Nope. But I'm certain Dr. Lizardo has.
Posted on 08/04/2015 9:46:24 AM PDT by Theoria
During a severe drought in 2011, JennaDee Detro noticed that many trees on the family cattle ranch in Cat Spring, Texas, withered, but a certain evergreen holly appeared vigorous. It's called a yaupon.
"The best we can tell is that they enjoy suffering," Detro says with a laugh. "So this kind of extreme weather in Texas — and the extreme soil conditions — are perfect for the yaupon."
Detro began researching yaupon — a tree abundant in its native range, from coastal North Carolina to East Texas — and discovered that the plant contains caffeine and has a remarkable history.
A thousand years ago, Native American traders dried, packed and shipped the leaves all the way to Cahokia, the ancient mound city near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Native Americans sometimes used it in purification rituals involving purging (this led to its Latin name, Ilex vomitoria — a misnomer, because yaupon is not an emetic). Traveling through North Carolina in 1775, the naturalist William Bartram said Cherokees called yaupon "the beloved tree." Early settlers even exported yaupon to Europe.
But yaupon was eventually elbowed aside by what purists call true tea – made from the leaves of the Asian shrub Camellia sinensis. (Technically, yaupon is an herbal infusion.) Because of yaupon's recent obscurity, Detro had to learn how to dry and prepare the leaves on her own.
"There is a lost art of preparing yaupon tea," says Detro, "because there are so many years between the Native American use of yaupon tea and our modern use of yaupon tea."
After Detro learned how to process the leaves, she told her sister, Abianne Falla, about her plans to sell the product at a farmer's market or two.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
>>> What benefits are derived from Yaupon tea that would justify the efforts to create a tea from it? <<<
Mad science. The simple joy of potentially lethal experimentation.
Have you seen my book “Party Fun With High Voltage”?
Yaupon grows wild on the outer banks. Back in the early part of the 20th century each OBX town had its own baseball team.
When the town of Kinnakeet played away games, the home crowd would chant:”Kinnakeeters yaupon eaters!”
The deer found my small corn patch last week. I started marking my territory the natural way around the edges and walking the dog through the rows in the evenings.
So far the deer have not molested the corn again.
I’ve never had a deer eat a daffodil.
Depending on where you live, it likes to grow in fence lines.
You can pull off the side of the road and get all you want in a couple of minutes.
Wikipedia by nature/default is almost always wrong. By the simple fact that it can be edited by anyone. Even those without proof, provenance or attribution.
Nope. But I'm certain Dr. Lizardo has.
Wow, what a massive hate-fest for yaupon tea on this thread.
Must threaten some entrenched faction.
I think I’ll try it now.
>>> Nope. But I’m certain Dr. Lizardo has. <<<
Buckaroo Banzai! A favorite of mine.
An infusion is a lot different than eating the actual
plant, only water soluble alkaloids will be left in it,
makes a big difference, so eating the plant may be an
emetic.
Have heard it’s very HARD to get rid of once it
starts growing.
“Laugh now while you can monkey boy!” John Smallberries where is my oscillation overthruster?
Native Americans used the leaves and stems to brew a tea, commonly thought to be called asi or black drink for male-only purification and unity rituals. The ceremony included vomiting, and Europeans incorrectly believed that it was Ilex vomitoria that caused it (hence the Latin name). The active ingredients, like those of the related yerba mate and guayusa, are actually caffeine and theobromine, and the vomiting either was learned or resulted from the great quantities in which they drank the beverage coupled with fasting. Others believe the Europeans improperly assumed the black drink to be the tea made from Ilex vomitoria when it was likely an entirely different drink made from various roots and herbs and did have emetic properties.
The leaves (and I guess other parts of the plant) induce vomiting when eaten. Most sites say that the tea made from them doesn’t. But the Indians mixed in so many other ingredients that their tea did.
hmmmm
That is encouraging to know. I like daffodils and have lots of them back home on the farm. Here, not so much. Doesn’t get cold enough to set them in the winter and I’m not enough of a gardener to go digging them up and force them.
I’ll remember that!
"Cursa you Banzai! Doomed isa your life and damned isa your soul!"
Truly an under-appreciated American classic. I hoped for a sequel, but alas...
There was a sequel named at the end of the film...”Buckaroo Banzai versus the Crime League” or something like that. I guess money does talk.
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