Native American Usage of Plants Found In Fallbrook
Shrubs, Vines and Wildflowers
Common Name Scientific Name Native American Use Bigberry Manzanita Arctostaphylos glauca Ripe berries were eaten fresh; seeds were beaten to make flour and made into thin cakes Blue Dicks Dichelostemma capitatum Bulbs cooked in earth ovens Blue-Eyed Grass Sisyrinchium bellum Roots used as purgative California Poppy Eschscholzia californica Stems and leaves cooked or eaten raw California Scrub Oak Quercus dumosa Acorns used for food when live oak acorns not available; galls used for medicine Chamise Adenostoma fasciculatum Wood used to make arrows; scale on stems used to make a glue or cement Chia Salvia columbariae Seeds made into a drink or ground into fine flour, eaten dry or mixed with water Collar Lupine Lupinus truncatus Stems and leaves cooked or eaten raw Globe Lily Calochortus albus Bulbs cooked in earth ovens Miner's Lettuce Claytonia perfoliata Greens eaten raw or cooked Mule Fat Baccharis salicifolia Wood used for drilling to make fire; leaves were boiled and liquid used to clean wounds Our Lord's Candle Yucca whipplei Flowers cooked and eaten; seeds ground into flour; leaves fashioned into brushes to paint pottery; thread was made from leaves Poison Oak Toxicodendron diversilobum Used for medicine; juice made a black dye for basket parts Prickly Pear Opuntia sp. Fruits peeled and eaten raw; also boiled for syrup Sacred Datura Datura wrightii Called toloache (Aztec name); smoked in adolescence ceremonies Splendid Mariposa Lily Calochortus splendens Bulbs cooked in earth ovens Squaw Bush Rhus trilobata Fruit eaten; splints used to make baskets and beaters for small seeds Sugar Bush Rhus ovata Ripe berries were eaten Toyon Heteromeles arbutifolia Berries cooked and eaten; American settlers made a cider from the berries; bark boiled and liquid taken for stomach-aches Tree Tobacco Nicotiana glauca Leaves smoked in ceremonies White Flowering Currant Ribes indecorum Made a medicine for tooth-aches White Nightshade Solanum douglasii Stems and leaves cooked; juice of berries used on inflamed eyes Wild Cucumber Marah macrocarpus Roots used as purgative; oil used to mix with paints Wild Grape Vitis girdiana Fruit eaten Yerba Mansa Anemopsis californica Root dried and brewed as linament for skin diseases Yerba Santa Eriodictyon crassifolium Leaves boiled and liquid used as blood purifier
Trees
Common Name Scientific Name Native American Use Coast Live Oak Quercus agrifolia Most desirable food acorns Engelmann Oak Quercus engelmannii Acorns used for food when live oak acorns not available Fremont Cottonwood Populus fremontii Soft inner bark used to make clothing Mexican Elderberry Sambucus mexicana Flowers made a medicine for diseases of women; stems made a black dye Red Willow Salix laevigata Wood used to make bows; soft inner bark used to make clothing White Alder Alnus rhombifolia Wood used to make heavier bows; bark made a red dye; bark brewed for medicine
Go to:
Copyright © 2000 by Elizabeth Yamaguchi.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to me at this source:
http://tchester.org/fb/plants/na_uses.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 9 December 2000 (links updated 31 January 2015)