Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

© 2004 by CRC Press
The Ethnobotany 481
ifá imittó (ifá, dog,im, its, ittó, tree, Koasati)
ingtha hazi itai (ghost grapes; hazi, grapes,
Omaha-Ponca)
manido’bima’kwud (manido, spirit, Ojibwa)
omakaski’bag (toad weed, Potawatomi)
sa-tai-al-go (paint berries, Kiowa)
vfala omat [afala oma] (vfala, poison ivy, omat,
like, Creek)
vigne-vierge (virgin vine, Quebec); Virginia [Virginian]
creeper (‘‘creeper’’ is another word for
climber or twiner)
woodbine [woodbind, wild wood-vine] (originally
a European term for Convolvulus and Hedera,
dating to about A.D. 875, and alluding to the
tendency of the climbers to wrap around others,
USA)
The first record of these vines in the New World is
Jacques Philippe Cornutus’s Edera quinquefolia canadensis
(five-leaved Canadian ivy), published in his
book Canadensium plantarum ... historia of 1635.
Linnaeus knew this and several other sources. He had
studied live plants at the Hortus Cliffortianus. Perhaps
because he was influenced by Cornutus and others, he
called the vines Hedera quinquefolia.
Probably the first report of interaction of the plant
and people was left by Capt. John Smith in 1624. He
wrote that, in Virginia, there was a ‘‘kind of woodbind
...which runnes vpon trees, twining it self like a
Vine: the fruit eaten ... worketh ... in the nature of a
purge.’’ In spite of Smith’s report, Yanovsky (1936)
said that the fruit could be eaten raw, and the stalks
were peeled and boiled for food. He reported those
uses in Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin. One of
them is wrong, and I doubt that it was Smith.
Native people in the New World had long been
familiar with the twiners. The plants were used by the
Cherokee, Creeks, Houma, Iroquois, Jemez, Keres,
Kiowa, Meskwaki, Montana tribes, Navajo, and
Ojibwa (Densmore 1928, Moerman 1998). Most of
these people used the plant as medicine, but they also
made dye from it, and some claim to have eaten the
roots. In the southeast, the Cherokee used an infusion
against jaundice (Hamel and Chiltoskey 1975). The
Houma used a hot decoction of stems and leaves to
reduce swelling, to treat wounds, and against lockjaw
(Speck 1941). The Creeks used it against venereal
disease (Taylor 1940). Snow and Stans (2001) published
a picture of the vine (p. 80), but gave no
common name, or included it in the text. Some
Seminoles still use this medicine.
In Mexico, the bark has been used as an alterative,
tonic, expectorant, and against dropsy; crushed leaves
are a counterirritant, producing blisters when applied
to the skin (Standley 1920 /1926). Early American
physicians also used a tincture, which was sometimes
called Decoctum ampelopsis or Infusum ampelopsis,
reflecting an old scientific name, Ampelopsis quinquefolia
(Millspaugh 1892). Not much seemed to be
known about its chemistry in the 1890s, and the
same is true today. Foster and Duke (1990) cryptically
wrote, ‘‘Berries reportedly toxic,’’ although Capt. John
Smith wrote the same in the 1620s. The leaves
contain calcium oxylate and cause dermatitis in
some people (Foster and Duke 1990, Foster and Caras
1994), compounding the difficulty people have distinguishing
between this and poison ivy (Toxicodendron
radicans).
Paspalidium
(Diminutive of Paspalum, Greek paspalos, for millet;
the genus was separated from Paspalum by Otto Stapf,
1857 /1933)
Paspalidium geminatum (twins or double) ( /P.
paludivagum)
akkotó:ɬ ka [akkotó:rka] (akkotorkv, usually Nelumbo,
Creek; a comparison or a misuse)
ciktohacî (cekto, snake, hvce, tail, Creek)
Egyptian panicum (some consider the species
native, like Allen 2003, while others think it
was introduced from Egypt)
kissimmee grass (‘‘kissimmee’’ was rendered as
Cacema on the Moll Map of 1720 and Casseeme
on William’s Map of 1837; the locality was not
mentioned by Swanton in either 1939 or 1946;
language and meaning unknown)
pahitóɬ piɬ î [pahitórpirî] (pahi, grass, toɬ piɬ l, knees,
because the stem is jointed, Mikasuki; this name
is also used for Panicum hemitomon, which
see)
water panic grass (Florida)
Pehr Forsska˚l called plants he found in Egypt
Panicum geminatum in 1775. However, it was not until
1919 that the species was transferred to Paspalidium in
the Flora of Tropical Africa. Godfrey and Wooton
(1979) considered the species native, while Crins
(1991), Wunderlin (1998), and Diggs et al. (1999)
thought it introduced. The problem is considered
unsolved by Gerald Guala (personal communication,
Oct. 2003).
The Seminoles use a decoction of the plant to treat
‘‘Snake Sickness’’ (itchy skin) (Sturtevant 1955).