A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Thursday 30 January 2014

Reading Sign, and More Images of The Grass Tree or Yacca Plant.




Echidna diggings. Some natives here call them Porcupine. Food in an emergency survival situation, otherwise let them be.


Grass Tree, Goonagurra, Black Boy, Kangaroo Tail, Yacca, all the same plant. Uses: The inner core of the dried flower stem is used as tinder, the stem itself is used for hand drill fire lighting & making the parts for the fire-bow. The flower stem can also be used to carry fire. The nectar can be sucked from the flowers, or the flowers can be soaked in water for a refreshing drink. It can also be fermented to make alcohol. The base of the leaves when pulled can be eaten. Dried leaves make good kindling.

2 comments:

Somerled_1 said...

Hi Keith,

As you probably know, the resin or sap of the grass tree is excellent for bush craft as well, for hafting, making repairs and binding organic to inorganic materials. I mix the resin with charcoal, and a bit of (rabbit/ wallaby/ roo) droppings, as a binder, and it works surprisingly well.(although it can get brittle, trial and error fixes this!).
Cheers, Brian.

Keith said...

Yes I did Brian, but I did not mention it because to access the resin on some species it means killing the plant.
Keith.