Yucca filamentosa L.

psy-ops

psy-ops

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Sep 27, 1999
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Yucca filamentosa L.
Adam's needle

I found a dead Yucca stalk on a hike today. I took it home and BAM one rub from ferro rod and it had a great flame. That is some handy tinder. Anyone use it for tinder?


The stalk can be used for arrows
The root is a great starchy veggie like a potato. I haven't tried it yet but I will.


Any other uses for Yucca.
 
Never used it for tinder but several yucca or agave plants make great needles. I have had yucca before at a tapas bistro. It is delicious stuff. Sort of like a sweet potato. It is a very useful plant.
 
It grows all over Mississippi. Tapas is one of my favorite dining expriences too bad they are not so common. I think it was a survivorman episode where he pulls a needle out for sewing???
 
I have never used it for tinder, but if it is large enogh, it is great for fire by friction.
 
It grew all over where I grew up in SW Kansas as well. We would carefully pull the smallest and tenderest shoots in the center of the plant. We would bend the white fleshy base of the leaf until it broke. The part that broke was what we considered edible and would eat it. It had a slight coconut type flavor. Occasionally, we would also eat the new flowers because they were sort of sweet or the flower stems before they bloomed. The flower stems looked sort of like asparagus.

I also heard stories that the Native Americans in that area used the leaves of the central stems to make a soap that they especially like to use on their hair, but I never tried it.
 
Yucca.jpg


here is a good image of yucca.

I forgot that the leaves of yucca are some of the best for cordage making.
 
I've used yucca for:

- the spindle for a bow and drill fire starter when i worked as an intern at Curecanti National Recreation Area. i did a program about how the natives lived off the land.

- The flowers are great to eat raw or put in salads. to me, they have an aftertaste that i get from celery....

- tried to make cordage but didnt have enough time to figure it out.

- Eric
 
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