A while back, a visitor asked whether 1) sea oats were edible and 2) did indigenous people here eat them if they were? It’s taken a bit to finally answer this question because there’s not a lot of information focused on the edibility of them from reliable resources. But we’re ready now!
Are They Edible?
IT IS IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER THAT DUNE GRASSES ARE OFTEN PROTECTED AND WE DO NOT ENCOURAGE THE HARVESTING OF WILD FOUND SEA OATS
Like many grass species, yes, the grain that sea oats (Uniola paniculata) produce are edible! Though there’s not easy to access recipes or many folks that have tried it. Part of the reason for this is that it is illegal to harvest them in Florida and Georgia across the whole state, and many beaches state that their dune oats are protected. To understand the importance of that, let’s take a slight detour and talk about why they’re so important to the beach ecosystems.
Sea oats are drought resistant and thrive in hot environments with salt water, so they’re perfectly made for growing in the dunes. They have delicate roots that spread through sandy dunes in order to help hold them together through high tides and rough winds. They also have an important relationship to the naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi. The fungi grows off the roots of the oats, which also ends up helping the roots grow further out so they can gather more soil/sand nutrients. It is this growing out, that also helps to hold the dunes together. The tall stems and grass also help to catch sand and build dunes naturally.
As the life cycle of the plants continue, the dead plants fall, they decay to provide nutrients for the next generation as well as other plant species. Though it can take hundreds of years, it is this cycling of plant, fungi, and decay that lay the groundwork for the formation of a maritime forest. The harsh environment of a coastal landscape makes it difficult for plant species and trees to become established and it is only with the multi-layered impacts of the sea oats that provide a chance for this to happen. This is why in the Outer Banks, it is enforced that visitors stay off the dunes, to help support our important sea oats that do their best to help the island stay here for all of you to enjoy.
The other aspect, is that they don’t produce a lot of grain. It’s a small, flat grain that are rarely viable as a growing source. What that means for ethical harvesting, is you’d need to harvest large areas that would impact the shoreline in often negative ways for a small amount of food when other sources are available. It is also well understood that the seeds are important food source for small native critters such as birds and mice.
Did the Indigenous People Eat Them?
This is a bit less fulfilling of an answer. There’s a few general notes of the fact that indigenous people along the Southern Atlantic Coast did cook the grains as a kind of cereal or grind it into a flour along with other grasses such as wood oats (Chasmanthium latifolium).
When it comes to our local population, and much documented history in coastal tribes, is lacking in specific details due to early colonization. It is unclear whether it was used by the native people of Hatteras Island, but we can make an educated guess that this was a practice as they were well versed in how to survive the challenging life on a sand bar. We can also conjecture that this would not be a frequent food source for all the reasons we’ve discussed through this post.