Plant Use in the Southeast

Plant Use in the Southeast. . , (top panel:), Ethnobotany is the study of the way humans use plants. Plants provide more than just food. They can be used to make medicine, dyes and paint, clothing, shelter, traps, or perfume. Many cultures use plants in religious rituals, name special places after plants, and write myths about the role of plants. Ethnobotanists are also interested in the way past people used plants. Evidence from the study of pollen (palynology) indicates that people were buried with medicinal plants nearly sixty thousand years ago. Paleoethnobotany is the study of archaeological plant material that was used by ancient cultures. Plant remains are sometimes preserved when they are burned, frozen, or waterlogged. They can also be seen as impressions in clay. Most often, they are found in trash piles, or middens. At Mississippian sites like Chucalissa, archaeologists have found burned seeds and corncobs, fragments of fabric and basketry, and impressions of cord and netting in clay. From this, we're able to determine which crops they grew, which plants they used to make baskets and clothing, and how they fished. , (middle:), Modern Native Americans can also teach us much about prehistoric plant use, as knowledge has been passed through many generations. Here are a few plants native to this area and their uses:, Celandine Poppy - Used for yellow dyed, ointment for burns and cuts, tea for upper respiratory infection, Mayapple - Ground into powder to treat ulcers and sores, fruit eaten raw or cooked into jam., Red Buckeye - Thrown into water. Seeds are poisonous and stun fish, making them easier to catch., Solomon's Seal - Brewed to make a tea for indigestion, shoots cooked and eaten in soup, Christmas Fern - Brewed to relieve fever and pneumonia, mixed with water to create a poultice for joint pain., Trillium - Brewed to make a tea that induced labor in pregnant women., Wild Yam - Relieved pain during pregnancy., Coneflower - Chewed to relieve toothache or sore throat, mixed into poultice for snake bites. , (bottom:), Today, many of these plants are at risk or endangered by deforestation, the permanent removal of trees to make room for something else. The maps to the left were created by the U.S. Forest Service to show how much virgin (untouched) forest has disappeared since immigrants from Europe began to colonize North America. As the United States continued to grow, more trees were cut down to create farmland, pastures for cattle to graze, and wood for building houses and furniture. , Deforestation is increasing worldwide at a rapid pace. As native plants begin to disappear, knowledge of them is also slipping away. Biodiversity preservation and conservation is the key to sustaining the ethnobotanical knowledge and cultural practices of indigenous populations. The preservation of biodiversity can be undertaken on a local level. Indigenous knowledge-holders must be engaged as partners during these processes, in a participatory atmosphere.