HERB - rush lites

[Kathleen Keeler]

dwilson wrote:

>    I will reply quickly as the list may be shut down soon.  I am
> working from a rather popular account of rush light manufacture
> written in the 18th centaury (I cant find the reference right now) and
> it says to use Juncus effusus   I think of this as a 3 ft\1 meter high
> hollow plant.  I am using Scirpus lacustris. 5 to 8 ft high and a
> pithy core. I am not sure about calling it bulrush as I think of
> bulrushes as something we call cattails
> http://members.nbci.com/wendysweb/cattail.jpg here in Canada.  What I
> am using is circumboreal as it is the plant used for mats in Japan,
> seats in some chairs and the same plant Moses cradle was made of when
> he was cast adrift on the NileSheepstealer

My favorite site for plant id is http://plants.usda.gov/plants/  It is
great for American species but doesn't deal with European species unless
they are introduced to the US.
I called a colleague who is an aquatic plant expert when the USDA site
above gave me _Scirpus lacustris_ as a synonym for _Schoenoplectus_

Apparently the European settlers called everything they saw in the US as
the same as the ones they knew in Europe.  As modern taxonomists study
the plants in detail, these huge genera are being broken up into lots of
regional species (and genera).

He thought you'd be fine with any "bulrush" whether _Scheoenoplectus_ or
_Scirpus_ or...

But, see the USDA site (and likewise Flora of The Great Plains or
Britten and Brown) bulrush is the usual common name for _Scirpus_ and
_Schoenoplectus_.  As your link shows,  cattails are something else
(genus _Typha_)

Kathy
(Agnes never heard of the USDA, or scientific names and, being English,
calls cattails "reed mace.")
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