Southeastern Woodlands Culture

* All or part of the tribe confederated into the Creek Confederacy for military purposes against the Georgia Colony in the year shown. Included in the confederacy were a Shawnee band who joined in 1715. The Creek Confederacy was indeed formed in 1715, and was not a culture, but rather, an army.

** All or part of the tribe confederated into the Seminole Confederacy for military purposes against the Georgia Colony in the year shown. Those Muskhogee who joined in 1814 left the Creek Confederacy. The confederacy removed to Florida in 1750. They were also joined by surviving Icafui Timucuans and Calusa of the Florida Culture.

SOUTHEASTERN WOODLANDS CULTURE ETHNOBOTANY

Wild Plant/ Domesticated Plant	Scientific Name	Use
Alabama Supplejack	Berchemia scandens (Hill) K. Koch	Fastener	Stems used to fasten dugout canoes to the shore and for general fastening purposes.
Allegheny Blackberry	Rubus allegheniensis Porter	Food	Fruit used for food.
		Drink	Fruit used to make juice.
Allegheny Serviceberry	Amelanchier laevis Wieg.	Food	Fresh fruit used for food.
American Basswood	Tilia americana L.	Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Cordage	Boiled bark twisted into rope.
		Carving	Wood used to carve.
		Food	Young leaves - raw or cooked, sap can also be concentrated into a syrup and used as a sweetener, Flowers - raw can be added to salads
		Drink	Sap - obtained from next to the bark and used as a refreshing drink, flowers are used as a tea substitute, they are sweet and fragrant
American Beech	Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.	Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Cooking	Wood used to make food or chopping bowls and mortars.
		Misc.	Used to make snowshoe frames, wood used to make buttons.
American Chestnut	Castanea dentata (Marsh.) Borkh.	Food	Nuts ground into a meal and used to make bread, nuts boiled, pounded with corn, kneaded, wrapped in a green corn blade, boiled and eaten.
		Drink	Used as a coffee substitute.
		Dye	Bark used to make a brown dye.
American Hogpeanut	Amphicarpaea bracteata (L.) Fern.	Food	Underground fruit used to make bean bread, underground fruit cooked like pinto beans or added to cornmeal and hot water.
American Lotus	Nelumbo lutea Willd.	Food	Hard, nut-like seeds cracked, freed from the shells and used with meat to make soup, flour mixed with corn flour to make bread, peeled tubers cooked with meat or hominy and used for food, seeds gathered and roasted like chestnuts, roots gathered, cut and strung for winter use.
American Plum	Prunus americana Marsh.	Food	Fruit used for food.
		Drink	Fruit used to make juice.
American Sycamore	Platanus occidentalis L.	Misc.	Wood used to make buttons.
American Witchhazel	Hamamelis virginiana L.	Drink	Leaves and twigs used to make tea.
		Weapons	Wood used to make bows and arrow shafts
Annual Ragweed	Ambrosia artemisiifolia L.	Ceremony	Used as an ingredient in green corn medicine.
Aquatic Milkweed	Asclepias perennis Walt.	Weapons	Plant fibers used to make bowstrings.
Aztec Tobacco	Nicotiana rustica L.	Ceremony	Used extensively in rituals, plant smoked in the pre-ballgame rituals.
		Smoking	Leaves used for smoking.
Baldcypress	Taxodium distichum (L.) L.C. Rich.	Cordage	Bark used to make cordage.
		Building	Wood used for building
		Boats	Trunks used to make dugout canoes
		Music	Drums were made out of cypress knees
Balsam Poplar	Populus balsamifera ssp. balsamifera	Boats	The largest canoes were of poplar
Bamboovine	Smilax pseudochina L.	Food	Roots used for food.
Beans (Note: Most dry beans grown in North America are of the same species)	Phaseolus vulgaris L.	Food	(Cherokee) Beans used to make bean bread, beans used to make hickory nut soup, beans used for food.
Black Cherry	Prunus serotina Ehrh.	Food	Fruit used for food.
		Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Furniture	Wood used to make furniture.
Blackgum or Black Tupelo	Nyssa sylvatica Marsh.	Food	Fruit eaten
Black Huckleberry	Gaylussacia baccata (Wangenh.) K. Koch	Food	Berries used for food.
Black Locust	Robinia pseudoacacia L.	Drink	Bark steeped into tea.
		Weapons	Wood used to make bows and blowgun darts.
