CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. MEDICINAL

3. HOMEOPATHY

4. PERSONALITY TRAITS

5. SPIRITUAL PROPERTIES

6. MYTHS AND LEGENDS

7. RECIPES

DOGBANE CANADIAN

HEMP INDIAN

HEMP NUNQUOT

(Apocynum cannabinum L.)

(A. sibericum Jacq.)

(A. suksdorfii Greene.)

(A. hypericifolium Aiton.)

(A. pubescens Mitch ex R. Br.)
 

SPREADING DOGBANE

BITTER ROOT

WEREWOLF ROOT

(A. androsaemifolium L.)

(A. pumilum [A. Gray] Greene)

(A. ambigens Greene.)

(A. scopulorum Greene ex Rydb.)
 

INTERMEDIATE DOGBANE

(A. x medium Greene)

(A. x floribundum Greene)

PARTS USED - creeping rootstock, and outer bark, flowers

Bird songs lessen after the dogbane leaves turned yellow in autumn.

THOREAU

INTRODUCTION

Apocynum is derived from Greek APO meaning away, and KUON for dog.

Androsaemifolium is Latin meaning “man’s blood-colored flower”.

Cannibinum means cannabis or Hemp.

Spreading dogbane is a tiny, inconspicuous shrub with beautiful, pink, fragrant flowers. All parts of the plant release a latex sap if bruised. This milky sap resembling mother’s milk led to an early plant signature for promoting lactation.

Canadian Hemp has white flowers, with stems that become bright red in fall. Both plants initially look similar.

The flowers have been collected and used as part of love mixtures. They secrete a sweet liquid that is very attractive to flies.

The floss can be used as a cotton substitute or stuffing. The dried latex from the plant makes a very flammable gum elastic.

The outer bark is peeled just before the fruit has ripened and is processed and braided together to produce a thread finer and stronger than cotton. Three strands together make a bowstring.

Netting, twine, fishing line and even a coarse cloth can be made from the bark fibre.

Rabbit nets as long as 1.5 kilometers were used in communal hunts. A net drawstring has been found in Danger Cave, Utah dating over 5000 years old.

Peter Kalm observed that the Swedes around the Delaware River would obtain from the natives “fourteen yards (of dogbane rope) for a piece of bread.”

The boiled leaves were rubbed over sores from poison ivy, clearing up the sores in two or three days.

The Woods Cree of Saskatchewan call Spreading Dogbane TOTOSAPOWASK or milk plant, and used decoctions to increase lactation in nursing mothers, based on the doctrine of signatures.

The Forest Potawtomi boiled the green fruit and drank it for dropsy and kidney problems. They call it DODOCA’BOWÛNG or woman’s breast weed. The root was used as a diuretic and urinary medicine.

Root decoctions (one inch long) were prepared by Chippewa, for external use in sore ears or eyes. They consider the plant a bear medicine. The roots of Bear Medicine were cut into two inch pieces and strung on a cord, resembling a bear claw necklace.

They called Indian Hemp, Bear Root, and the Spreading Dogbane, Bear Entrails Root, or MAKWONAGIC ODJIBIK. The former was used more for coughs, and the latter for heart palpitations, headaches, and as a very weak decoction for baby’s colds.

The preferred part of dogbane is the elbow of the root. It is worth noting that just about all dogbane roots run true north and south.

Hemorrhage of the nose can be treated by inserted the plant floss moistened with the same decoction.

The Blackfoot call Canada Hemp, NUXAPIST, or Little Blanket as well as Many Spears. They used decoctions to prevent losing hair, smoked the leaves, and decocted the roots as a laxative.

Decoctions stimulate hair growth through vaso-dilation and mild irritation of the hair follicles. It was used as a final rinse after cleansing the scalp. The plant juice was a hair tonic, and a cleansing agent for buckskin.

The boiled root was taken once weekly as a temporary contraceptive, by both men and women, while the boiled green roots were used in heart and kidney ailments.

The dried and powdered roots were placed on hot rocks, and the fumes inhaled by headache sufferers.

The Cree poulticed the chewed leaves and bark and applied it to wounds.

The Penobscot and Mi’kmaq called A. cannabinum “worm root”, steeping that part in hot water and then drinking to expel intestinal parasites.

Another variation for more serious headache was applying the powdered root moistened with water to incised temples.

A third method involved the snuffing of dried powder directly up the nostrils.

