Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/06/28/this-is-the-madness-that-happe.html
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This lends itself to a variety of crude humor.
Can’t imagine why.
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Impressive.
Apparently, much of the plant is edible…
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We collected these [in the ole century] for fire kindling, they have a very wonderful earthy smell while burning.
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We had tons of these around growing up, and had tons of fun with them. If you bean your sibling in the head with one just right, it explodes in a big cloud of fluff.
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OK - totally going to see if I can do this. I assume we have to wait later in the fall for them to mature? We had some decorative cat tails when I was a kid, and I could see a little fluff on them, but never thought to break them open.
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A safety message for those of you who plan on using cattails for… other things.
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That looks ridiculous. Where’s the sauerkraut?
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Sort of reminds me of grooming a Siberian Husky in the spring time. The whole neighbourhood would share in the adventure on windy days.
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That’s a yes. Before the seed pod is ripe, it won’t act like it does in the video.
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Where I come from, corn dog grass is grass that makes you want eat corn dogs. It’s now legal in Canada!
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This could become a sort of NSFW cinnamon dust challenge.
Interesting. When you go to Youtube, where the video is hosted, it has this in the description:
To use this video in a commercial player or in broadcasts, please email licensing@storyful.com
I wonder how many broadcasts have contacted them.
They also work well as a coal extender which is used for carrying a coal from fire to fire or from a friction board to kindling. You can see it here at :55 (btw, she’s not smoking)
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Yeah, they’ll have to ripen and fully dry. Late autumn. Some varieties aren’t this fluffy, though.
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I had never heard of this cattail stuff, so I was terrified for a bit when I read the headline.
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When I was a little kid cattails and pussy willows were two of my favorite plants. I was a cat lover from an early age and I call our current cat Pussy Willow because of that childhood fascination. She never comes when I call her so I figure it doesn’t matter what I call her.
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My takeaway: this website exists and is actually info about cattails. The straightforwardness is overwhelming.
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I was also remembering years ago seeing lots of cattails in the local marshes, though not so much these days, and thought maybe invasive phragmites reeds/rushes were crowding them out. It’s, as ever, more complicated: There are native cattails, but there are also nonnative invasive cattails that became very widespread and even hybridized with the native cattails. That’s probably the stuff I remember, from back afore the phragmites came to town:
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