I get a fire out of dried grass and dead weeds in my back yard using the mishmash on the back side of a magnesium stick pretty much every time.

A great question but think it should be noted that it sometimes takes time to generate a flame using fire steel or mishmash or other spark starter. I can go 5-10 minutes with dry natural tinder. Something that is not often discussed or shown on 'survival' shows...though I think Les once did a fade away to denote time on an occasion when the tinder was wet.