Heart palpitations were treated with an eight-inch root in one quart of water decocted for several minutes. Severe convulsions called for dogbane. About one foot of root was combined with one inch of Wild Pea root (Lathyrus venosus), decocted and then forced down the patient’s mouth. It would be sprinkled on the chest or applied to palms of the hands and soles of feet.

The fresh root was considered a specific for syphilis by several tribes in attempts to deal with this dreadful disease. Dr. Jones collected a mixture of the rind of spreading dogbane together with the wood of sugar maple, angelica stem, crab apple bark, swamp dock root, and the flower base of blue-eyed grass. The latter was used by Meskwaki women as a tea for injured womb.

The Cherokee used the roots of Indian Hemp, or Bowman’s root, to treat uterine problems, and female depression and nervousness. The Paiute used the fine, yellow stem silk for fibre. Long nets for rabbit drives were made from the twine. After rabbits were captured and skinned, the cordage was used to sew rabbit skin blankets.

It is said that in the northern Great Basin, the bark was mixed with tobacco for smoking.

The Shoshone name for the plant, WANA, is similar to WASN, their name for string or net. The Chumash of California used the thread for buckskin bags, bowstrings, and any kind of fishing equipment.

The water apparently hardens it. Dragnets and river nets for catching salmon were made with the twine.

Algonquin women carried the seed with them upon marrying, to ensure plantings near their new residence.

The milky sap of both could well have been used as an arrow poison, due to cardiac glycoside content. The toxicity of the plant for horses and cows has been greatly exaggerated. A 1922 publication, from the New Mexico Agriculture Station, confused dogbane and the deadly oleander. Oops!

Although the monarch butterfly caterpillar prefers eating Milkweed, it will in some cases, resort to Dogbane foliage for sustenance. The Dogbane Leaf Beetle (Chrysochus auratus) spends most of its life on the plant, eating the leaves and laying its yellow eggs.

Flies are sometimes trapped in the flowers and held captive until death.

The two species sometimes interbreed and form a hybrid called A. x floribundum. It was formerly called A. medium, in the middle of the two species.

Research at University of Pennsylvania found A. cannabium plants, touched by humans were eaten by insects, while untouched plants remained healthy. They suspect the plant may release a chemical that protects it from humans (or browsers like deer), but attracts insects. Other plants, such as sulphur cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) and toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) have the opposite reaction and appear to thrive from human touch.

The leaves of the closely related A. venetum (Trachomitum venetum) are used in North China and Japan to make an herbal beverage. It is introduced and hardy to zone four.

MEDICINAL

CONSTITUENTS - A. androsaemifolium root - acetovanillone, apocynein, apocynin, apobioside, apocymarin (stropanthidin), K-strophanthoside, traces of ipuranil, and essential oil containing acetovanillin (160 ppm).

Aerial parts- androsterol, apocymamarin, caoutchouc, cymarin, homoandrosterol.

A. cannabinum- tannins, saponins, resins, cymarin, K-strophanthin, apocannoside, cynocannoside, alpha-amyrin, lupeol, oleanolic acid, androsterol, homo-androsterol, harmalol, 4-hydroxyacetophenone; acetovanillone, p-hydroxyacetophenone, and an unidentified phenol (m.p. 192-196).

Seeds- 30% protein, 23% fat

A. venetum leaf- various flavonoids including rutin, quercetin, isoquercitin, neoisorutin, hyperin and hyperoside.

Root- cymarin, strophantidin, K-strophanthin-B.

Dogbane is good therapy for chronic constipation, where there is chronic liver disability.

It acts upon the gall duct, discharging bile and small gallstones. It combines well in decoctions with yellow dock root in 1:2 ratio, but in very small doses.

Nervous headaches, and other head pains due to sluggish venous capillary circulation in the brain indicate the use of dogbane. Facial neuralgia is relieved by fomentation of the decocted root, and combines well with cow parsnip seed for this purpose.

For edema and fluid retention, use a mild dried root infusion taken cold, or a tincture in water before meals. The powdered root is a sweat-inducing counter-irritant.

Grieve, in her book, called it a “Vegetable Tocar” or drainer, in reference to the plants ability to reduce fluid accumulation in liver cirrhosis.

Herbalists like Samuel Thomson used Dogbane as “one of the greatest correctors of the bile.” Dr. Cook suggested it increases excretion of bile, not stimulates more manufacture.

