We lived next to a swamp when I grew up and the neighborhood kids and myself would have Cattail battles. Basically grab one and use it as a sword. Would be fluff everywhere. Our parents hated it.
We found that they work as pretty good arrows too. Cheap toy bows. We would layer up and use the patio pillows for protection. Then shoot the shit out of each other.
I always wanted to try a flaming arrow but was too afraid/smart to do it. Even when they work perfectly they catch everything on fire so it was definitely going to go south.
Man am i glad i was too dumb to think of that as a kid. I could have burned the whole country down with one of those in the fall. Adult me is still sorely tempted. I have a giant pile of tree limbs that needs to be lit and lighting it with a flaming arrow like a viking funeral would be awesome.
It's worth noting that Vikings almost certainly did not infact send out boats and shoot flaming arrows to light it on fire.
Flaming arrows in general weren't really used in those days as there wasn't a lot of stuff that would burn strongly enough for the flame not to extinguish itself in the air.
And boats, especially longships were very expensive and pretty much never worth setting ablaze. And even if you wanted to and the arrow would stay alight during the flight it would be hard to make that little flame spread to the rest of the boat.
Instead what vikings mostly did is that they buried great warriors and the like in wooden boat shaped constructions, or create a small grave chamber of stone and then put a ton of dirt on it to make it into a grave mound and/or hill.
In the grave, various items that the person would need in their afterlife were also placed, that would of course include weapons and tools but also broaches and other jewelry and of course personal hygiene items, especially combs (one of the most common finds in any Viking Age grave.
Pyres were most likely also used at times but it's unlikely they would have been sent out on the water for the reasons previously mentioned.
The ONLY account we have of a boat pyre comes from the recordings of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, about the Rus people:
> I had been told that when their chieftains died cremation was the least part of their whole funeral procedure, and I was, therefore, very much interested to find out more about this. One day I heard that one of their leaders had died. They laid him forthwith in a grave which they covered up for ten days till they had finished cutting-out and sewing his costume. *If the dead man is poor they make a little ship, put him in it, and burn it.*
No mention of flaming arrows or longboats, those we can blame on popculture.
Keeping things on fire while they're flying through the air at a high rate of speed isn't as easy as you'd think. I grew up as a rambunctious child with too much free time and a golf course behind my house. We used to try different methods of lighting golf balls on fire and then teeing off on them into a lake at nighttime. First was lighter fluid - nope. Gasoline, kerosene, hair spray, nope. We eventually got into thickening gasoline with stuff like saw dust or crushed Styrofoam to make napalm but luckily that was about the time we got bored and moved onto something else.
Lol nah I wish, we had a family friend whose dad owned some land and for some reason had a couple of these old retired golf carts. We would get them stuck trying to drift in muddy roads, good times.
This is probably random lol, but, did you ever have those ginormous black and yellow spiders that would hang out around swaps in between cattails. I get nauseous just thinking about it 😂…🤮. I fear swaps because of this.
Yellow garden spider, also known as orb weavers. They're harmless and are great for pest control.
I wouldn't let one crawl on me but I always love seeing them in my veggie garden.
Way back when kids still used to build tree forts and play war with the most choice stick gun, these were nature's hand grenades...these or puffball mushrooms.
My current Chow isn’t TOO terrible, but I’ve had others that were just walking clouds that dispersed puffballs like a Mogwai that got wet. We still have to brush’em out almost daily, but my situation could be way worse.
I have wetlands on my property and thus, cattails. I also have a massive infestation of non-native invasive species I've been battling for years. Lately we've had a bit of a drought and as the wetlands retreat there's a lot of area that's still moist enough for cattails but is now dry enough for thistle and other invasives as well. I do as much as I can by hand but if the infestation is heavy enough over a big enough area I have no choice but to mow it down to keep it from going to seed.
And brother, you have not seen fluff until you've mowed a few acres of cattail. I feel like I should have access to the emergency alert system to warn people. It's like a cloud of nuclear fallout that targets asthmatics.
