Desert & Semi-Desert Bushcraft: Native Flora


Kitfox76

Kitfox76

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Like all things, the native flora of desert and semi-desert areas serve a purpose, although oftentimes that purpose goes largely unknown, or forgotten about. This thread will provide desert bushcrafters a place to share, learn, and rediscover many of the uses for the flora native to our regions.

If you post:
- Please include high quality pictures with posts and
- Give references

Keep in mind that information within this thread is not intended to give medical advice or treatment; see this thread: http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=29)
 
Creosote

Creosote serves a purpose in its environment. It may not be the best firewood, but it can be quite useful in other ways to the desert bushcrafter.

SAW_01943.jpg

Larrea tridentata, also known as Creosote bush has long been used by native inhabitants of the desert as a medicinal plant. Locally, it is also referred to as 'greasewood,' but should not be confused with two other southwestern 'greasewoods,' Sarcobatus and Atriplex. The creosote plants have a particular odor to them, which is why Larrea is commonly referred to as hediondilla - "little stinker."

Larrea is a prominent species in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts of western North America, and its range includes those and other regions in portions of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and western Texas in the United States, and northern Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico.

PCD3458_IMG0086.jpg

Like pine, Larrea is a resin reservoir; as is evident in the amber, tacky syrup exuded as droplets on its stems and leaves. These resins serve to protect the plant in several ways. On the leaf surface, the resins decrease the amount of ultraviolet light and heat that can reach the leaf interior, preventing photosynthesis from slowing down. Resins also limit the loss of water from leaf surfaces, thereby reducing overall transpiration. Therefore the use of cresote leaves in a solar still are quite ineffective.

Furthermore, Larrea contains a number of compounds that simply taste terrible and repel browsing herbivores and insects. The chemical compounds found in the plant form new complex chemicals within the stomach that are resistant to digestive enzymes, thereby upsetting the digestive system. In short, the creosote bush is not food.

Traditional Uses:
- Creosote lac has been used to seal pottery jars full of food and seeds for perhaps thousands of years, and has been reported to have sealed an overheated, cracked engine block.
- Heaping creosote bush on a fire and holding bare feet over the smoke helps reduce aches in joints.
- In the case of snake, spider or scorpion bite, cresote leaves can be chewed and placed on the swelling (rich in antioxidents).
- WARNING: The US FDA has issued warnings about ingesting Larrea as an internal medicine because of the risk of damage to the liver and kidneys.

PCD3458_IMG0090.jpg

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Plant Name
Scientific Name: Larrea tridentata
Common Names: Creosote Bush, Creosotebush

Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Shrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert. This shrub is extremely common and widespread in the desert and is the predominate plant in areas known as creosote flats.
Flower Color: Yellow
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
Height: To 10 feet (3 m) tall, but usually less, especially in drier or colder locations
Description: The flowers are up to 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide and have 5 twisted petals. The flowers are followed by round, lobed, hairy, white seed capsules. The small, paired leaves are actually a single leaf with 2 split leaflets joined at the base. The leaves are shiny, green, thickened, and waxy-feeling. The branches are gray-brown. These tough, clone-forming shrubs are extremely long-lived, potentially living for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Special Characteristics
Allergenic – The pollen is a mild allergen.
Foul-smelling – The crushed or rain-dampened leaves have a resinous creosote odor that some may find unpleasant.
Fragrant – The leaves give off a distinctive resinous odor after rains, especially in the summertime. Many people find this scent pleasant and evocative of rain in the Sonoran Desert.

Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Sapindales
Family: Zygophyllaceae – Creosote-bush family
Genus: Larrea Cav. – creosote bush
Species: Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coville – creosote bush

References:
A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona by Anne Epple
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah (Audubon Field Guide) by National Audubon Society
 
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Great thread, long overdue. So glad to see some attention paid to our desert environment. So often bushcraft topics are limited to Eastern or Northern forests and mountains and the plants there are not found in our area. Anne Epple's book is my go to for plant ID here in AZ.
Thanks for such an informative and useful thread.
 
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Yucca

The numerous species of the yucca plant are very common and have adapted to a vast range of climatic and ecological conditions. They are to be found in rocky deserts and badlands, in prairies and grassland, in mountainous regions, in light woodland, and coastal sands.

The yucca's distinct rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large panicles of whiteish flowers is unmistakable for any other plant native to North America.