“By its action on the biliary passages, it secures a free discharge of the bile, thus unloading the gall-cyst and relieving turgescence of the liver… It is best fitted for sluggish cases, where the pulse and the sensibilities are below normal.

Stools following the use are a trifle soft, and may even be made thin by large doses…It is best given in dry feces and muscular torpor, with bilious symptoms, when the system is sluggish; but is not suitable for sensitive and irritable conditions, nor is it best when piles are present.”

The root is safe in proper dosage as Michael Moore explains. “Small doses of dogbane act as a vasoconstrictor, slowing and strengthening the heartbeat and raising the blood pressure. It is a strong diuretic, useful in cardiac dropsy and the like, but authorities differ whether it increases urine by irritation of the kidneys or dilation of the renal artery or both. In fact, one of the reasons preventing its more frequent use in medicine is the variability of absorption, metabolization, effects and pharmacology.

A safe and reliable dose is a single “0” capsule of the powdered root a day…One cardinal sign for the use of Dogbane is the adrenalin- stress individual who for years has had little daytime urination, instead urinating frequently in the evening and nighttime—the effect of daytime adrenergic stress constricting the renal artery and slowing down diuresis; this resumes when the person can relax.

This person, finally, usually in the fourth decade, starts to urinate less after relaxation and begins to notice water retention, poorly fitting shoes, and puffy ankles at night, perhaps first observed after a few very hot days or after flying to a very different climate. Dogbane capsules will relax the renal arteries and even postpone for a few years any potential kidney disease.”

The root tea helps reduce the water retentive ascites associated with liver dysfunction including cases of hepatitis and cancer.

For alcohol withdrawal use dried root infusion and sip throughout day. Combine with the flower essence for maximum benefit.

Ether, acetone and benzene extracts of the plant show strong inhibition of E. coli. Bishop & MacDonald, Can J Botany 1951 29.

More recent work by Borchardt et al, J Med Plants Res 2008 2:5 found leaf and stem active against Staphylococcus aureus.

The plant was officially listed in the US Pharmacopoeia until 1952.

Canadian Hemp root is used as a diuretic, kidney and cardiac tonic, but should not be used in cases of organic kidney damage. The Cherokee used it for kidney failure. At one time it was used externally for venereal warts and to promote hair growth.

The root is a mild cardiac stimulant. In small doses, it acts as a vasoconstrictor, slowing and strengthening the heart, and raising blood pressure. Cymarin, one constituent, has the action of lowering pulse rate and increasing blood pressure.

It is a strong diuretic and is used for water retention. Authorities cannot agree whether this is due to kidney irritation, or dilation of the renal artery, or both. Urine output is greatly increased, but the solids in urine are not.

Small amounts, up to five drops at a time, help increase heart contractability while decreasing the pulse rate.

When US President Benjamin Harrison had heart problems that would not respond to digitalis, his physicians gave him Canadian Hemp root and saved his life. He lived for many more years.

The fresh juice from Canadian Hemp is used in the external treatment of warts including genital and anal varieties.

Dr. Eli Jones, one of the great medical Eclectics, used Canadian Hemp root for growths in the breasts where there are small bunches, movable and hard like a rubber ball. Seven grams of powder are added to ounce of lanolin, and rubbed into the breast three times daily.

Apocynin is a powerful anti-inflammatory that reduces the production of superoxide from activated neutrophils and macrophages, while phagocytosis is unchanged. Mediators Inflam 2008 106507.

Dr. William Cook recommended the fresh root be applied to rattlesnake bites, with a 1:16 infused tea drunk 2-3 ounces every hour.

Chinese research into medical uses of dogbane (A.venetum) showed it has cardiac toning effect. The plant is known as ZE QI MA, for Mandarin, or LO BOU MA YE, in Cantonese. Other names include Marsh Lacquer Herb, ZE QI CAO, Lucky Lucky Hemp, JI JI MA, and CHA YE HUA meaning Tea Leaf flower. The leaf tea has been used in Mongolia for centuries.

The plant leaf shows hypotensive activity and a good draining diuretic, useful in cardiac deficiency, heart disease, edema, hepatitis, and nephritis.

