Phragmites use by Native North Americans

Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. occurred in North America in pr e-Columbian time but has spread greatly and become invasive in the north-ce ntral and northeastern US during the 1900s. At least 46 Native North Americ an tribes were reported to use Phragmites historically, and we compiled sta tistical data from the literature on 24 of these tribes. There were approxi mately 75 different uses of Phragmites. Each tribe had 2-25 (mean = 7.0) us es for Phragmites, of which the most frequent were: arrowshaft (17 tribes), cigarette (13), flute (12), whistle (7), pipestem (7), and matting (6). Nu mber of uses per tribe was highest in the SouthWestern quadrant of North Am erica, and was negatively correlated with latitude but not correlated with longitude. The apparent center of Phragmites availability and use in the So uthWestern United States is consistent with occurrence of Phragmites in pre -Columbian sediments and archaeological deposits, and at least two speciali zed Phragmites-using animals. The ethnobotanical importance of Phragmites s hould be considered in management of this plant. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.