Source: Atlas Obscura
In midsummer every year, the souqs of southern Iraqi cities such as Basra and Nasiriyah are tinged with gold, from the dust of khirret, a crunchy candy made from the pollen from an aquatic plant that grows in the country’s southern marshes. This delicately-sweetened, seasonal Iraqi street sweet looks like bright yellow chalk or a solid clump of mustard powder.
The Marsh Arabs of al-Ahwar, a UNESCO world heritage site composed of three archeological sites and four wetland marshes in southern Iraq, eat every part of the plant (Typha domingensis Pers.), which is also known as bardi and cattail. The plant is considered to be medicinal, thought to relieve gastrointestinal issues. The male flowers of the plant release the pollen used to make khirret in the springtime. According to Nawal Nasrallah, author of the Iraqi…
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