Infusions of the plant leaf showed blood pressure lowering effect in humans of 10% when taken daily for four weeks, 13% when taken for eight weeks. The root is decocted as an 8% decoction, and 100 ml twice daily are taken until heart rate slows to 70-80 beats per minute. A daily maintenance of 50 ml leaf infusions has a similar benefit.

HDL, or “good cholesterol” as it is known, rose by 24% and heart performance was observed to improve. Chinese J of Integrated Med 1989 9:6.

PosinolTM, an extract from A. venetum, contains 4% flavonoid glycosides isoquercitrin and hypersoide; the latter shown to aid in mental relaxation. Marketed by Optipure, the product is said to be an alternative for those individuals concerned about the safety of St.

John’s Wort, and its content of hyperforin. One small animal study showed PosinolTM shortened immobility time, indicating possible anti-depressant activity similar to 20mg/kg of imipramine. More conclusive, human studies are needed.

A few case studies suggest 50 mg capsules helped patients with insomnia, improved concentration, stress reduction and decreased fatigue.

The studies varied from two weeks to 3.5 years, but not under very robust controls.

A recent study by Kessler et al, Arch Gen Psychiatry 2005, which was double-blind, randomized, and parallel, involved men and women from 18-65 years of age with mild depression as rated by the Hamilton Rating Scale. Forty-seven patients were chosen, with 27 in the PosinolTM group for eight weeks.

An overall reduction in HAM-D score was 47.3 in the PosinolTM group. More than 50% of this group showed a score decrease of 50% or more. Blood analysis revealed that 50% of subjects in the PosinolTM group showed increased serotonin levels, and no adverse reactions were noted.

Cymene has a similar effect to the glycoside strophantine, but is generally weaker. It has a stronger diuretic effect in edema, and is less cumulative.

The leaves can be dried and rolled in a cigarette, to smoke in cases of chronic bronchitis with cough and wheezing. The dried leaves are made into an herbal beverage in North China and Japan. Studies by Xiong Quang Bo et al, Planta Medica 2000 66:2 indicate the leaf flavonoids have hepato-protective effects.

The leaf is sweet, bitter and cooling, and infused for daily use to clear heat, prevent dizziness and improve cardiac function. It helps lower blood pressure and reduce edema, and is highly regarded by the elderly for health maintenance. The leaves have little toxicity, and delay the aging process.

The modern Chinese physician, Wang Zhen-Qin noted that the herb “is sweet, bland and slightly cold in nature, and prevents and treats hypertension in the elderly, the common cold, and bronchitis. It has a definite ability to enhance the immunity of the body, and is a herb that extends age and augments longevity.”

Known as Luobuma Tea, the leaf infusions have been found to strongly inhibit glycation, a complication associated with diabetes and heart disease. Yokozawa et al, Food Chem Tox 2004:42.

For edema and reduced urination, combine the leaf with plantain seed, water plantain rhizome and umbrella polypore (Polyporus umbellatus) mushroom. The latter is one of my wife’s favorite edibles, which I find in our river valley every summer.

It has been used in stubborn edema related to pregnancy, but attention to potassium levels is needed. The root contains cardiac glycosides and is a different medicine. Do not confuse the two.

The dried leaf may be combined with self heal or chrysanthemum flowers for hypertension or liver heat associated with headache, dizziness, restlessness and insomnia.

Research on Spreading Dogbane leaves may reveal similar profile of flavonoids.

Harmalol is an MAO-inhibiting beta carboline, similar to compounds found in buffalo berry and wolf willow.

In studies involving the anti-viral activities of plants in North America, spreading dogbane showed inhibition of the polio, cowpox, measles and PRV virus.

The fruit, flowers leaves, stems and roots have been investigated and found active against various gram-positive, gram-negative and mycobacterium.

Further research is warranted on our local plants. One patent exists from the former U.S.S.R. with regards to apobioside from spreading dogbane for cardiovascular concerns.

Patents on A. cannabinum from the early 1900s exist for purified medicinal preparation. In 1965, a German patent for extraction of cymarin was granted. In 1979, a patent for the extraction of rubber and rubber-like substances from the latex was applied for and granted.

Work by Belkin et al, Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1952 13 found that alcoholic extracts at sub-toxic doses showed damage to transplanted tumours in mice. Work by Kupchan et al, Journal Med Chem 1964 7 803 found cymarin and apocannoside to possess anti- tumour activity.

Matthew Wood suggests that dogbane in flower essence or homeopathic form is helpful in a variety of cortisone dependence problems and collagen disease.

