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Softstem Bulrush (Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani) |
I don’t usually start an educational article by trying to
prove how confusing something is, but bulrushes are a bane for many botanists
and a nightmare for ethnographers. There are a few understandable reasons for
this disdain. First, many of the species have close relatives that are
challenging to differentiate from one another. For example, of eight common
bulrushes in Western Washington, four have close look-a-likes that share
similar habitat: Cottongrass Bulrush (
Scirpus cyperinus) and Small
Fruited Bulrush (
S. microcarpus) both have leafy stems with 50-100 small
spikelets; Maritime Bulrush (
Bolboschoenus maritimus) and River Bulrush
(
B. fluviatilis) both have broadly triangular, leafy stems with 5-20 large
spikelets; Hardstem Bulrush (
Schoenoplectus acutus) and Softstem
Bulrush (
S. tabernaemontani) both have round leafless stems; and American
Threesquare (
S. americanus) and Common Threesquare (
S. pungens)
both have triangular stems with only a couple leaves and flower heads. In fact,
I had thought the last two names were synonyms for the same plant until I began
writing this article. Secondly, bulrushes grow in marshes with thick mud that can
pulls your boots off and choke you with rotten-egg stench, vegetation that can
tear up your legs, and mosquitoes and leaches that can suck your blood. Who
knows what other dangers lurk in murk. Finally, to make
matters worse, both the common names and scientific names for bulrushes have not
only changed frequently over time, but they have also been applied to the wrong
species, or multiple species. Frankly, understanding bulrushes is messy
business both literally and figuratively.
As my love for plants has grown, I have been increasingly
drawn to challenging groups. While in college in Wisconsin, I became interested
in the Cyperaceae—the family containing sedges and bulrushes—and spent three
years experimentally restoring an old field to a sedge meadow for my senior
capstone project. Naturally, native seeds were needed for this project, so I
spent one day a week throughout the summer collecting sedge and bulrush seeds,
efforts that earned me the title “Abe sedge seed.”
Despite this interest, I had never heard of any edible
parts of bulrushes until a few years ago, when Sam Thayer excitedly told me
about his first taste of River Bulrush (Bolboschoenus fluviatilis). He proclaimed
the tuberous roots to be sweet and delicious raw. With piqued curiosity, I set
out to better understand what is going on beneath our various bulrushes.
The species
With bulrushes, the old botanical mnemonic, “sedges have
edges, rushes are round, and grasses have joints [swollen nodes] all the way to
the ground,” doesn’t hold the water they grow in. As members of the Sedge
Family (
Cyperaceae), many bulrushes have the normal triangular cross
section, but a few species have round stems, like the Rush Family (
Juncaceae).
However, there are easily discernible differences. Bulrushes (and sedges in
general) have simplified flowers and seeds with a single scale below each
flower. Each bulrush flower produces a single seed. By comparison, rushes have
more developed flower parts with six tepals surrounding a capsule that contains
multiple seeds.
As far as I know, the edible bulrushes are limited to
three genera, Schoenoplectus, Bolboschoenus, and Cyperus. The
former two have been split from the otherwise inedible genus Scirpus by
most modern botanists, a treatment which suits me because their botanical
differences have real world meaning. In this article, I describe the more
common members of Schoenoplectus, Bolboschoenus, and Cyperus.
