The plant may have been Perilla frutescens or Rattlesnake weed.

Perilla frutescens is an Old World species. Are you saying native Americans
somehow got this plant from China to wrap ther sushi in it? Its introduction
into the New World flora as a weed was long after Columbus arrived.

I doubt it. Guess again.

There are a number of native American perennial legumes that have
rattle-box seed pods.


"Stephen Henning" wrote in message
news
(paghat) wrote:

When I was staying with people who live in the redwoods, I was always
worried outside because the poison ivy was just EVERYwhere. There's
nothing worse than nettles where I live, & it's possible to get revenge
on
nettles by frying them up with potatos &amp eating them, so there's never
any leeriness walkikng in the woods around PUget Sound. It was a strange
feeling in the redwoods to be worried about a plant.

Along the Snake River in Hell's Canyon, on the Oregon side there is a
plant that sounds exactly like a rattle snake when you walk through it.
I was with a forest service crew that was taken in to a fire by boat at
night. We had to hike from the river up to the fire at night while it
sounded like we were surrounded by rattle snakes. What made it worse
was that on the way in at dusk we had seen a diamond back rattler that
stretched all the way across a dirt road. He was BIG.

The plant may have been Perilla frutescens or Rattlesnake weed. After
blooming from July to October, they leave their calyx on the spike to
cover the seed pod, shake the dry seed stalks and it rattles like a
rattlesnake. Perilla is often confused with purple Basil and used for
the same purposes.

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