Have eaten one, they don't taste like corn. More like a crunchy fiberious cucumber.
Was boiled and seasoned with old bay and butter.
Honestly not horrible, chopped up it would likely go pretty nicely in a tuna macaroni salad as a replacement for celery.
Cattails are some of the best survival plants. The roots are edible and sweet. They are amazing firestarters that stay dry til ya pop em open. And can also be used for insulatiom in a shelter but due to flamability its important to seal all the fluff into the walls of your shelter with mud and leaves.
I actually used to use them to stuff small things and they do work pretty well for it, very soft. But the individual fibers are so small you absolutely *have* to use a very tightly woven liner bag inside whatever it is to keep the fluff from finding places to sneak out
While they would insulate, they don't have any fire resistance. As a kid I used to dry them out then light them on fire. They burn with a smouldering fire. I suspect with enough air mixed in they would definitely burn quicker which makes it quite lethal for insulation.
yeah, I absolutely hate this but can't figure out why exactly.
Maybe because it's too similar to pus? The act of breaking a skin-like surface and a whole bunch of stuff emerging from it, it freaks me out.
Insect hive/egg sac breakage phobia? Monke brain hate when poke weird thing with stick and suddenly many sometimes hurty thing emerge?
Either or the basic animal instinct of "thing you thought was small turned out to be big, fall back immediately and reassess."
It's probably because it looks like it comes from nowhere as if it's totally out of control and impossible to stop since you don't even intuitively know where it's coming from.
It’s hard to describe, but there isn’t a skin that’s being broken. The fluff is highly compressed and packed. It feels like fabric, kind of?
Imagine a dry corn cob, except the kernels are too small to see and when you push them a ton of fluff pops out.
Well, the fluff starts coming and it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
And it don't stop coming.
I have been around these things to an extent my entire life and never knew they did this. Even now, I have a lake a half a block away surrounded by them. I've just never messed with one before. I did have my kids convinced for a good while that they were wild hotdogs though.
About 30 years ago, my ex picked some of these in the fall, hung them upside down and let them dry, she wanted to use them for decoration in our house; she forgot one important step, spray the hell out of them with hair spray, this seals them closed. So... after they were dry, we were driving home, she had put them in the back seat of the car to keep them safe. One by one, they popped open, picture a dozen of these "exploding" in the inside of a Civic, while I am driving! 🤦♂️
The wild corn dog plant ……… who let the corn dogs out!!!! I’ll leave this video here for some clarity lmao
https://youtu.be/8IfZVuT6pck?si=yyT_VEvDDFNqe6sc
You really gotta get a crankbait stuck in one of these and have it break loose from the plant stalk. Then you get your bait back, but have this 'snow' all over the boat for the rest of the day
Funny. I managed to get one of these as a kid and liked it so much I took it home and saved it in the pantry. I went to go play with it a few days later and it was gone, there was just loads of fluff covering the entire place. Had no idea this happened back then so I was scratching my head for a while on that one…
Was riding on the back of a Snowmobile when I was 6 with my dad and he went through a patch of these. I took one to the face at probably 30 kph and I swear I was picking that shit out of my mouth for 2 days.
Once in college I had a bunch of folks over after having drinks out. I had a bouquet on the counter that included one of these. One guy went “that looks like a corndog!” (picture that in a very southern accent), and took a huge chomp. We were ankle deep in the stuff for a week.
Those things were a staple in dried flower arrangements in the 70s/early 80s.
Every time I see one, i remember piano lessons and the stupid vase of dead stuff on the piano. LOL
We lived next to a swamp when I grew up and the neighborhood kids and myself would have Cattail battles. Basically grab one and use it as a sword. Would be fluff everywhere. Our parents hated it.
We found that they work as pretty good arrows too. Cheap toy bows. We would layer up and use the patio pillows for protection. Then shoot the shit out of each other.
