Potential Shoot Shaft Plant ID

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

I'm in north east Florida and I have access to some land covered in this stuff and it looks like it might be good for shoot shafts, maybe. Can anyone ID this stuff?

[tipi stuff]

It looks like tamarisk (salt cedar) to me. We have it throughout Texas. It was brought in from the Mediterranian area for erosion control in the 1930's.   CC

[Pat B]

It's dog fennel...from Google...
Dog Fennel, also known as Summer Cedar or Hogweed, is a perennial broadleaf weed. Preferring moist to wet areas, Eupatorium capillifolium does not fare well in thick, established turf and grows best in poorly maintained turf and other waste areas.
 It would make an arrow as well as horseweed and I have a horseweed arrow that was hafted with a stone point that Jamie Leffler killed a doe with a few years back from a sinew baked hickory bow I made. The stone point was lost after the shot.

[bowandarrow473]

I too live in Northeast Florida, around Jacksonville, and there is an ample amount of this stuff around. I cut some about 3 years ago and it seemed to have decent spine with light weight, but I just flexed it and held in in comparison to a dogwood shoot.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Yeah, I'm from Jacksonville too and this was on some property we are looking at in Hilliard. There's a metric butt ton of this stuff, like probably two or three acres of the property is covered in this. I think next time I go out there I'll cut a bunch of it and see what happens. Any thoughts on drying, just tie up in bundles or should a peel the bark and leave some at the ends or try both maybe?


P.S. bowandarrow473, we should go shooting some time, are you familiar with the archery range across from NAS Jax?

[bowandarrow473]

No, I'm afraid I'm not, but I am a member of the one around Ft. Caroline. Also, if your looking for board bow wood around Jax, this place is good, I don't go there anymore ( I cut my own trees now) but they have hickory, ash, white oak, red oak, hard maple and a few other things. Just thought it might help a bit of your looking for bow wood
http://www.fspcjax.com/lumber/

[bowandarrow473]

Oh, and I striped the bark on the ones I cut and no checking was noticeable, in fact, I put a few over a fire and quick dried them without checking.

[Pat B]

We used to smash up a bunch of this stuff and rub it all over our hunting cloths for cover scent. It has a strong, but not unpleasant smell.
 Be sure to cut them big enough as they will shrink a bit as they dry. I'd cut them long(36") strip any branches or leaves and bundle them together. Rubber bands will shrink as the shoots do.  They will probably be plenty dry in a month.

[tipi stuff]

I'll be; I didn't recognize it, but it grows less than 30 miles from me. I had never considered using it for arrow shafts.  It is too easy to get dogwood around here.  CC

[Pat B]

The arrows it would make would not be very durable but durable enough in a pinch.
 This is a Eupatorium like Joe Pye Weed, Boneset and Queen of the Meadow.

[Dakota Kid]

It must not be the same hogweed that causes the rashes and burning then?

[Pat B]

Hog weed is a common name and could be the name of lots of different plants. We always called it dog fennel.

[stickbender]

     Like Pat said, Dog Fennel.  Never considered it worth much, doesn't last too long after it is dead, and I always found it brittle.  But then at the time, I was a kid, and didn't know anything about arrows.  I guess in a pinch, it could make a survival arrow.  We used those, and if we could not find any close by, we would use the Broom Sage to wave up and down in front of us, when we were walking through the woods, at night, to keep from walking into a #@!$ !!!! Banana Spider web!  Only draw back, it seems to be a favorite plant for Red Bugs!!!!!!

                                    Wayne