caulerpa and builds up something that can cause poisoning or affect sensitive individuals. Another possibility is the Caulerpa in the fish was affected like barracudas and she had a case of ciguatera. No answer was found. However the story does not stop there.

Caylerpa brachypus

As if that ambiguity was not enough the fish she ate, Sarpa salpa, is — and I know you aren’t ready for this — a recreational drug. If the fish eats the right — or wrong diet — parts of it, particularly the head, have a chemical similar to LSD.  The effects include vivid hallucinations within minutes of eating it which can last for days. In 2006 two men, one 90, were hospitalized in France after eating Saupe. The older suffered auditory hallucinations a couple of hours after eating the fish followed by vivid nightmares for two nights. The forty-year-old had audio and visual hallucinations for the next day and a half. Apparently from Roman times through the Middle Ages the fish was caught precisely for the hallucinations it would produce.

Caulerpa lentillifolia

The symptoms of the Israeli woman, those who get ciguatera, and occasional Caulerpa reports are similar. Those can include a mild numbness of the tongue, dizziness, coupled with a cold sensation in the feet and hands, difficulty in breathing and loss of balance. No deaths reported. So while thousands eat it every day there is occasionally a report about a response to it. The cause is rather fuzzy if even related.

Caulerpa has been consumed raw in salads, cooked and in desserts. The most commonly eaten species is C. racemosa, which has a pleasant, slightly peppery taste. It’s quite popular in Hawaii and in the Philippines. One draw back is that it deteriorates quickly

Regardless of species consumed of Caulerpa can lower blood pressure. It is also antifungal. Also commonly eaten are C. taxifolia, C. lentillefolia, C. cupressoides, C. peltata, C. serrulata, C. sertularioides, and C. brachypus. Presumed to be edible but I’ve found no reports of  C. Floridana and C. Mexicana, respectively below. Caulerpa that resemble “grapes” racemosa, is the most common eaten.  The Chinese like to fry it in pork fat, mince it, then eat it.

Green Deane’s “Itemized” Plant Profile

Saupe, or, Sarpa Salpa

IDENTIFICATION: Caulerpa racemosa is a highly variable species. The typical racemosa, upper right, has short erect branches bearing crowded ramuli with short stalks and oval or spherical tips. The arrangement and shape of the branches differ among the numerous varieties. The branches (called ramuli on seaweed and coral) can be sparse or dense. They are arranged radially, alternately, pinnately or irregular on the erect branch. The tips of the branches can be shaped, like a top, a ball, or a disk. Plants growing on a sandy bottom in calm water tend to have dense branches with club-like ends. Those in rock, wave exposed areas tend to have ball like ends.  They grow to about four inches high, found in the intertidal area and below, protected from strong wave action and or currents.

TIME OF YEAR: Year round

ENVIRONMENT: Warm waters where it is native, but can also be found in cooler waters introduced

METHOD OF PREPARATION: Raw in salads or steamed or boiled