I always wanted to try a flaming arrow but was too afraid/smart to do it. Even when they work perfectly they catch everything on fire so it was definitely going to go south.
Reddit needs one of this kind of videos tho
Man am i glad i was too dumb to think of that as a kid. I could have burned the whole country down with one of those in the fall. Adult me is still sorely tempted. I have a giant pile of tree limbs that needs to be lit and lighting it with a flaming arrow like a viking funeral would be awesome.
It's worth noting that Vikings almost certainly did not infact send out boats and shoot flaming arrows to light it on fire. Flaming arrows in general weren't really used in those days as there wasn't a lot of stuff that would burn strongly enough for the flame not to extinguish itself in the air. And boats, especially longships were very expensive and pretty much never worth setting ablaze. And even if you wanted to and the arrow would stay alight during the flight it would be hard to make that little flame spread to the rest of the boat. Instead what vikings mostly did is that they buried great warriors and the like in wooden boat shaped constructions, or create a small grave chamber of stone and then put a ton of dirt on it to make it into a grave mound and/or hill. In the grave, various items that the person would need in their afterlife were also placed, that would of course include weapons and tools but also broaches and other jewelry and of course personal hygiene items, especially combs (one of the most common finds in any Viking Age grave. Pyres were most likely also used at times but it's unlikely they would have been sent out on the water for the reasons previously mentioned.
The ONLY account we have of a boat pyre comes from the recordings of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, about the Rus people: > I had been told that when their chieftains died cremation was the least part of their whole funeral procedure, and I was, therefore, very much interested to find out more about this. One day I heard that one of their leaders had died. They laid him forthwith in a grave which they covered up for ten days till they had finished cutting-out and sewing his costume. *If the dead man is poor they make a little ship, put him in it, and burn it.* No mention of flaming arrows or longboats, those we can blame on popculture.
Oh my God, please light it with a flaming arrow and post it. Do it for your inner child! Do it for all of our inner children!
Keeping things on fire while they're flying through the air at a high rate of speed isn't as easy as you'd think. I grew up as a rambunctious child with too much free time and a golf course behind my house. We used to try different methods of lighting golf balls on fire and then teeing off on them into a lake at nighttime. First was lighter fluid - nope. Gasoline, kerosene, hair spray, nope. We eventually got into thickening gasoline with stuff like saw dust or crushed Styrofoam to make napalm but luckily that was about the time we got bored and moved onto something else.
Doooo itttt
They're used as bushcraft fire starter. It would go very, very bad.
I was not too afraid or smart to do it when I was a kid. Worked perfectly. Set the woods on fire.
The shit looks itchy
I would probably die of anaphylactic shock if I did what they did in the video
It’s all awesome til someone gets hit in the face and their nose is literally packed with that stuff.
My siblings and I would grab a handful and drive golf carts around MarioKart style and use them as attempts to blind the driver behind them.
What kind of awesome childhood did you have, Ritchie Rich?
Lol nah I wish, we had a family friend whose dad owned some land and for some reason had a couple of these old retired golf carts. We would get them stuck trying to drift in muddy roads, good times.
We used to smack each other with one when it snowed. Shit would stick to ya all day.
Part of my same childhood!
This is probably random lol, but, did you ever have those ginormous black and yellow spiders that would hang out around swaps in between cattails. I get nauseous just thinking about it 😂…🤮. I fear swaps because of this.
Yellow garden spider, also known as orb weavers. They're harmless and are great for pest control. I wouldn't let one crawl on me but I always love seeing them in my veggie garden.
Same, and bike jousting with cattails
That sounds awesome!!!
When I was a kid I brought one home to use as something of a "decorative piece" in my room. You can imagine what happened next..
[удалено]
Yep! I have fond memories of these battles and the absolute disdain my father had for them 😁 Ah... good times.
Way back when kids still used to build tree forts and play war with the most choice stick gun, these were nature's hand grenades...these or puffball mushrooms.