Dr. William Mitchell, Junior mentions its use in stubborn intractable cases of sciatica, a tip he learned from his mentor Dr. Bastyr.

HOMEOPATHY

Spreading Dogbane (A. androsaemifolium) symptoms for use include rheumatic pains that wander, with lots of tightening and stiffness. Swollen sensations are accompanied by trembling and fatigue.

There may be pain in all the joints, as well as the toes and soles of feet. There may be profuse sweating, excessive heat in feet, accompanied by tingling pain and cramping. It is used especially in cases of pains in all joints, pain in toes and soles, and swelling of hands and feet.

Matthew Wood, in his foreword to Healing Lyme Disease Naturally by Wolf D. Storl writes, “I recommend Apocynum androsaemifolium homeopathic 6X for high impact cases that knock a person off the horse or the chair with their intensity.”

A peculiar symptom that helps identify its use is that the patient thinks everything smells and tastes like honey.

DOSE - Tincture to the 6th potency. The mother tincture is made from the fresh rootstock.

Indian Hemp (A. cannabinum) is used for some of the above, but with exceptions. This Dogbane is one of the most efficient remedies in dropsy, liver ascites and various urinary problems including suppressed urination and strangury.

In Bright’s disease, it helps the digestive complaints of nausea, vomiting, drowsiness and difficult breath. The dropsy is often accompanied by great thirst and gastric irritability.

Dogbane is used by homeopaths in the treatment of alcoholism. It greatly aids the withdrawal symptoms, but is recommended this not be used more than a week.

Dogbane also relieves long continued sneezing, and chronic nasal catarrh, dull headaches and poor memory.

The heartbeat is rapid and feeble, with low arterial tension, pulsating jugular vein, and irregularity. There is great restlessness and little sleep.

Symptoms are worse in cold weather and from cold drinks, better from warmth.

DOSE - Tincture (1-2 drops 3xdaily). In acute alcoholism take one dram of decoction in four ounces of water. The mother tincture is prepared from the fresh rootstock.

Cymarin- an active principle of dogbane- lowers pulse rate, and increases blood pressure.

ESSENTIAL OIL

The rhizome of dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium) yields about 0.016% of an essential oil. It contains furfurol, and aceto-vanillone, which results from the breakdown of a glucoside, androsin. 

SEED OIL

Indian Hemp (Acocynum cannabinum) seeds contain up to 23% oil, the whole plant 4.5%, and the leaves and flowers 1.6%. Rubber latex of the whole plant is 1.16% of dry weight.

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Suppose a fly falls upon this innocent looking blossom. His short tongue, as well as the butterfly’s, is guided into one of the V-shaped cavities after he has sipped; but getting wedged between the trap’s horny teeth, the poor victim is held prisoner there until he slowly dies of starvation in the sight of plenty. The dogbane…ruthlessly destroys all poachers that are not big enough or strong enough to jerk away from its vice-like grasp. To be killed by slow torture and dangled like a scarecrow simply for pilfering a drop of nectar is surely an execution of justice medieval in its severity.      NELTJE BLANCHAN

[Apocynum] are waterlogged and overweight, swollen with water everywhere, especially swollen pitting ankles, and urinary troubles. They have reduced urine and sweat and feel that if they could sweat they could be well. The dropsy is accompanied by increased thirst. The further consequences are heart complaints caused by a waterlogged heart with arrhythmia, mitral and tricuspid value regurgitation and prolapsed. They develop a weakness from the lack of heart efficiency.    PETER CHAPPELL

SPIRITUAL PROPERTIES

I would like to thank Matthew Wood, a good friend, great herbalist, and fellow member of the American Herbalist Guild for the following insights into dogbane or werewolf root as he knows it.

“The T square-like root, and the pincer like seedpods are also the symbols of Free Masonry, an analogue to the Grand Medicine Lodge in white society.

Nature is better represented by the circle, a symbol of wholeness and harmony, while mankind is represented by the square and pincers, symbols of conscious artifice. The right angle indicates the appearance of a kind of consciousness which is at right angles to Nature. It represents the conscious mind, the ego. The pincers represent the focusing, limiting and ultimately egocentric fixation of the mind.

As a medicine, it addresses problems which arise from the juxtaposition of the ego and spirit. It is for those individuals who are losing the battle to remain a separate, conscious individual. There are times when nothing will do except total transformation.

