Plants

Traditional Plant Use

Left image
Traditional Anishinaabe birchbark items.
Credit: NPS Photos

Right image
Birch trees are one of the useful plants in the boreal forest. Detail shows a trunk with a 20" diameter. Larger trees supply bark for canoes and wigwams.
Credit: NPS Photo / G.M. Spoto

 

GOCC staff gather birch bark.

NPS Photo

A Forest of Food

Northern forests provide an abundant supply of raw materials for the people who live within them. Essentials like snowshoes, toboggans, wigwams, and canoes originate in this vast ecosystem and are all made from boreal forest trees. The birchbark canoe is one example. The frame is cedar overlaid with sheets of waterproof birchbark, sewn together with spruce root, and sealed with a mixture of pine pitch, bear grease, and soot. Wiigwaas (birchbark) strips off easily at certain times of year, and thick enough so that a layer remains to serve the tree. This useful material bends easily into makuks (containers) to hold water and maple sugar, or to cook and prepare food as in vessels for winnowing manoomin (wild rice), and many other jobs.

Who needs to grow a garden if you know where the plants grow? Traditionally, Anishinaabe followed food sources. At the end of winter, to the sugarbush for boiling maple sap into sugar! This in-between season when nights freeze and daytime temperature rise enough for the sap to run brings all ages together for this task. Freezing temperatures at night create a layer of ice on the troughs of sap - removing this excess water reduces the boiling time, letting Nature help do the work.

Summer months are filled with a variety of edible fruit such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, juneberries, and thimbleberries, and edible plants like ramps and ferns, as well as edible fungi.* Reintroduced strategic burns keep blueberry patches free of other plants, a technique used for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

* Harvesting a small amount for day use is allowed while hiking at Grand Portage National Monument. Make sure to bring someone who can make a definite identification as many forest plants can be toxic.

 

Gichi-onigamiing Mitigoog (Trees of Grand Portage)

Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) names for plants, animals, and parts of the earth are very descriptive and often vary across communities. In some instances, there is a base name that is common and depending on the circumstance a speaker will add a bit more about the color, size, or actions that are observed.

To hear Anishinaabe tree names spoken, go to: https://ojibwe.net/trees-of-grand-portage-poster-2/ Recordings read by Michael Zimmerman Jr.

Anishinaabe & Scientific Names of Common Plants

Anishinaabe & Scientific Names of Common Plants

Anishinaabe Name	Common Name	Scientific Name

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

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Species attribute definitions

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"Lungs of the World"

NPS graphic using ESRI geospatial data

Boreal Forest

Grand Portage National Monument preserves an important component of the largest terrestrial ecosystem in the world, the boreal forest. This forest encircles the earth below the polar tundra and above the hardwood forests. The primary factor in determining the position of boreal forest on the globe is climate. Did you know that the growing season is so short here, that wetland species such as speckled alder and black spruce may grow in many upland places? Having wetland species like alder, dogwood, and black spruce in the uplands makes this area unique.

Shaped by glacial and post-glacial events and home to strong seasonal variation, the boreal forest remains one of the most intact ecosystems on Earth. Referred to as the Lungs of the World, it comprises more than 30% of the earth's forests and contains a significant amount of its surface freshwater.