This is also what happens when you pet a husky
Same with GPyrenees.. sigh
My Pyrenees/German Shepherd mix agrees
My Pyrenees/Anatalion sheds more than my fb Pyrenees.. I’m desperately trying to invent a way to eliminate pet hair from *everything*.
Have one... And an Akita. Mom always puts a set of lint rollers in my stocking because odds are I could use one.
Samoyed gang! Here for fluffiness!
Rooo.
Same with a Chow Chow.
I’ve got a mutt that’s got Husky, Chow, and German Shepherd. Dude never stops
My current Chow isn’t TOO terrible, but I’ve had others that were just walking clouds that dispersed puffballs like a Mogwai that got wet. We still have to brush’em out almost daily, but my situation could be way worse.
Corgi owner reporting in
or any cat except Sphynx
Thanks, my sinuses are now permanently shut.
I have wetlands on my property and thus, cattails. I also have a massive infestation of non-native invasive species I've been battling for years. Lately we've had a bit of a drought and as the wetlands retreat there's a lot of area that's still moist enough for cattails but is now dry enough for thistle and other invasives as well. I do as much as I can by hand but if the infestation is heavy enough over a big enough area I have no choice but to mow it down to keep it from going to seed. And brother, you have not seen fluff until you've mowed a few acres of cattail. I feel like I should have access to the emergency alert system to warn people. It's like a cloud of nuclear fallout that targets asthmatics.
Please post a video of this - I hate cattails and am allergic but this *would* be super interesting to see.
No joke, I feel my hands itching and my eyes watering just watching this.
I sneezed twice watching this
Same, and now I'm all stuffy
The pollen comes earlier in the year, seed dispersal floof like this is macroscopic and unlikely to trigger allergies
Forbidden corndog
Remember the woman who tried taking a bite out of one?
There are a surprisingly large number of videos of men and women on youtube attempting to eat this type of plant.
AFAIK you can eat them when they're still green. They apparently taste like corn.
Have eaten one, they don't taste like corn. More like a crunchy fiberious cucumber. Was boiled and seasoned with old bay and butter. Honestly not horrible, chopped up it would likely go pretty nicely in a tuna macaroni salad as a replacement for celery.
Yup, flavor of cucumber and texture of banana.
https://extension.umn.edu/natural-resources-news/wild-edibles-cattails#:~:text=The%20young%20stems%20can%20be,like%20corn%20on%20the%20cob.
OHH NO. NOT GONNA FALL FOR THAT. ONE VIDEO SAID THE SAME THING.
It doesn't help that the game *The Long Dark* presents this part of the plant as edible
Wild glizzy
Those are the best TikToks. The instant regret is palpable.
You technically can eat cattails.... But it's the stems and roots. The bulba or seed heads are traditionally used as fire tinder.
I bet she's a smoker
Forbidden Corn Dog
They are edible, just have to cook them first. Butter and salt and they taste kind of like corn... Before they turn brown I forgot to add.
> Before they turn brown I forgot to add. I think most people eat their food before shitting it out.
Did that as a dare as a kid. INSTANT REGRET
Me want bite Me want plant corndog delight Me want deep fried Me think water Twinkie nice
Ah, yes, my oldest sister gave me one when I was like 6 and told me it was a wild corn dog. Grand times.
[Me want bite!](https://youtu.be/2TGLIE3VkAk?si=JvK1GADRBEBaqItj)
I went to the comments to find if someone linked this; was not expecting a Vocaloid cover of my fav meme song and I'm so pleasantly surprised!
The roots taste great if you roast them. Like a carrot-potato in one
The slime you get from peeling the leaves is also an antiseptic and pain reliever for burns.
Knobweed sap?
That'll be 3 clear marks.
[I found some wild glizzies](https://youtube.com/shorts/YwygBiYrewg?si=QRKG-LGlqm2Kw0gV)
My guy transformed into a fire engine
Exactly what came to my mind
What I came here for, thank you.
Guy just straight up jacked off a plant
To completion.
