[mugwump]

Thanks for the field guide recommendation doctom, I'll definitely look into it.

It sounds like I was given bad gouge...roadside vendors must not exist or are rare it seems. It sounded credible, certainly no weirder than boiled goober and fried gizzard stands.

Yep greenhousing it would be an option but not worth the effort. I was trying to do a favor for the Old Guys on the rez. They make "black water" tea out of yaupon as a medicine and put it in their kinnikinnick (foul stuff).

Goes to show how sophisticated the Indian trade networks were back in the day. The Anishinaabe would trade raw copper for this stuff and got it regularly enough that it's still remembered.

Some parts of their traditional medicine seem to place great store in rare and difficult to obtain ingredients. The OGs sort of admit that some things they give patients don't have a direct physiological effect but it makes no difference. The effort expended in getting the ingredient gets transferred to the patient as "good stuff."

Anyhoo, thanks for the responses.