		Building	Wood used to make frames for houses
		Food	Seed boiled and used like peas [?] (Note: Seeds have some toxicity)
Black Raspberry	Rubus occidentalis L.	Food	Fresh fruit used for food, fruit used to make jelly, fruit dried for winter use.
Black Walnut	Juglans nigra L.	Food	Nuts dried in the rafters for future use, nuts mixed with skinned hominy corn, water and pinto beans, nuts used for food.
		Furniture	Wood used to make furniture.
		Dye	Used for a dye widely used in basketry
		Cosmetic	Used to make hair oil
Bottle Gourd (Note: Many gourds are of the same species)	Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.	Cooking	Used for water dippers, cups and bowls.
		Music	Used for drums and rattles.
Box Elder	Acer negundo L.	Drink	The sap contains a reasonable quantity of sugar and can be used as a refreshing drink or be concentrated into a syrup
		Food	Inner bark - raw or cooked. It can be dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickener in soups etc or be added to cereal flours when making bread, cakes etc
Bristly Locust	Robinia hispida L.	Weapons	Wood used to make bows and blowgun darts.
Broomsedge Bluestem	Andropogon virginicus L.	Ceremony	Used as an ingredient in green corn medicine.
Butterfly Milkweed	Asclepias tuberosa L.	Clothing	Stems used to make belts.
Button Eryngo	Eryngium yuccifolium var. synchaetum Gray ex Coult. & Rose	Misc.	Used to make mats
Cabbage Palmetto	Sabal palmetto (Walt.) Lodd. ex J.A. & J.H. Schultes	Food	Plant used for food.
		Bulding	Plant used to make houses.
		Cooking	Plant used to make food paddles., plant used to make skin drying frames and potato drying mats.
		Weapons	Plant used to make arrows, hunting dance staffs, fish drags and fish poison.
Canadian Serviceberry	Amelanchier canadensis (L.) Medik.	Food	Berries eaten.
Canadian Wildginger	Asarum canadense L.	Smoking	Dried leaves pounded and used for snuff.
Cat Greenbrier	Smilax glauca Walt.	Food	Roots used for food.
Chinqupin or Chinkapin Oak	Quercus muehlenbergii Engelm.	Food	Acorns eaten
Common Elder	Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis (L.) R. Bolli	Weapons	Stalks formerly used for blowguns.
Common Milkweed	Asclepias syriaca L.	Weapons	Plant fibers used to make bowstrings.
Common Persimmon	Diospyros virginiana L.	Food	Fruit died into cakes for later use, fruit used for food, fruit used to make pudding and thick porridge.
		Misc.	Root worked into a comb
Common Serviceberry	Amelanchier arborea (Michx. f.) Fern.	Food	Berries used for food.
Coontie	Zamia pumila L.	Food	Plant used for food.
Corn (Note: All corn is of the same species and descended from a grass called teosinte.	Zea Mays	Food	Ears roasted, ears dried for winter use, stalks sucked for the sugar they contained, baked into little round loaves called pones, made into boiled bread, smoke dried corm meal, made into bread, porridge, cold meal gruel, ground, dried in fire and smoke, hominy. (Caddo) Made corn bread called ponak which they ate with a corn broth. (Cherokee) Corn used as food, made a boiled bread mixed with beans, baked corn cakes. (Chickasaw) Boiled corn with chestnuts, made meal with corn before it came to maturity called cold meal or boota copassa, boiled corn with venison or other meat. (Choctaw) Seeds parched and mixed with water or boiled with or without meat, made into hominy called tanlubo or tanlublona, corn dough was called banaha, sometimes mixed sunflower seed with corn when making bread. (Creek) Used lye to make hominy called sofki, ground corn and boiled it 3 to 4 hours to make a thick porridge called ustatahamen, hominy made into grits called sagamite. (Yuchi) Made grits called tsoci, made corn flour called tsukha, made meal cakes called kunlo.
		Drink	(Chickasaw) Corn drink preferred over plain water.
		Tanning	Young corn ground into pulp to take the place of deer brains in tanning, cobs burned for tanning
Crookneck Squash	Cucurbita moschata (Duchesne ex Lam.) Duchesne ex Poir.	Food	Plant used extensively for food
Cultivated Tobacco	Nicotiana tabacum L.	Smoking	Leaves used for smoking.
Dahoon	Ilex cassine L.	Soap	Plant used as soap.
