User:Tr3ndyBEAR/local plants

Version 2

Useful sites: EatTheWeeds, EatTheInvaders, BackyardForagers, PlantsForAFuture, UsefulTropicalPlants, UsefulTemperatePlants,

Edible

cooking

• Society garlic

nuts and seeds

• Illawarra flame tree

greens

• Chinese hibiscus
• Mission prickly pear
  • Harvest young pads, which are a lighter green color, in the morning when acid content is lowest. If it's a spiky variety, harvest in early spring before the spikes and glochids have formed.

spices

• Chinese juniper
• Brazilian peppertree. This tree is in the cashew family and is native to subtropical and tropical South America. This tree, along with Peruvian peppertree, are the sources of pink peppercorns. Dried, they have a bright pink color, but they can also be pickled and given a dull greenish hue. In addition, this tree has many important medicinal uses where it is indigenous.
  • To harvest, simply pick ripe fruit and lay them out on a sheet at room temperature. In a few days they will harden and be ready for use.

fruits and berries

• Strawberry tree
• Natal plum
• Blue elder
• Common fig

tea

• Chinese hibiscus
• French lavender

edible flowers

• Common gardenia
• Chinese hibiscus
• Society garlic

Utility

oils

• Castor bean. This invasive plant (native to southeastern Mediterranean Basin, Eastern Africa, and India) is notorius for the famous poison ricin. However, poisonings are rare from consumption as the ricin is protected by layers of shell and usually has to be specially processed for the ricin to actually be available. Instead, this plant has a long history of cultivation for the production castor oil which was historically used in lamps, soaps, perfumes, and has even been used medicinally. To produce the oil, the plant must be boiled multiple times and, as a result, the oil does not contain ricin.
  • Here is a video tutorial showing how to produce the oil at home: [1]

dye

• Common gardenia
• Chinese hibiscus

wood

• Tuckeroo

fibers, ropes, and twines

• Star jasmine

Medicinal

• Ginkgo
• Chinese arborvitae
• Blue elder

drug-related

• Tree tobacco. The Cahuilla (ʔívil̃uqaletem) smoked many native tobacco species. Tree tobacco is an introduced species from South America, but the Cahuilla people also make use of this species. Tree tobacco is unique among the Nicotiana species in that it's main pyridine alkaloid is anabasine rather than nicotine. There have been a few documented fatal poisonings from consumption of tree tobacco, but these were always due to the confusion of the plant with a spinach where it was eaten as a leaf vegetable. All the characteristics of poisonings are the same as nicotine poisoning so it is likely that consuming the plant is no more toxic than consuming any other tobacco species. However, there is still uncertainty around the toxicity and safety of anabasine. Anabasine is very similar structurally to nicotine and has been reported to have very similar effects.
  • To harvest, the leaves need to be picked and cured, usually by tying them up and hanging them out in the sun for a few days until the water content has decreased sufficiently for the leaves to be burned and smoked.
  • It is a member of the Solanaceae (Solanales) family which also contains: potato, tomato, eggplant, deadly nightshade, datura, tomatillo, peppers, cape gooseberry, black nightshade, ashwagandha, mandrake, tamarillo, and many more.

Version 1

Non-native plants

Introduced and invasive

• Oxalis pes-caprae

Landscaping

• Afrocarpus gracilior
• Koelreuteria paniculata
• Jacaranda mimosifolia

Cahuilla Land

Cahuilla taxonomy is extremely sophisticated and the names given to plants were very exactly chosen and are often in keeping with modern botanical classifications. Some family names and more general terms are also recognized:

• navtem for members of Cactaceae
• piklaym for genera of berry-producing plants

Cahuilla plant knowledge is deeply intimate with deep knowledge of medicinal and edible uses of many plants. Shamans (puvulam) and doctors (tingavish) concerned themselves with botanical knowledge and experimentation. Morphology and smells of plants were an important part of identification. Some rules of thumbs mentioned are:

• See if plants are eaten by birds and other animals.
• Plant color: i.e. white berries were usually avoided.