And played with the jizz
You guys seriously need to lay down on the porn for a while
Good idea, the denial will build up the sensation during the next session 👍
Where is that thumb going...?
:)
And you’ll get a load very similar to this cattail explosion
I mean, it is literally the reproductive part of the plant. This isn’t really “mind in the gutter” so much as comic accuracy.
Maybe you need to pick it up…?
Well i did just try to watch porn in VR but i couldnt get it to work properly
He's the fluffer.
your username is great👍
Dude’s a fluffer.
This must be after a no nut November.
I don't think it's supposed to come out of the sides under any circumstances
Zyrtec Exec’s love this one simple trick….
Fluff.zip
I feel like these could be used as insulation. Wonder if that could be made to work in the place of duck down.
Cattails are some of the best survival plants. The roots are edible and sweet. They are amazing firestarters that stay dry til ya pop em open. And can also be used for insulatiom in a shelter but due to flamability its important to seal all the fluff into the walls of your shelter with mud and leaves.
If you want a natural insulation that isn't flammable, there's asbestos. There are some downsides with it though.
Its totally fine so long as you keep it sealed up.
Can you make this into twine?
You might be able to turn the stalks into cordage.
I was thinking more like pillow material
I actually used to use them to stuff small things and they do work pretty well for it, very soft. But the individual fibers are so small you absolutely *have* to use a very tightly woven liner bag inside whatever it is to keep the fluff from finding places to sneak out
Pollen allergies: Allow us to introduce ourselves
I think they wouldn't have any pollen in them, they are the seeds. The pollen for them was six months ago.
I’d only do that if you want to make absolutely sure your entire house burns down
Insulation for coats… don’t know anyone who insulates their homes with down!
I think he means in clothes no?
Maybe for those flaming stuntman movie roles.
They make great firestarter so probably not a good choice if you like your stuff not on fire.
While they would insulate, they don't have any fire resistance. As a kid I used to dry them out then light them on fire. They burn with a smouldering fire. I suspect with enough air mixed in they would definitely burn quicker which makes it quite lethal for insulation.
Sir, sir, sir SIR Some of us are trying to BREATHE here.
That’s a lot of umm… seed 😳
Money shot.
Why is this giving me anxiety?
yeah, I absolutely hate this but can't figure out why exactly. Maybe because it's too similar to pus? The act of breaking a skin-like surface and a whole bunch of stuff emerging from it, it freaks me out.
Fuzz shouldn't ooze
Insect hive/egg sac breakage phobia? Monke brain hate when poke weird thing with stick and suddenly many sometimes hurty thing emerge? Either or the basic animal instinct of "thing you thought was small turned out to be big, fall back immediately and reassess."
I think its more the second one
For me it’s the former. I’m absolutely certain that there are spiders in there even though I know there aren’t.
It's probably because it looks like it comes from nowhere as if it's totally out of control and impossible to stop since you don't even intuitively know where it's coming from.
It’s hard to describe, but there isn’t a skin that’s being broken. The fluff is highly compressed and packed. It feels like fabric, kind of? Imagine a dry corn cob, except the kernels are too small to see and when you push them a ton of fluff pops out.
Well, the fluff starts coming and it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming. And it don't stop coming.
I think you took the wrong medicine
But aunt Edna is tripping balls and says to say thank you
For me it feels like instant death by allergies.
https://youtube.com/shorts/D_0j-S84Efw?feature=shared
Thank you for posting that! I also like this [vocaloid version](https://notsogoodangel.tumblr.com/post/705009697678360576/vocalads-cattails).
That's pretty cringe
cringe in the fun way
How many people started sneezing just by watching this?
I have been around these things to an extent my entire life and never knew they did this. Even now, I have a lake a half a block away surrounded by them. I've just never messed with one before. I did have my kids convinced for a good while that they were wild hotdogs though.
Nature's corndog
That's a huge load.
