The Ultimate Survival Plant
What Is A Survival Plant
So, the zombie plague just broke and you’re headin’ outta dodge. But you don’t have any gear to get you to your bugout location, where you’ve cached all your equipment. You’re a little panicked until you see, just ahead, the survival plant. Your brain starts running through all the uses you’ve read for it. Suddenly you know you’re going to be okay.
What is this hope inspiring plant? I’m glad you asked!
A Plant That Offers Shelter?
You’ve been walking for hours. You know there’s no way to make it to the bugout location tonight. You estimate that you’ve got just enough time to throw a simple shelter together. Luckily, you’ve found enough straight branches to put together a simple lean-to, but you have nothing to lash it together with. Oh, but you do! You remember that the leaves of the survival plant can be scraped, and the fibers that are left can be twisted into strong cordage. You get to work building a shelter that will keep you dry and reflect a little of the heat from your fire.....
Fire! You Don’t Have a Lighter!
And you call yourself a survivalist. Survival plant to the rescue! The dead stalks from the plant are super straight and are excellent for a bow drill set up. And the dead, dry leaves have a low kindling point, so your fire is just a couple blistered palms away.
Shelter and fire from a plant? Yep. And chances are, there’s some growing in your neighborhood.
Rrrrrrriiiip!
Dang it! While you were doing your shelter/fire celebration dance, you ripped your pants! Well, you’ve got a little while before bed time, so you decide to mend them. You pull one leaf from your survival plant and very carefully separate the fibers starting at the end that was attached to the plant, being sure not to separate them all the way to the tip. You break off the very thin, pointed tip of the leaf, making sure to leave a few fibers attached. You can now sew up your pants with your make-shift needle and thread.
The Most Important Meal of the Day
After a good night’s sleep, you wake-up a little hungry. Again you turn to your botanical bestie and pluck off the white petals from it’s blossom. You add them to the pile of wild greens you’ve found around camp and have yourself a tasty morning salad.
You’re kidding me. Can a plant so useful be real?
What’s That Smell?
Ohmuhgosh, it’s you. When you get to the bugout location, there’s almost certainly going to be someone who beat you there. You don’t want to show up smelling like that. Besides, the walk will be much more pleasant if you don’t have to smell yourself. There’s a creek real close. Plain water would be better than nothing, but you can do better than that! You break off a few pieces of the root and crush them. When you mix them with water, they make a fantastic soap/shampoo! It smells a little like a potato, but it’s better than that pizza-corn chip thang you had goin’!
This Has Got To Be A Joke!!
Nope, it’s true. There is a plant, a common plant, that can provide all these things for you.
- Cordage
- Bow Drill and Kindling
- Needle and Thread
- Food
- Soap
Yucca!
Yucca plant grows naturally in a vast area of the Americas. They tend to be more abundant in hot, dry areas, but can be found growing in many suburban yards and gardens. Interestingly, they are commonly found growing in rural graveyards, and when in bloom, are sometimes mistaken for apparitions.
To learn more about how to use yucca, take a look at these posts from other Steemians!
@apollomission has a detailed yucca cordage howto from start to finish.
@haphazard-hstead has an excellent post called Comfort Foods with Yucca Flowers.
This post is a result of an #dolphinschool assignment, day two. To follow along with #dolphinschool, a ten day Steemit course, offered free, by @markrmorrisjr start with Day #1.
Excellent article. I have one lowly yucca someone planted here. It does quite well for being out of it's element. Had no idea you could use it for anything but baskets.
I hadn’t thought about baskets. Too bad, I coulda worked that into the story!
Thanks for the shoutout in your post and letting me know about it, too! Yuccas are pretty great plants. As a kid in western Kansas, they grew all over the sandhills near home. I crashed into many of them on a sled in the winter and a bicycle in the summer! That's great that your grandmother deep-fried the yucca petals! I'll have to try that way this summer! :D
Ouch!
Woowww, that is so cool. I live in Brazil and especially in the state I'm in (Bahia), they eat this all the time. The root, that is. The make flour from it too, and eat that with almost everything, lol. It's called 'Mandioca' here.
Didn't know how otherwise useful it could be though!
In North America, the yucca we have doesn’t have the big edible tuber root. It’s often confused with yuca, just one ‘c’, that grows in South America. Yuca is also sometimes known as cassava, and it has the big yummy tuber roots!
She swings, and it's a hit, the ball is going, going, gone!!!! Homerun! This is as great a use of the bucket brigade as I have seen. Nice. One critique, you might add a bit more drama to your headline. It's very clear, but, you could say, Food, shelter, cordage, fire, all from one plant? Or something along those lines. "The Ultimate Survival Plant" has a bit of hyperbole to it, that might not make me as curious as saying it another way. otherwise, good layout, great images, nice pace, very readable. Definite contender for revenue share today! Thanks for not giving up!
Hey, thanks for critique. I love constructive criticism. I do have hard time with headlines and tags. I feel like the headline is the ‘hook’. Maybe I just need to spend more time thinking about them.