Softstem Bulrush and
Hardstem Bulrush (Schoenoplectus
tabernaemontani and
S. acutus).
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Softstem (L) and Hardstem (R) sections |
These two herbaceous perennial species die back to a thick
fleshy rhizome every year. Reaching 3-9’ in height, they are the tallest
bulrushes in Washington and Oregon. They both have round stems that lack leaves
altogether, and inflorescences that arise laterally on the stem. Strikingly
similar, I find the best way to tell them apart is to feel the stems and cut
them to examine their cross sections. Softstem Bulrushes compress easily,
almost as if there is no pith inside; these spongy cells are loosely packed usually
numbering about 5-12 across the diameter. In contrast, you can feel the pith
push back when compressing Hardstem Bulrushes, and when sliced, they reveal
much more tightly packed cells with 18-30 across the diameter. Those with a hand
lens may also examine the scales below each seed. Hardstem Bulrush scales have
a contorted awn at the tip and a midrib that is nearly the same color as the
rest of the scale whereas those of Softstem Bulrush have a straight or only
slightly bent awn and a highly contrasting midrib (Hitchcock). Both inhabit
lakes, sloughs, marshes, and ditches throughout the Pacific Northwest. I
usually see Softstem Bulrush more in estuarine salt marshes, and Hardstem
Bulrush more in freshwater marshes and lakeshores, but they do not break
cleanly along these habitat differences.
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Sofstem Bulrush in saltmarsh |
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Hardstem Bulrush in fresh marsh |
A third species, California Bulrush (S. californicus)
grows in Oregon and California and looks similar to the others but has a
slightly three-sided stem that can reach 12’ tall! Very few other plants in
North America can grow as tall in a single growing season.
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California Bulrush |
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Hardstem & Softstem Bulrushes |
Maritime Bulrush, River Bulrush, and Sturdy
Bulrush (Bolboschoenus maritimus, B. fluviatilis, and B.
robustus)
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Maritime Bulrush (left) and River Bulrush (right) |
These three herbaceous perennials die back to thin
rhizomes that produce hard nut-like over-wintering corms. They have leafy stems
that are strongly triangular in cross section on the upper half but may have
slightly rounded corners near the base. All three have terminal spikes of
flowers and seeds, though leaf-like bracts often extend around and above their
inflorescences. Distinguishing the three species is best done by examining
their height, and characteristics of the spikes and seeds (achenes). Maritime
Bulrush is usually 1-4’ tall with a compact clump of sessile spikes that are
less than 1” long (although a few may be on short stalk) and 2-sided seeds.
River Bulrush is a larger species at 3-5’ tall and has more loosely packed
spikes that are greater than 1” long, and three-sided seeds that sink in water
and have an elliptical profile. Sturdy Bulrush is 1.4-5’ tall with a loose
clump of fat, cylindrical spikes that average about 1” long, and three-sided
seeds with rounded tops that float on water.
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Maritime Bulrush in saltmarsh |
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River Bulrush in estuary |
Maritime Bulrush is very common in salt marshes at the
low end of the high marsh, as well as sloughs and ditches near the ocean and
along large river systems, from Vancouver Island southward with a disjunct
population near Anchorage. River Bulrush is only found sporadically in the
fresher and higher parts of estuarine marshes. I know it only from the mouths
of the Stillaguamish and Samish Rivers, but herbarium records show it in a few
other locations throughout our region. Sturdy Bulrush is only found in brackish
marshes along the California coast, and in the Central Valley.
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Maritime Bulrush |
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Sturdy Bulrush |
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River Bulrush |
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Chufa |
Chufa and
Purple Nutsedge (Cyperus
esculentus and
C. rutundus) die back to
thin rhizomes that produce nut-like over-wintering tubers. They both have leafy
stems that are strongly triangular in cross section, and sweet-scented foliage.
Flowers are arranged neatly in two ranks forming flattened spikelets. These spikelets
form open spikes on long stalks that look a little like chimney sweeps or bottle
brushes. They are best differentiated from each other by the color of their
flower bracts: yellowish in
Chufa and purplish in Purple Nutsedge.
Chufa
is intolerant of salt water and evidently avoids the maritime climate near
the ocean. In the Pacific Northwest, it appears to be limited to the large
river drainages such as the Fraser, Nisqually, Columbia, Snake, Willamette, and
Sacramento rivers with some records from small rivers and drainage ditches,
especially outside of our area in Southern California. Purple Nutsedge is found
in disturbed soils along agricultural fields and is evidently naturalized in
California (
Jepson
eFlora).
