GAS-L: Re: Fuel and much more from cattails

[Harmon Seaver <hseaver@cybershamanix.com>]

On Sun, Sep 15, 2002 at 05:03:17PM +0530, A.D. Karve wrote:
> I would like to know the botanical name of cattail.

   There are several species, most of the work has been done with Typha
latifolia, Typha angustifolia, and Typha x gluca, a natural hybrid of the other
two species.

(snip)

>     There is also a general point that I wish to make about all uncultivated species of plants.  Not having been subjected to any plant breeding input, wild species generally turn out to be lower yielding than species bred for high yield.  Thus, as far tuber or rhizome yield is concerned, I doubt if any wild plant can beat cultivated varieties of tapioca, potato or the yams.

   Don't kid yourself, just offhand I can think of a number of wild plants that
far outproduce cultivated plants. In fact, one passage I quoted in another reply
here said that "the productivity of cattails exceeds that of high yielding corn
by about 50 percent." Have you ever looked at duckweed, for example, or
spirulina algae? Pretty amazing stuff -- extremely high protein (and very high
quality protein at that) and tremendous yields. There are many others -- native
US prairie plants that have higher yields and higher nutrient content than any
of the tame fodder crops. Mesquite trees, Siberian Pea Shrub, etc. 
    Not to mention the fact that these "crops" don't require any tillage,
planting, fertilizers, herbicide, insecticides, or fungicides -- they just
grow. So-called "modern" agriculture still has a lot to learn from Mother
Nature.


-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com

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