Yucca plants serve not only as a grocery store for insects, reptiles, birds and mammals – filling an important niche in the desert food chain – they also answer needs for housing, tools and raw materials for consumers such as man.

broad%2520leaf%2520yucca.jpg

Broad leaf yucca

Yuccaflowers.jpg

Yucca flowers​

Traditional Uses:
- Flowers: The petals from the flowers or buds are edible either raw or cooked.
- Leaves: leaf points - awls for sewing leathers and fabrics; leaf fibers - brushes for combing hair and painting ceramics; leaf juice (mixed with a powder made from scorpions, red ants, centipedes and jimson weed), a potion for poisoning arrow points. Dried yucca leaves and trunk fibers have a low ignition temperature, making the plant desirable for use in starting fires via friction.
- Roots: (WARNING!!! poisonous, non-edible; contain toxic saponins), a soap for washing bodies, clothing, fresh hides and scalps; dead roots - a fuel for firing pottery.
- Dead and dried flower stalks - tools for making fires; long flower stalks, lances for fighting enemies.
- Fresh flower stalks - construction material for building shelter walls. Young stems also roasted and eaten.
- The emulsion, a medicine for treating insect and snake bites.

Legal Status – Protected Native Plant (Salvage Restricted) - Arizona

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Plant Name
Scientific Name: Yucca
Common Names: Spanish Bayonet, Banana Yucca, Joshua Tree, Soaptree Yucca, Blue Yucca, Mojave Yucca, Torrey Yucca

Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Tree, Shrub, Unusual Shrub
Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland. It is most common in desert grasslands.
Flower Color: Cream to white
Flowering Season: Spring (late), Summer
Height: Up to 20 feet (6 m) tall without the flower stalk, but usually less
Description: Woody shrub with rosette of leaves growing either near the ground or on top of woody trunk. The leaves have sharply pointed tips and white, string-like margins and are long, narrowly linear, green, tough, and leathery. Flowers clustered on a stalk up to 20’, large white flowers with 6 anthers and 6 petals. The dead leaves turn brown and droop to cover the trunks. The plants are clump-forming.

Special Characteristics
Mutualistic Relationship - Yuccas are part of a close symbiosis with pollinating moths. The moths lay their eggs on each ovary of the flowers they pollinate. The larvae eat a few of the seeds but most of the seed develop and are viable. Each species of yucca is pollinated by a different species of moth. Both moth and yucca depend on each other for survival if one dies off so will the other.

Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Liliopsida – Monocotyledons
Subclass: Liliidae
Order: Liliales
Family: Agavaceae – Century-plant family
Genus: Yucca L. – yucca
Species: Yucca elata (Narrowleaf Yucca, Soaptree yucca); Yucca baccata (Broad Leaf Yucca, Banana Yucca)

References:
Wildflowers, Ferns & Trees of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, & Utah by Al Schneider
A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona by Anne Epple
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah (Audubon Field Guide) by National Audubon Society
 
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Great write-up jouka. All I can contribute is a pic. I took this on a hike near home last winter.

Gilawinter2w.jpg
 
Great start to a long overdue thread.

I don't remember where I've read and heard this, but I'll throw it out here and maybe someone with more knowledge can verify it. The creosote bush has quite a bit of sapinins in it and some native americans used it as soap. It may have just been the root of the bush as I can't quite remember the details.
 
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Jouka,

the picture you posted of yucca root is inaccurate. That particular yucca root (pronounced Jookah) is of a variety that is grown in tropical regions and the root IS edible and in fact, is the only edible part of the plant. It is a starchy food staple in Caribbean and South American countries. Just saying.
 
Awesome! Finally some Bushcraft stuff I can relate to a little better (being in Arizona).

Couple things about the creosote bush:
It has anti-microbial properties and as such can be burned over a fire to take a "desert shower", in the smoke. Can also be used to make ointments /salves if you grind up the leaves and flowers, or a tea for minor ailments. I've drank the tea before, with honey. The ailment is better - the tea tastes like death; very bitter.

Sent from my Samsung Tab
 
Devil's Claw

One of my favorite desert plants is the Devil's Claw.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proboscidea_(plant)

(Not the same as the African Devil's Claw).


A lot of people think they are just awful, since they glom onto your boots (or the feet of animals) with their sharp hooks. But they are edible, some Indians use them to make baskets, and I like to make sculptures out of them.

scorpiondx-w.jpg



Bird11101w.jpg
 
vve1505 said:
Awesome! Finally some Bushcraft stuff I can relate to a little better (being in Arizona).

Couple things about the creosote bush:
It has anti-microbial properties and as such can be burned over a fire to take a "desert shower", in the smoke. Can also be used to make ointments /salves if you grind up the leaves and flowers, or a tea for minor ailments. I've drank the tea before, with honey. The ailment is better - the tea tastes like death; very bitter.

Sent from my Samsung Tab
Click to expand...

