PLANTS

Team 8. Typha is a name that the scientist call the eleven species of the cattail. The cattail has 4 different names in America,such as "Cattail, Catninetail, Punks, or Corndog (grass)". Cattails are edible to humans they are also healthy to the human body. People use it in recipes to cook. Moose, aphids, deer, raccoons, mallards, humans, geese, muskrats,and ducks eat the cattail when it is begining to grow or after it is fully grown. Cattails grow in the damp mud and they adapt to water and mud. It only needs sunlight and water to survive. The cattail live in the North-West pacific temperate rainforest. It lives here because it has not been able to move far. There are so many cattails because some of the seeds are taken by birds, water, and winds which are dropped off everywhere. Cattails can be found on the banks of rivers, lakes, oceans, ponds, and marshes but it prefers ponds and marshes. Why is the cattail plant important? Well it is important because it makes good nesting places for birds like the Canvas Backs, Redheads, Grebes, and other Marsh birds. The cattail plant was also used for insulation by the Indians. The cattail looks like celery at the bottom going up then it looks like a corndog with a yellow spike on the top.

http://www.enature.com/expert/expert_show_question.asp?questionID=12734 http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/common_cattail.htm http://academics.smcvt.edu/dfacey/AquaticBiology/Freshwater%20Pages/Cattails.html



http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/common_cattail.htm  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattail

Team 5 Fireweed ( scientific name Epilobium Angustifolium )

Fireweed is commonly found in clear or burned areas,or forest openings, and along the side of roads. Fireweed often occurs through the US except for the southern eastern states and Texas. Fireweed is also found in all Canadian provinces. The fireweed is also found in Eurasia ( the fireweed is also Russia's national flower ) Some fireweed habitats include moist sedge meadows,woodland boarders, damp ravines, sandy marshes near dunes, remand bogs, and areas where trees and shrubs have been removed by fire.

The young shoots were often collected in the spring by native americans to mix together with other greens. Fireweed is best to eat when they are young and tender. As the plant matures its leaves become tough and somewhat bitter. When properly prepared soon after picked they are a good source of vitamin C and pro-vitamin A. The Dena'ina added fireweed to there dogs food. Fireweed is also a medicine of an upper intel Dena'ina who treated pus-filled boils or cuts, by placing a piece of fireweed on the infected areas. This is said to draw the puss out of a cut of a boil, and prevents a cut with puss inside to not heal over to quickly. Also the root can be roasted after scraping off the outside. To mitigate this root collected before the plant flowers and the brown thread in the middle or the plant are removed. In Alaska candies, syrups, jellies, and ice creams are made mostly out of fireweed. Mono-floral honey is made primarily made out of fireweed nectar witch adds a distinctive taste of spices flavor. Also in Russia fireweed leaves are often used as a tea substitute known in western Europe as Kopor tea. Fireweed leaves can undergo fermentation, just like real tea. Today Kopor tea is still consumed but not commercially imported.Here are some facts about fireweed, fireweed seed can be used to stuff jackets for extra insulation on a cold day. Also fireweed seed are highly flammable and can be used as a bundle to start a fire. Also the plant can be processed into fibers to make good cordage. Fireweed has six different names and those names are Rosebay Wllowherb, AngustifoliumChamberion Angustifolium, Chamerion danielsii, Chamerion platyphyllum, and the plain name fireweed. Two of our questions were what it eats and what does it depend on. Well it eat all the nutrients from the soil they live in. That is what fireweed eats. Also what they depend on water and the sun because they need water to drink like us and they need sun to help them grow. That is what fireweed depend on.

http://www.google.com/search?q=fireweed&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=VE6MT8e4L-WXiQLx9sWrCw&biw=768&bih=928&sei=V06MT9jLHs_PiAKAkqW

Team 2 Stinging Nettle Stinging Nettle is a plant commonly found in the Pacific Northwest Temperate Rain Forest. The scientific name is Urtica Dioica. The Stinging Nettle gets its name from the uncomfortable sting that occurs when you touch it. Stinging Nettle looks like a common weed, with little hairs all over it. When it stings a human it feels similar to a bee sting. The nettle is a successful organism because of its thorns it is able to protect it self by stinging predators. Stinging nettle can reproduce sexually or non-sexually. It maintains a large population because many animals learn not to touch it. Stinging Nettle also is commonly used for allergies (hay fever), treat aching mussels and joints, eczema, arthritis, gout, anemia, strains and sprains, and urinary track infections. The Stinging Nettle would not be good for anything besides medicine because it really does not do anything helpful for the environment because nothing can really get close to nettle. The Nettles nitch is to hold the soil and other things together. The Nettles nitch is like any other plants.



http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/06/useful-plants-scrub-nettle-stinging.html http://www.shutterstock.com/ http://www.english-country-garden.com/flowers/stinging-nettle.htm