Chaparral Ethnobotany

Bladderpod: Gray leaves steeped as remedy for sore throat and stomach trouble. The pods were used to prepare foods.

Bush Mallow: Once used in the manufacture of marshmallows.

Bush Monkey Flower: Stems and leaves used as salad greens and to wrap burns and wounds. Root used as an astringent.

California Fushia: Early Spanish applied a solution of it to cuts and bruises.

California Sun Flower: Native Americans ate seeds and petals

Chamise Greesewood: firewood; Native Americans used infusion of bark and leaves to treat syphilis; oil from plant to treat skin infections; sick cows chew on leaves; wood burns bright, provides quick heat for cooking and torches; leaves boiled to make a wash for sores, infected or swollen areas; straight branches for arrows construction material for houses, fences and baskets.

Coastal Spice Bush: only native citrus, fruit is edible to people and animals

Coastal Quail Bush: beetle larvae and cicada found on plant roasted and eaten, seeds collected and ground Quail and other birds eat abundant seeds

Coffee Berry: Bark used by the Native Americans as laxative. A small piece of bark is put in water for 12 hours to make tonic.  Eve Case is a cultivar cloned from plant growing wild in Encinitas.

Coyote Bush and Chaparral Broom: Thatch plant, broom?

Deerweed: deer and stock feed upon it

Four Wing Salt Bush: Native Americans ground roots and blossoms, moistened with saliva; treatment for ant bites.

Fremontia: bark brewed to relieve sore throat, inner bark used for poultices to soothe raw membranes.

Fushia Flowered Gooseberry: attracts birds, one species of hummingbird entirely dependent upon its blossoms,

Jojoba: Raised for oil in modern times, used as a substitute for sperm oil in fine machinery, also used in cosmetics Indigenous people collected and ate nuts.

Laurel Sumac: Also known as “Taco Plant”, due to interesting adaptation to dry conditions: taco shaped leaves in sun, flatter in shady places. It was used to indicate good areas for citrus by early settlers, because it is extremely sensitive to frost.

Lemonade Berry: Berries coated with sour-sweet, sticky substance, which was stirred into water to make a drink by Native Americans and Spanish settlers. (Berries should not be eaten as tiny hairs can cause digestive upset)

Matilija Poppy: watery substance in stalk drunk by Native Americans cut back near the ground in Fall. *MUST HAVE WELL DRAINED SOIL! Sandy washes and canyon beds.

Nightshade: Native Americans used juice of berry for tattooing Solanum means sleepy referring to narcotic properties of other members of genus

Red Berry: Berries eaten.

San Diego Sunflower: Seeds are edible. Flowers and leaves can be eaten in salads.

Sugar Bush: berries eaten fresh, dried, ground into flour for mush, tea made from leaves to cure colds and coughs

Sweet Pea: seeds are poisonous and can cause paralysis, but Native Americans may have eaten an unknown part of the plant.

Toyon: Native Americans ate berries raw or cooked. Berries are a favorite of berries and other animals.

White Sage: used to “roast” girls during puberty ceremony, girls would need to stay perfectly still for days as elders taught them their responsibilities as women in the tribe; seeds ground into flour to make mush; used to purify hunting implements by Cahuilla; cure for colds leaves smoked, eaten or used in sweat house; seeds used as flavoring.

Wild Cucumber: seeds used as marbles by children, an ink made from seed used for pictographs, necklaces made from seeds used as decoration; Spanish ladies said to have used the seed pods for their needles and thread. called man root because root is as large as a mummy, stored moisture allows it to be first to come back after a fire

Woolly Blue Curls: Mashed up and put in ponds hairs of plant stick to the gills of fish so they float to the top and can be easily caught, leaves and flowers a tea for stomach ailments

Onion: Indigenous peoples ate root as we now eat commercial onions