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Chufa at the Sacremento NWR |
Harvest and Preparation
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Edible rhizome of Softstem Bulrush |
I have harvested Softstem Bulrush rhizomes in the middle
of June and the end of August. In June the rhizome was ¾” thick by 3” long with
white skin and very delicate flesh. When raw it was bland with no disagreeable
flavors. In August, the rhizome was 1” thick by 5” long and had started to
sprout next year’s shoot, indicating it was at full length. The skin was still
white but the texture was much more firm. In cross section, the flesh looked
very much like a cattail rhizome, except that the outer spongy layer was almost
imperceptibly thin. Raw, the flavor was bland with a hint of sweetness; cooked
it was even more bland and stained red for mysterious reasons (possibly a
reaction with minerals in my well water?). Since few starches are all that good
boiled alone, I conclude that these sizeable roots have promise as a source of
calories that take even less time to process than cattails (but aren’t as
tasty).
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Peeled rhizome of Sofstem Bulrush |
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Edible rhizome core of Hardstem Bulrush |
I harvested Hardstem Bulrush in early September. The
rhizome was roughly an inch in diameter and more than a foot long with white
skins and black triangular bracts at regular intervals. A cross section revealed
a thin hard starch core surrounded by a thick layer of spongy tissue, exactly
like a cattail rhizome. The core was easier to peal than a cattail rhizome and
raw it had a mild sweet flavor with bitter aftertaste. The core was very fibrous.
I suspect that the rhizome size, stringiness, and flavor all vary seasonally.
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Edible corm and young stem of Maritime Bulrush |
I harvested Maritime Bulrush corms in early and mid-June,
early July, and early September. The edible portion is really the enlarged
underground base of each plant that develops an egg-like shell over the course of
the growing season. In early June, the corms were about 5/8” across with white
skin and tender flesh that was deliciously sweet raw. By July the corms were 1”
across and more pear shaped. The outer skins had blackened, but the shell of
the corm was still white and soft enough to eat fresh. It was very sweet. In
September the plants were senescing, and the corms had purplish black skin with
a shell that was reddish brown. The shells and flesh were so hard it was
difficult to cut them with a sharp knife. The flesh was white but too hard to
eat raw or cooked. Perhaps at this late season it could be ground into flour.
The Snow Geese root for these corms in the winter and use rocks in their
gizzard to grind them into meal.
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Hard corms of River Bulrush |
My experience with River Bulrush is more limited to the
late season (when they were hard as a rock), but their roots appear the same as
Maritime Bulrush.
I have never eaten Chufa, so all I can do is pass
on the anecdote that I hear they have tasty tubers.
Ethnobotany
Historical accounts concerning bulrush edibility are frustratingly
difficult to attribute to a distinct species. I suspect this ambiguity is either
the result of poor botanical knowledge on the part of ethnographers, leading
them to unknowingly lump multiple species into a single account, or Indigenous
groups using the same name for multiple species with very similar qualities. Many
of the early accounts I review below use the common name tule. Tule usually
refers to the tall species of bulrush (Softstem, Hardstem, and California
Bulrushes), although confusingly, it is sometimes attributed to cattail (Typha
spp.), which is not in the same plant family as the bulrushes. The word tule
evidently comes from the Aztec word tullin or tollin for
aquatic bulrushes- a word that was first adopted by the Spanish in Mexico and
later by English speaking Americans (Small 2013). If using a twice borrowed
common name for multiple species in two different plant families wasn’t befuddling
enough, horsetails or “scouring rushes” (Equisetum spp.) are also
confused in the ethnographic record under the common name “rush” (see Swan 1857
pg 88 and Eells 1885, 1985) and/or called by the same Indigenous name in some
cultures (see Turner et al. 1990 pg 116). The similarities are numerous: bulrushes,
cattails, and horsetail all grow in wetlands, have spongy, linear leaves that
can be used in weaving, and several have edible roots.
