Cattail pollen provides a nearly pure protein compliment to starchy rhizomes

Evidence

Cattail flowers hardly look like flowers at all. The stalk is about five feet tall and ends in a plump green cylinder, neatly tucked at the waist into two halves, males above and females below. Wind pollinated, the froth of male flowers bursts open to release a cloud of sulfur-yellow pollen into the air. The pancake crew scans the marsh for these beacons. They gently slip a small paper bag over the stalk, crumple it tightly closed, and then shake. At the bottom of the bag there is about a tablespoon of bright yellow powder and perhaps an equivalent volume of bugs. Pollen (and bugs) are almost pure protein, a high-quality food to complement the starchy rhizomes back in the canoe. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 828

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Nuts function as high-protein forest food sustaining poor families through winter — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 59