There’s no give up here! I had a train wreck sorta day that had me running behind, but I’m caught up now so it’s all good!
Did you see your payout today? Congrats!
Oh, SNAP! Nice. :)
Yeah, now, if we can spread that around a little some really great writers will have the SP they need to compete! Three of our posts that I know of got similar upvotes.
@powellx5 That is a useful plant, nice to read articles about survival and plants, (we have to be prepared).
I’m just always amazed by the usefulness of so many plants. Everywhere I go, even just out to my front yard, there are plants holding secret medicinal, culinary and practical uses!
ANNND.. another plant to begin to grow!! I feel so ready... like i can survive !
This was well written and kept me interested ... I probably wouldn’t have lasted if it were just straight information.
#dolphinschool !
I’m going to go check the links and look for seeds to purchase now....
@jeejee
Like I said to @insideoutlet, my plant posts usually end up readding like a text book. I’m finally getting brave enough to write the way I think. Thanks for the comment, I wasn’t sure anyone would appriciate it. :)
Definitely a different way to keep the attention and give out useful info!! I love it!
Well done indeed, and look at that awesome payout! I read through to the end (it flowed well) and had no idea what plant it was until then. I'm impressed with this post. If I might add just one tiny little critique? If you use a spell/grammar checker before hitting 'post', you would catch the 2 errors in the very first paragraph (your equipment rather than you're; and the past tense of panic is panicked). Overall, very nice!
Blast!! lol Those are pretty embarrassing mistakes...
I’m stoked that it worked out and flowed well. I was a little afraid it would read like a ramble or something. It was a lot of fun to write. I appreciate the compliments and critique! Thanks for both. :)
You're very welcome; and thank you for taking critiques gracefully - it shows professionalism and character. :)
I guess my only other option is to stamp my feet and swear at..... my ipad screen? O.o
Off to prepare for a nighttime raid on the neighbour's garden...🕵️♀️
So, did you get caught? lol
Great read. We have those here in Texas and I had heard about some of the uses, but you made it really interesting. Congrats.
Thanks! I read about plants and their uses all the time, and often I come across one that I’m familiar with, but didn’t know it was good for anything. I get real excited when that happens! lol
I think there are two type of yucca. one has needle sharp tips. The other looks needle sharp, but it's soft. They ar invasive in this part of Texas.
Yeah, I think you’re right. I know there are quite a few varieties in the States, but I’m only familier with the sharp ones. I can see how they’d become invasive, especially in a warmer place. You can tell when they’ve been in a place around here for a few years because there are so many of them. Keeping a yard groomed around them keeps them from popping up everywhere in the yard.
It's getting COLD in here! Let's turn up the STEEMIT love & HEAT! Your post has been chosen to receive some January (Into February) THAWing! Please accept this special surprise on behalf of @goldendawne, the Stewards Of Gondor and @fulltimegeek's delegation! Please check your wallet for a HOT tip!
Oh, awesome! Thanks you! And thank the Stewards of Gondor @fulltimegeek too! :)
Wow! That is so cool, you kept me engaged right to the end and I had no clue what plant you were talking about. I was so surprised when you said the Yucca plant, as my front yard is filled with them. I'm glad I wouldn't need to go far to get such a handy plant. #dolphinschool
What an awesome plant to be growing so abondantly! This is a rad post @powellx5. I am gonna have to check out #dolphinschool!! This looks like my kind of homework 💚💜 sadly, yucca doesn't grow where i live. But, the wonder of useful plants is here too in a bit of a different way. Nice to see you @insideoutlet i think your husband might be an #asaper with me! Pls forgive me if i am wrong, but i recognize you from somewhere! 😊
Hey @yogajill, yes you are correct he is part of the #asapers, as am I. 😊 he mentioned you had had a rough time of late which is super poop. I hope it all picks up soon. We have set up a discord channel for us. So whern your reday let us know and we will send you a link.
👍👍💜
Yucca is a beautiful house plant!
And ornamental!!! I’m definitely going to get us a few of these!!!
@jeejee
I hoped it would be entertaining. When I write about plants, it tends to read like a text book, and that’s so boring!! I don’t have any in my yard right now, but my brother and I are going to get some for transplant as soon as it gets a little warmer. I probably won’t use it for anything except the flower petals, but I love collecting useful plants. :)
Mine have never flowered 😭
There could be a couple things going on. Yucca takes a few years to mature to the point of blooming. I don’t know how old your plant is, but there are a couple things you can try. They aren’t picky about their soil, but sometimes adding bonemeal will encourage growth. Make sure it isn’t setting in water.
There’s a moth called Tegeticula yuccasella, or the yucca moth, that has a close relationship with the yucca. The yucca needs the moth to pollinate it, and when the bloom goes to seed, the moth larva eats the seed. If the moth isn’t present, the yucca has to be hand pollinated in order to bloom.
I hope that helps! Yucca blooms are SO pretty!
Thanks for that information, they have been in about four years. My hubby said if you like writting about plants there is a garden of death in the UK you could explore.
😂