Seeds
Okpiktoolik
Iñupiaq Name: Okpiktoolik phonetic spelling: ok-pick-too-lick plural: Okpiktooluit translation / other information Willow English Name: Arctic Willow Scientific Name Salix arctica Source: Durand, p. 15
This low shrub willow grows densely on the hill sides leading to the alpine tundra and on the drier tundra, in and around Golovnin. The light green oval leaves grow along the flat growing, spreading stems. The seed catkins grow to several inches and produces a cottony fluff that helps distribute the seeds. The day Bill and I took my grandma berry picking she told me about okpiktoolik. She said that when she was a girl her father took her camping right near the area that we were picking that day. She saw some of her friends, Francis and Elsie Cook picking the cottony seeds from the okpiktoolik and rubbing them in their palms, then dipping the cotton in seal oil, and eating it with dry fish. Grandma has never seen anyone else doing this and she does not know whether her friends had learned it from someone or if they were just experimenting.