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Edward Curtis's photograph of Tule drying for basketweaving by the Cowichan People c. 1910. |
On the topic of terminology, also note that I use the
word “root” throughout this account to be consistent with the authors I quote. Botanists
call an underground horizontal stem a “rhizome,” an underground storage organ a
“tuber,” and an enlarged stem base a “corm.” Given these caveats, I present the
following review of literature concerning edible bulrushes in the Pacific
Northwest.
While traveling in the Columbia River watershed in Oregon
and Washington in the early 1820s, the pioneering botanist David Douglas (1914)
observed that the tender white shoots of a 4-10’ tall species of bulrush [making
it either Softstem or Hardstem Bulrush] were eaten and “considered a luxury.”
The sprouts of an undetermined species are also traditionally eaten by the
Puyallup and Nisqually in Washington (Smith 1930).
Other early records come from Edward Curtis, the famous
ethnographic photographer and author of the 20 volume series The North American
Indian. Curtis had some knowledge of the various bulrushes and frequently
documented the use of both tule and cattail, making it possible to be
sure that he was differentiating the species. As if he were aware of the
potential for confusion, he occasionally includes scientific names for cattail,
Hardstem Bulrush, and Sturdy Bulrush. In California, he observed the tender,
white, central shoot of Hardstem Bulrush being eaten fresh by the Klamath
(1924, 13: 170, 273; although on pg 238, he apparently confuses this with
Sturdy Bulrush), the Tolowa, Tutuni (1924 13: 99, 228, 247), and Lake Pomo
(1924 14: 62). He describes tule as “a fairly important food” to the
valley Maidu (1924 14: 107). He also recorded indigenous terms for
edible “tule shoots” among the eastern and central Pomo (1924, 14: 188,
217), and “tule pith” among the Wappo (Curtis 1924, 14: 210) and Wiyot
(1924 13: 267). The Northern Pomo eat the raw young shoots of Sturdy
Bulrush (Welch 2013). In Utah, the young shoots of Hardstem Bulrush are also
traditionally eaten by the Gosiute of Utah (Chamberlain 1911).
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Hardstem Bulrush "root" |
The roots of bulrushes are also traditionally eaten by
many Indigenous Peoples. Accounts from northern groups are unfortunately
ambiguous. The inland
Dena’ina eat the thick, underground root of a
large sedge that is described as looking like the bulb of an onion (Russell
2012) and is probably a bulrush. Steedman (1930), working from the notes of the
botanist and ethnographer James Teit, noted that the thick fleshy rootstalks of
one bulrush species were roasted and eaten by the
Nlaka’pamux. The roots
of a kind of “rush” were eaten by the
Twana,
Chemakum,
Klallam, and other Native Americans in the Puget Sound (Swan 1857; Eells
1885, 1985), which could be a bulrush, cattail, or horsetail. The Quinault considered
a bulrush species to be among their principle root foods, and steam cooked it
(Curtis 1913 9:58).
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Edible core of Hardstem Bulrush |
The thick root of Hardstem Bulrush was widely eaten along
the Pacific states (Harvard 1895). Botanist Robert Brown (1868) observed its
use in California. Curtis also documented
tule root use among many
groups in Western North America including the
Shasta, Achomawi (1924 13:
140, 230, 234, 257),
Tolowa (1924 13: 247), Northern
Wintun and
Valley
Patwin (1924 14:224), Valley
Maidu (1924 14: 232),
Diegueno
(1925 15: 43, 180) and
Hupa (1924 13:238). He elaborates that the
fresh roots were “esteemed” by the
Mono and
Paviotso (15: 72,
169, 184), and that the “core of the underground stalks…were eaten raw (15: 63)
by the
Mono. The
Yokuts “dependended mainly on
tule-roots….
The dried roots of
tule were roasted, pulverized, and formed into balls,
which were baked in hot ashes or the flour might be cooked into mush (1924
14:157; 197).” The
Chumash also ate the roots this way, or raw (Timbrook
2007).
