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The Land That Gives Life

Plants

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There are roughly 700 plant species living in Pimachiowin Aki’s lands, wetlands and waters, including trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses, mosses and lichens

The bush is our drugstore and we are grateful for all the plants that give up their lives to keep us alive and help cure sickness. We need to honour those plants and to make sure they are looked after.

Elders Abel Bruce and Albert Bittern

The land is covered mainly by moss, lichen, jack pine and black spruce. Trembling aspen, white spruce and balsam fir appear along rivers and lakes. White spruce and balsam fir grow here, but they are scarce because, unlike other trees, they take a long time to regenerate after being destroyed by the large wildfires that frequently burn in Pimachiowin Aki.

Anishinaabeg hold a wealth of traditional knowledge about plants. They have long used plants to sustain their communities and way of life, while sustaining the health of the boreal shield. For Anishinaabeg, plants are a significant source of food, medicine, and building and craft materials. Wildlife rely on Pimachiowin Aki’s plants for safe shelter and nutritious food.

We greatly value the poplar tree as an important food source for beaver and snowshoe hare, which we depend on for food, for the making of snares from poplar saplings, and for medicinal use of the bark.

Poplar River Land Management Plan
PlantsCommon Use
Balsam poplarSmoking meat and fish, curing hides, medicine (bark), snares, food for beaver and snowshoe hare
BirchKindling, baskets (bark), sap, snowshoes, canoes (bark), horns for calling moose (bark), coverings for wigwams (bark)
Black ashFirewood, medicine
Black spruceFirewood, medicine
BlueberryFood, medicine
BunchberryFood, medicine
ChokecherryFood, medicine
CloudberryFood
Common cattailFood, medicine
DewberryMedicine
FireweedMedicine, tea
Highbush cranberryFood
Jack pineFirewood, tipi poles
Labrador TeaMedicine, tea
LingonberryFood
Manoomin (northern wild rice)Food
MintMedicine
MooseberryFood
Pin cherryFood
Pitcher plantMedicine
RaspberryFood, medicine, tea
Rock tripe lichenFood
Red-osier dogwoodMedicine, baskets, tobacco, food for moose
Rose (prickly and smooth)Medicine
SagewortMedicine
SaskatoonFood
StrawberryFood
Sweet flagMedicine, food for muskrats
TamarackFirewood, building cabins
Trembling aspenFirewood, medicine, snowshoes
White spruceMedicine, building material
WillowMedicine, baskets
Yellow pond lilyMedicine

We use white spruce for building because it doesn’t crack and break and the boughs have been important for bedding in winter camps. We use red-osier dogwood for medicines, basket making and tobacco, and we know the importance of this shrub to moose. We eat the wild strawberries and the bunchberries.

Poplar River Land Management Plan

North America’s Only Native Cereal

Manoomin (northern wild rice) is the only cereal native to North America. Manoomin is an annual aquatic grass that grows in clear, shallow, mud-bottomed streams, rivers and lakes. By planting wild rice, Anishinaabeg enhance an important food source for themselves and for many types of ducks, and other birds and animals, including muskrats.

1,200 years ago

Archaeological evidence shows that Anishinaabeg were cooking wild rice in pots over a millennium ago

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