Going further, Werewolf root is a shape-shifting medicine. It is more a matter of seeing the world in a radical, new way.

The motto of the plant is ‘I will never be the same again’.”           MATTHEW WOOD

FLOWER ESSENCES

Dogbane or Werewolf flower essence is for the emotional and spiritual issues revolving around alcoholism. It helps on several levels, the first being the awareness of addiction and attraction. It eases the pain associated with the loss or separation of “friendships” that is so necessary for the healing process to begin. Drinking buddies are only there, as long as you are one of them!

And it helps on the physical plane, by detoxifying the liver more quickly, and reducing trembling and sweating.    

PRAIRIE DEVA

Dogbane essence helps us to access the courage to follow our rebellious instincts, which is an important part of growth and change.           DESERT ALCHEMY

MYTHS AND LEGENDS

Coyote’s son was traveling in the sky country, when he came up to an old man, actually Spider, who was spinning Dogbane.

Grandfather Spider helps the son of Coyote, by spinning coils of rope to lower him to earth. In return for this favour, Coyote’s son makes Dogbane much more accessible to Spider. He plucks four hairs from his lower abdomen and throws them to the ground, which sprang into 3-4 acres of Dogbane. Spider is able to finish the rope and to lower Coyote’s son back to earth.

THOMPSON MYTHOLOGY

In Lillooet mythology, the Transformers crossed Lillooet Lake, where they pulled hairs from their legs and threw them on the ground to create Indian Hemp plants; they then showed man and wife how to harvest, prepare it, and make dip nets for fishing with it.        TEIT

In more primitive and ancient thought, the dog was associated almost universally with the underworld in which it acted as both guide and guardian. Their companionship in life and their supposed knowledge of the spirit world suggested dogs as suitable guides to the afterlife. They play this role even in Central America where they carried Mayan souls across the river of death. Xoltl, the Aztec dog god, led the sun through the nocturnal underworld and was reborn with it at dawn.    

JACK TRESIDDER

Coyote went to SITOKTO’K and bought a great load of TOK (Indian Hemp). By his magic power he was able to put it all into his carrying net and bring it all home at once…Next morning Coyote began to work with the TOK. He worked very fast, twisting it on the machine that he had: his thigh. Coyote twisted the TOK into string and made fish lines for all the important people of the village.             TIMBROOK

RECIPES

INFUSION - Steep one tsp of dried root in one pint of boiling water. Take one teaspoon to one-quarter ounce daily. The leaves of A. venetum are gathered before flowering and dried in shade. They may be steamed and dry-fried for use in infusions.

DRY ROOT TINCTURE - 1:5 tincture at 50% alcohol. Five drops in water before meals, and up to 4-5 times daily if needed. For the fresh root, make a 1:8 at 76%.

CAUTION: According to the PDR for Herbal Medicines, serious poisoning is hardly to be expected from oral administration, due to the low resorption rate. Signs of intoxication are nausea, vomiting and a slow heartbeat.

NOTE - 0.1 grams of root possesses the potency of 2 USP digitalis units. The high content of cardenolide glycosides causes bradycardia and increased contraction of the heart. Blood pressure is lowered and a rebound vagotonic hypertension can occur. It has a lower therapeutic effect on atrial fibrillation than digitalis.

POWDERED ROOT - one “O” capsule (5-10 grains) daily, or use topically. The root is collected after the plant has gone to seed. Mint tea will help any griping pain.

TWINE - Make the twine by collecting the stalks just about the time the pods are green. Cut them down and remove the branches and leaves. Flatten the stems by pulling them over a round pole. Then split open the stems from bottom to top with a knife or sharp stick and peel off the outer bark. Then twist the stems to make braids of the bark. You can then boil in hot water. This makes the fibres separate more and strengthens them. The thread is very tough.

Or when dried, the final step is to form the fibres into twine by rolling them with dampened hands on bare thigh or on a piece of buckskin over the knee. The fibre is joined for length by splitting the thick end of one piece and then thin end of another, inserting and intertwining. This splicing process can be continued indefinitely.

Finer twice is produced by splitting the stems in two; stronger ropes by plaiting two or more threads together. Stored properly, it will last for years. For garments, the twine can be spun with deer hair.

Fishing lines, at least in the BC Interior, were treated with lodge pole pine pitch and black bear grease, to prevent them from kinking.