		Drink	Leaves used for tea.
Dwarf Palmetto	Sabal minor (Jacq.) Pers.	Food	Fresh root slices baked and eaten as bread.
Eastern White Pine	Pinus strobus L.	Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Boats	Wood used to make thirty to forty foot long canoes, frames for skin covered boats, and rafts.
		Carving	Wood used to carve.
		Food	The seed is mainly used as a flavouring in cooking, an acceptable candy is made by boiling the tender new shoots in syrup, the sticky amber sap can be used for chewing, inner bark is often dried, ground into a powder and then used as a thickener in soups etc or added to cereals when making bread.
		Dye	A tan or green dye is obtained from the needles
Field Pumpkin	Cucurbita pepo L.	Food	Cut into long circling slices which are barbequed or dried with slow heat (Cherokee) Species used for food, flesh used for food.
		Ceremony	Rinds used to make masks
		Music	Used to make rattles
Flameleaf Sumac	Rhus copallinum L.	Dye	Berries used to make both red and black dyes
Fourleaf Milkweed	Asclepias quadrifolia Jacq.	Weapons	Plant fibers used to make bowstrings.
Fox Grape	Vitis labrusca L.	Food	Raw fruit used for food.
Frost Grape	Vitis vulpina L.	Food	Fruit used for food.
Giant Cane	Arundinaria gigantea (Walt.) Muhl.	Weapons	Young shoots used to make arrow shafts, stalks hollowed and used as blowguns, used to make prears and arrows (Cherokee and Catawba) Used as knives as last resort in committing suicide in 1738 smallpox epidemic.
		Basketry	Used to make burden baskets, used to make baskets.
		Building	Used to make cane webbing, plastered with mud, supported with wood and used as a dwelling, used to make stockades
		Light	Used to make candles and torches
		Music	"Joint of reed" used to make flutes.
		Fishing	Used to make fishing crails and traps, used to make rafts
		Misc.	Used to make litters
Goldenclub or Tuckahoe	Orontium aquaticum	Food	Roots eaten
Goldenseal	Hydrastis canadensis L.	Dye	Source of yellow dye
Graybark Grape	Vitis cinerea var. baileyana (Munson) Comeaux	Food	Fruit used to make juice and dumplings, raw fruit used for food.
		Drink	Fruit mixed with sour grape, pokeberry juice, sugar and cornmeal used as a juice.
Green Arrow Arum	Peltandra virginica (L.) Schott	Food	Plant used for food, berries eaten
Green Ash	Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh.	Building	Wood used for firewood and lumber.
		Misc.	Wood used to make handles, ball bats and butter paddles, leaves sometimes used as a towel.
Great Ragweed	Ambrosia trifida L.	Ceremony	Used as an ingredient in green corn medicine.
Groundnut	Apios americana Medik.	Food	Uncooked seeds substituted for pinto beans in bean bread, beans used for food, beans boiled, roots cooked like potatoes.
Honeylocust	Gleditsia triacanthos	Food	Powdered pods used to sweeten parched corn
		Drink	Powdered pods used to make a sweet drink
Hordeflyweed	Baptisia tinctoria (L.) R. Br. ex Ait. f.	Dye	Used to make a blue dye.
Indianhemp	Apocynum cannabinum L.	Clothing	Fibers used to weave grave cloth material.
		Cordage	Used to make cords.
Jerusalem Artichoke	Helianthus tuberosus L.	Food	Species used for food.
Kinnikinnick	Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng.	Food	Fruit used for food.
Lima or Sieva Bean	Phaseolus lunatus L.	Food	Beans used for food, beans used to make bean bread, beans used to make hickory nut soup.
Live Oak	Quercus virginiana P. Mill.	Paint	Bark, red oak and post oak boiled and used for paint.
		Dye	Roots and bark boiled to make a red basket dye.
Loblolly Pine	Pinus taeda L.	Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Boats	Wood used to make thirty to forty foot long canoes, frames for skin covered boats, and rafts.
		Carving	Wood used to carve.
		Dye	A tan or green dye is obtained from the needles
Luaurel Greenbrier	Smilax laurifolia L.	Food	Pounded roots made into cakes and fried in grease, tuberous roots dried, ground into flour and used to make bread.
Meadow Garlic	Allium canadense L.	Food	Boiled bulbs fried with grease and greens.
Mockenut Hickory	Carya alba (L.) Nutt. ex Ell.	Food	Species used for food, ounded nut meat boiled, made into a paste and eaten as a broth or soup.
