had read for years about how a staple of the Indians' diet during the Seminole Wars was the root of a cycad called coontie. I got to see it growing for the first time last week in the flower beds around the Ranger's Office @ Camp Helen on Lake Powell near Phillip's Inlet. It's a beautiful plant with an incredible history. It was one of Florida's first natural resources exploited by the Americans when they began to arrive in Florida in 1813.
http://www.plantapalm.com/Vce/cycadsof/coontie.htm