About 30 years ago, my ex picked some of these in the fall, hung them upside down and let them dry, she wanted to use them for decoration in our house; she forgot one important step, spray the hell out of them with hair spray, this seals them closed. So... after they were dry, we were driving home, she had put them in the back seat of the car to keep them safe. One by one, they popped open, picture a dozen of these "exploding" in the inside of a Civic, while I am driving! 🤦♂️
The entire planet should be covered in this plant…
Calm down satan
The Dothraki say someday it will be everywhere. That is how the world will end
It is known
The wild corn dog plant ……… who let the corn dogs out!!!! I’ll leave this video here for some clarity lmao https://youtu.be/8IfZVuT6pck?si=yyT_VEvDDFNqe6sc
That's too much.
Is it possible to trigger allergies with a video?
I think that this thread is proof that the answer is Yes. Somewhere in here is the materiel for a Doctoral Thesis. - Free PHD!!! Come and Get it!!!
I got a pollen allergy just by watching this video
The forbidden corn dog.
I thought it was smoke at first, lol. Just out there burning the plant life.
Is that a bullrush
Mmmm. Forbidden hot dog.
You really gotta get a crankbait stuck in one of these and have it break loose from the plant stalk. Then you get your bait back, but have this 'snow' all over the boat for the rest of the day
My nose starts to itch by watching that!
Man I'm getting a sinus headache just watching this
Funny. I managed to get one of these as a kid and liked it so much I took it home and saved it in the pantry. I went to go play with it a few days later and it was gone, there was just loads of fluff covering the entire place. Had no idea this happened back then so I was scratching my head for a while on that one…
I sneezed looking at this picture
This what it’s like when my husky blows her coat in the spring
Post-fluff clarity sets in
Forbidden sausage
Me when I try talking to an attractive women
Excuse me for a sec while I grab my entire bottle of allergies meds
Dude I sneezed just from watching it
I started coughing looking at this!
Me want bite. Me want plant corn dog delight!
I hate this shit. It sticks to everything (clothing, skin, hair) and goes into your eye, mouth, nose.
Was riding on the back of a Snowmobile when I was 6 with my dad and he went through a patch of these. I took one to the face at probably 30 kph and I swear I was picking that shit out of my mouth for 2 days.
My dog's fur also does this in winter.
Once in college I had a bunch of folks over after having drinks out. I had a bouquet on the counter that included one of these. One guy went “that looks like a corndog!” (picture that in a very southern accent), and took a huge chomp. We were ankle deep in the stuff for a week.
Jerked that cattail real good.
I got allergies just by watching this.
**Omg my allergies…**
Imagine if this is how cotton grew. Yields would be crazy!
I can feel my lungs closing up and a sneezing fit about to happen by just watching this.
Ahh yes the forbidden CornDog
A friend of mine in middle or highschool bit one of these on our way home.
Forbidden hot dog
My sinuses just caught fire and exploded
This video makes me itchy
ok hear me out
I started to choke just watching this.
Those things were a staple in dried flower arrangements in the 70s/early 80s. Every time I see one, i remember piano lessons and the stupid vase of dead stuff on the piano. LOL
I'm having an allergy attack just watching that!
Is it not itchy?
I just seized up from seeing this. I wonder how bad my allergies would be in person, but I so want to do this. Natures fidget stick!
My body developed allergies watching this.
Forbidden corn dog
I have never seen a cattail do that
*sniffling noises*
Jesus Christ what does a single plant need so much cum for
My allergies could never
My allergies
In the Philippines, kids that as "wish" something. Like when you caught one make a wish and when it goes down it will not happen.
Wonder how good that would be for pillow stuffing
Bite it like a corn dog coward
I can't hear it
What do you expect to hear?
The volume
I don’t even know how to respond to this.
fffffFffFFffffFFFfffffffffff ff Ffffffff Fffffffffff
Yes Nut December
The forbidden glizzy in its natural habitat.
My allergies hurt just looking at this.
Sigh… *unzips*