[Digestion] A few thoughts on Cattails

[Steve Verhey]

I saw a talk by David Blume (of "Ethanol Can be a Gas" fame) a week or two ago, and he talked about cattails. They've been used for wastewater treatment in engineered marshes in a number of places in the US, and he suggested harvesting the roots for ethanol production. 

No one has mentioned this, maybe because it's obvious: harvesting cattails from natural wetlands is not a good idea, and if it's not illegal, it should be.

Steve Verhey, Ph.D (Botany)

PS Cattails aren't rushes, in spite of their alternate common name, bullrush. "Rushes are round," as the rhyme goes, and are generally in the family Juncaceae. Cattail stems are flattened, and in the family Typhaceae.

----------------------------------------
> From: sigma at ix.netcom.com
> To: duncanjmartin at eircom.net; digestion at listserv.repp.org
> Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007 08:40:49 -0800
> Subject: Re: [Digestion] A few thoughts on Cattails
> 
> Duncan:
> 
> I think you are looking at the wrong end of the plant.  Our Native Americans 
> ( Indians) harvested the roots for their high starch content, for food. 
> Many still do I am told.  You might want to search "Google" et al,  from 
> this perspective, for more information.  Propagation is best by root 
> division. The "tails" dry into a light fluffy pillow-stuffing like material.
> 
> I have spent some "Gray Matter" designing a hydroponic propagation system, 
> some time ago which has some promise as an Ethanol substrate producer, but 
> it is low on my "to-do" list right now.
> 
> That is about the limit of my knowledge of the plant --- I am sure others 
> can provide more.
> 
> Best wishes and Merry Xmas.
> 
> Len Walde, P.E.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Duncan Martin" 
> To: 
> Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2007 8:08 AM
> Subject: [Digestion] Cattails
> 
> 
>> Holy Moses!
>>
>> Thanks to Wikipaedia, I now know that cattails are what the British call
>> bulrushes -- probably not the same species as the infant Moses was
>> discovered afloat in - but probably the nearest equivalent available to 
>> the
>> translators of the Bible.
>>
>> (I can see where the name "cat tail" comes from too -- very graphic! Why
>> "bull" rush, I wonder? Perhaps from a comparison with the common rush, 
>> which
>> lacks the massive, phallic, flower/seed head of the bulrush?)
>>
>> Now, the bulrush MIGHT be a very productive plant AND an ideal substrate 
>> for
>> conversion to ethanol. The former would be likely in a semi-aquatic
>> ecosystem but I have to say I find the latter unlikely, since it is not a
>> plant I associate with high concentrations of starch or sugar. (The 
>> original
>> research mentioned was only vaguely referenced, so I have been unable to
>> find it.)
>>
>> However, let us consider the practicalities. Bulrushes only grow in marshy
>> areas and at the edges of rivers and lakes.  Although there are areas in
>> which such land is quite extensive, there are no vast expanses of marsh 
>> that
>> we could turn over to biomass production.  Even if there were, it would be
>> difficult to adapt them to modern, mechanised, farming techniques.  I
>> suppose we could conceive of a world so desperate for energy that much of
>> the temperature zone would be converted into a vast artificial bog farmed 
>> by
>> an army of peasants -- but I do not think we have reached that stage yet.
>>
>> I cannot think of any other way in which bulrushes could make a 
>> significant
>> contribution, even if the plant itself is ideal.  Am I being too 
>> sceptical?
>>
>> I do concede that we must be open to all new ideas -- and to many old ones
>> that have been dismissed in the past, perhaps wrongly, perhaps because the
>> circumstances were different then.
>>
>> Duncan J Martin
>>
>> Centre Councillor
>> Republic of Ireland Centre
>> Chartered Institution of Wastes Management
>>
>> ================================
>> CONTACT DETAILS
>> Duncan J Martin, PhD, CEng, CSci, MIEI, MCIWM, MIChemE
>> 24 Townsfield, Cloughjordan, N Tipperary, Ireland
>> Mobile: +353 86 8377 906
>> Home: +353 505 42087
>> Email: duncanjmartin at eircom.net
>> ================================
> 
>  ---------------------------------------------  
> CUT ---------------------------------------------- 
> 
> 
> 
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