Some useful details come from a 10 year-old who made news
for her presentation of
Shasta Indigenous Foods at the California State
Fair. She was quoted saying “The [Native Americans] pull
tule roots
early in the spring while they are young and tender. They also dry them for
winter use (
Hollenbeak
1921).”
Another participant observer account comes from Thomas
Jefferson Mayfield who was adopted by the
Choinumni band
of the
Yokuts and lived with them for a decade in the 1850s. He provides
exceptional detail about their use of
tule. “They ate great quantities of
young
tule roots, which were soft and sweet. The lake Indians made an
almost pure starch from
tule…. [The roots were placed] into a large
cooking basket and were covered with hot water. The mixture was stirred with
the looped stirring stick for an hour or so. Then the rush roots were raked out
and were thrown away. In an hour or two, the starch had settled to the bottom of
the basket. The water was then poured off. They obtained in this way a cake of
starch two inches in thickness (Mayfield 1993 pg 66-67).
The seeds of Hardstem Bulrush are sometimes used as food by
the Klamath (Coville 1897) and the pollen may have been used by the Nlaka’pmux
(Steedman 1930; see also Turner et al. 1990) and elsewhere in North America
(Harvard 1895).
Throughout many accounts, the roots and young shoots of tule
are described as being sweet raw. In fact, the leaves are capable of
exuding sugar! In their book The Natural World of California Indians Heizer
and Elsasser (1980) describe a sugar that is produced by bulrushes in arid
climates. They elaborate that “this ‘sugar’ is the sweet excreta of aphids,
which crystallizes and collects on the leaves of certain plants, especially
Common Reed (Phragmites communis) and [Softstem Bulrush]. The plants
were cut off at the base of the stem, placed on a flat tule mat, and beaten
with sticks to dislodge the crystalline sugar. Winnowing by tossing the sugar
and leaf bits on a flat basketry tray yielded the pure sugar, which was then
dampened slightly and molded into balls. Such sugar, eaten as a treat or
dessert, was a welcome change from the rather pallid staple, acorn mush.” General
J. Bidwell similarly describes a “honey”
that is gathered from tule by the Native Americans in Nevada (Harvard
1895). The Mono and Paviotso obtained a “candy-like substance”
from the dry leaves of Common Reed (Curtis 1926 15: 72).
The roots of Sturdy Bulrush were used by the Klamath
(Curtis 1924 13: 170) and the roots of an unidentified bulrush were eaten raw
or ground into a flour and cooked by the Costanoan (Bocek 1984).
Interestingly, I could find no accounts that were definitively describing River
or Maritime Bulrushes, despite the edibility of both species.
Accounts of
Chufa are more precisely labelled by
species. Victor Harvard (1895) in his
Food Plants of North American Indians describes
the small edible tubers of two species of
Cyperus, the Chufa (
C.
esculentus L.) and the Nut-grass (
C. rotundus L.) to be “sweet and
palatable” and favored by Native Americans, but does not specify which groups.
In California, both species are eaten raw or ground into a meal and cooked by
the
Paiute (Murphey 1990, Fowler 1989). The tubers of
Chufa are also
eaten by the
Costanoan (Bocek 1984)
Kashaya, and
Pomo. The
latter two traditionally eat them raw, baked, or boiled and describe their flavor
as “crisp” and “nutty” (Goodrich et al. 1980). The tubers of other
Cyperus
species are traditionally eaten in the Desert Southwest and Southern California
by the
Acoma, Apache, Kamia, Keres, Laguna, and
Pima (
Moerman).
Bibliography
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On the Vegetable Products Used by the Northwestern American Indians as Food and
Medicine.
Bocek, Barbara 1984.
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Harrington.
Chamberlain, Ralph 1911.
Ethnobotany of the Gosiute Indians of Utah.
Coville, Frederick 1897.
Notes on the Plants Used by the Klamath Indians of Oregon.
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