For those who would like to learn more about preparing for any hard times ahead, wild edibles are a renewable food resource that thrive in harsh conditions and requires no care. Cattails - Typha spp. The brown seed cluster appears after the flowers fall off. The leaves are long and slender with a sword-like shape. The stalk can reach up to eight feet in height.
Cattails create large colonies in wet areas throughout the United States.
Cattail roots are gathered during any time of the year but they are best when gathered from late fall through early spring when the starch is concentrated in the roots. After spring, the roots slowly shrink, harden and become almost ropelike. Be careful not to use roots out of chemically polluted water. Cattail roots are excellent for providing starch in the diet. Some claim that cattails roots equal the potatoes in carbohydrates and rice or corn in protein.