		Basketry	Inner bark used to finish baskets.
		Cooking	Wood used to make corn beaters.
		Weapons	Wood used to make blowgun darts and arrow shafts.
		Fishing	Used for making crails
		Tools	Wood used to make tool handles.
Muscadine	Vitis rotundifolia Michx.	Food	Fruit mixed with sour grape, pokeberry juice, sugar and cornmeal used as a juice.
Nodding Onion	Allium cernuum Roth	Food	Bulbs used for food.
Northern Red Oak	Quercus rubra L.	Basketry	Used to make baskets.
		Furniture	Wood used to make furniture.
		Cooking	Wood used to make corn beaters and mortars.Leaves used to wrap dough for bread making.
Nuttall Oak	Quercus texana Buckl.	Dye	Burned bark and black gum ash added to water and used as a red dye.
Ogeechee Lime	Nyssa ogeche	Food	Fruit - cooked.
		Drink	A refreshing lemonade-like drink
Osageorange	Maclura pomifera (Raf.) Schneid.	Weapons	Wood used to make bows
Pawpaw	Asimina triloba (L.) Dunal	Food	Fruit used for food.
		Cordage	Inner bark used to make strong ropes and string.
Pecan	Carya illinoinensis (Wangenh.) K. Koch	Food	Nuts used for food, nuts stored for winter use.
Pin Cherry	Prunus pensylvanica L. f.	Food	Fruit used for food, fruit used to make jam.
		Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Furniture	Wood used to make furniture.
Pitch Pine	Pinus rigida P. Mill.	Building	Wood used for lumber, houses covered with bark
		Boats	Wood used to make thirty to forty foot long canoes, frames for skin boats, and rafts
		Carving	Wood used to carve.
		Tattoos	Pitch used for making tattoo marks
		Dye	Tan or green dye obtained from needles
Prickle Pine or Table Mountain Pine	Pinus pungens Lamb.	Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Boats	Wood used to make thirty to forty foot long canoes, frame for skin covered boats, and rafts
		Carving	Wood used to carve.
		Dye	Tan or green dye obtained from needles
Purpleflowering Raspberry	Rubus odoratus L.	Food	Fresh fruit used for food, fruit used to make jelly, fruit dried for winter use.
Purple Passionflower	Passiflora incarnata L.	Food	Fruit used for food, fruit eaten raw, young shoots and leaves boiled, fried and often eaten with other greens, leaves parboiled, rinsed and cooked in hot grease with salt as a potherb.
		Drink	Used to make a social drink, crushed fruit strained into a juice, mixed with flour or cornmeal to thicken and used as a beverage.
Rabbit Tobacco	Alnus rubra Bong.	Superstition	Decoction of plant used as a wash for persons afflicted by ghosts.
Red Buckeye	Aesculus pavia L.	Superstition	Nut carried in the pocket for good luck.
		Hunting	Seed used to make eye in deer decoy
Red Maple	Acer rubrum L.	Basketry	Used to make baskets.
		Building	Wood used for lumber.
		Furniture	Wood used to make furniture.
Red Mulberry	Morus rubra L	Food	Fresh berries used for food, berries used to make jam.
		Cordage	Used to make thread and rope
Rosy Twistedstalk	Streptopus lanceolatus var. roseus (Michx.) Reveal	Food	Leaves and stalks mixed with wanegedum (Angelico) and sweet salad and cooked as greens, leaves and stalks mixed with wanegedum (Angelico) and sweet salad and canned for future use.
Roundleaf Greenbriar	Smilax rotundifolia L.	Food	Roots used for food.
Sand Hickory	Carya pallida (Ashe) Engl. & Graebn.	Basketry	Inner bark used to finish baskets.
		Cooking	Wood used to make corn beaters.
		Food	Species used for food.
		Weapons	Wood used to make blowgun darts and arrow shafts.
		Tools	Wood used to make tool handles.
Sassafras	Sassafras albidum (Nutt.) Nees	Food	Pounded, dry leaves added to soup for flavor, leaves - raw or cooked. The young leaves can be added to salads whilst both old and young leaves can be used as a flavoring and as a thickening agent in soups etc, the dried root bark can be boiled with sugar and water until it forms a thick paste, it is then used as a condiment
		Ceremony	Bark used as an emetic in purification after funerals, at doctor's school & after death of patient.