<P> The Tequesta gathered many plant foods, including saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) berries, cocoplums (Chrysobalanus icaco), sea grapes (Coccoloba uvifera), prickly pear (nopal) fruits (Opuntia spp .), gopher apples (Licania micbauxii), pigeon plums (Cocoloba diversifolia), palm nuts, false mastic seeds, cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto), and hog plum (Ximenia americana). The roots of certain plants, such as Smilax spp. and coontie (Zamia integrifolia), were edible when ground into flour, processed to remove toxins (in the case of coontie), and made into a type of unleavened bread . (Archaeologists have commented, however, on the lack of evidence for coontie use in excavated sites .) Briton Hammond, the sole survivor of an English sloop that was attacked by Tequestas after grounding off Key Biscayne in 1748, reported that the Tequestas fed him boil'd corn . </P> <P> The Tequestas changed their habitation during the year . In particular, most of the inhabitants of the main village relocated to barrier islands or to the Florida Keys during the worst of the mosquito season, which lasted about three months . While the resources of the Biscayne Bay area and the Florida Keys allowed for a somewhat settled non-agricultural existence, they were not as rich as those of the southwest Florida coast, home of the more numerous Calusa . </P> <P> Briton Hammon reported that the Tequesta lived in huts or in 5 story houses . Other tribes in southern Florida lived in houses with wooden posts, raised floors, and roofs thatched with palmetto leaves, something like the chickees of the Seminoles . These houses may have had temporary walls of plaited palmetto - leaf mats to break the wind or block the sun . </P> <P> Clothing was minimal . The men wore a sort of loincloth made from deer hide, while the women wore skirts of Spanish moss or plant fibers hanging from a belt . </P>

Many tribes in north america raised because it could be ground into flour