Plants mentioned in Temalpakh

Fabaceae legume family (751 genera, 19000 species) beans, chickpea, peanut, pea, soybean, wattles, clovers, alfalfa, vetches, carob, licorice, kudzu, lentil, mesquites, tamarind

• Senegalia greggii (aka catclaw acacia) = sichingily

Nyctaginaceae four o' clock family (33 genera, 290 species) mauka, Bougainvillea

• Abronia villosa (aka wild sand-verbena) = temal nyuku ("earth cousin")

Orange County/Tongva Land

List of plants

California Buckwheat Toyon California Sagebrush Lemonade Berry California Brittlebush Coast Live Oak Western Sycamore Coastal Goldenbush Laurel Sumac Mule Fat Black Sage Tree Tobacco (invasive) Coyote Brush Chilicothe White Sage Deerweed Bladderpod Blue Elder Coastal Prickly Pear Artichoke Thistle (invasive) White Horehound (invasive) Castor Bean (invasive) Blue Dicks Chalk Dudleya California Poppy Chaparral Yucca Bermuda Buttercup (invasive) Buffalo Gourd Coast Cholla Scarlet Pimpernal (invasive) Shortpod Mustard (invasive) Fennel (invasive) Pacific Poison Oak Chaparral Bush-Mallow Wishbone Bush Fountain Grass (invasive) Black Mustard (invasive) Telegraphweed Lanceleaf Liveforever San Diego Monkey Flower (nonnative) Crystalline Ice Plant (invasive) Splendid Mariposa Lily Coast Morning Glory Wild Radish (invasive) Fremont Cottonwood Sacred Thorn-Apple Arroyo Lupine Common Fiddleneck Hollyleaf Redberry Mexican Fan Palm (invasive) Garland Daisy (invasive) Brazilian Pepper (invasive) Parry's Phacelia Beach Suncup Clustered Tarweed Turkey Mullein Alkali Heliotrope Western Blue-eyed Grass Poison Hemlock (invasive) California Wild Rose

Tongva

• Wilakal aka California Buckwheat
• Ashuwet aka Toyon
• Pawots aka California Sagebrush
• Sorah aka Lemonade Berry
• Pa.akal aka California Brittlebrush
• Atuto’nar aka Laurel Sumac

Phylogeny

• Wilakal aka California Buckwheat [eudicots > caryophyllales]
• Ashuwet aka Toyon [eudicots > rosids > eurosids > fabids > rosales]
• Pawots aka California Sagebrush [eudicots > asterids > asterales]
• Sorah aka Lemonade Berry [eudicots > rosids > eurosids > malvids > sapindales > anacardioideae]
• Pa.akal aka California Brittlebrush [asterids > asterales > asteraceae]
• Coast Live Oak aka California Live Oak [rosids > eurosids > fabids > fagales]
• Western Sycamore aka California Sycamore [eudicots > proteales]
• Coastal Goldenbush aka Menzies' Goldenbrush [asterales > asteraceae]
• Atuto’nar aka Laurel Sumac / Lentisco [sapindales > anacardiaceae > anacardioideae]

eudicots	western sycamore core eudicots eurosids fabids ashuwet coast live oak Anacardioideae sorah atuto’nar superasterids wilakal Asteroideae Asterodae pawots coastal goldenbush pa.akal

See also

Papers

• (1985, Acquisition cost and nutritional data on Great Basin resources) contains a list of food plants (and some animals) gathered in the Great Basin region with calculations for estimating the energy cost to gather and process vs the energy returned.
• (2014, What can traditional healing do for modern medicine) in which a person indigenous to Southern California gives examples of some important medicinal plants, how they're processed and used, and evidence for their efficacy.

Books

• (1969, Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants) one of the most detailed ethnobotanical accounts of Cahuilla plant knowledge