I use Ceosote ( Chapparal) almost on a daily basis. It's an anit-fungal, anti-oxident and is anti-microbial. In a salve form I apply it to cuts, scrapes and burns. Replaces Neosporin in our house. In an oil form I use it for Pre and post Sun exposure.
I have use it as a Tea for Digestive and Breathing issues and for a troublesome Caugh.

I have also seen the Flower buds pickled and eaten...

Like any thing else, over use may cause liver or kidney issues.
 
Jouka said:
yucca-roots.jpg

Yucca root[/CENTER]
Click to expand...

Falstaff said:
Jouka,

the picture you posted of yucca root is inaccurate. That particular yucca root (pronounced Jookah) is of a variety that is grown in tropical regions and the root IS edible and in fact, is the only edible part of the plant. It is a starchy food staple in Caribbean and South American countries. Just saying.
Click to expand...

Yep, I have to agree, Falstaff. The picture is of yuca (with one "c", pronounced YOO-kah), also called cassava or manioc, which is a very different plant (it's also a staple food item in tropical West Africa, I can say from first-hand experience). There appears to be a history of confusion between the two going back to Linnaeus, and more recently because of the similar names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca
 
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Greetings All,

I am so glad to see the 'yucca' 'yuca' confusion being attended to here. Now that dog.breath, Jouka, and Falstaff and the rest of us are all on the same page, I will expand just a bit. When we say yucca; technically we are referring to an agave family plant from the desert southwest, with straight, saber-like leaves that every year (if the moisture is right) make a vertical flower stalk of white flowers. They have a symbiotic relationship with a group of moths that account for virtually all successful pollination of the flowers. The flowers and their buds are edible if they are palatable. Many desert yuccas, Yucca spp. protect their flowers by making them bitter and astringent, so taste them before you sacrifice a bushel of them. These desert wildflowers have roots rich in saponins that make them inedible (except under some extraordinary extractions) but good for soaps and for stunning fish (as toxic saponins are membrane toxins, but not all saponins are toxic, some are important dietary aids).

When you see the word 'yuca' usually they are referring to the roots of cassava or manihot, the source of tapioca. The unfortunate confusion between these plants is legion and almost ubiquitous. Thousands of internet sites (embarrassingly including those by some Native Americans) have no clue about separating these two groups of plants. Now this would be bad enough if it meant that folks were getting some unpalatable mistakes on their personal menus. But cassava, Manihot esculenta, is toxic raw, by virtue of prussic acid, a cyanide source, and therefore, possibly deadly. Cassava is in the usually inedible euphorbia family, the Euphorbiaceae. Although it provides the most calories eaten from vegetation by humans in the tropics, it is because each indigenous group of people has an effective technique for removing this cyanide based toxin.

There are several thousand varieties of cassava, but they are usually referred to as being in one of two groups, sweet cassava (low prussic acid) or bitter cassava (high prussic acid). Sweet cassava has been bred to have such low cyanide rates, that cooking is often sufficient to make this a safe food. But bitter cassava is fully toxic and demands a serious technique to make it a safe food. Here is a link to a story about a particularly tragic event (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/10/content_423641.htm) where a consumer was not careful enough to make sure she got the right variety.

The confusion between yucca and yuca is everywhere, including grocery stores, websites, and even edible plant blogs (Yikes!). Many of these sources are so poorly written as to speak as though these two species are the same and interchangeable. I hope this helps straighten out some of it.

Thanks for reading.

edibleplantguy
 
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Sagebrush

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Sagebrush is a common name applied generally to several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus Artemisia. There are at least 39 different names given to sagebursh, which is no wonder as it covers the arid western United States, ranging Nebraska to California, from Mexico to Canada; it seems to cover everything where it grows. Most commonly referred to as sagebrush, big sage, western sage, blue sage, and mountain sage, to Spanish speakers, it is chamiso hediondo (stinking chamisol). Sagebrush is not a desert plant, but rather one of the steppe, where there is slightly more precipitation. Sagebrush provides food and habitat for a variety of animal species, such as sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, rabbits, and mule deer.

hartr2-wpdistant43134.jpg​

Sagebrush is the most abundant shrub in North America. The leaves are small, three-toed like hairy footprints; the trunk is never vertical - even horizontal on windy mountain and mesa tops; it has the shape on a bundle of slats given a savage twist. The bark is the color and texture of frayed steel sire, and while it is not a thing of grace, after a rain and in the morning light, the musky and slightly sweet aroma floats in the air - calming and energizing.

Artemisia-tridentata-for-web-Mountain-Big-Sagebrush.jpg N01968D04_SZ700.jpg​

Plant Name
Scientific Name: Artemisia tridentata
Common Names: Chamiso-Hediondo - Big Sage - Sagebrush - Western Sage

Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Artemisia

Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Shrub
Range: W United States, N Mexico
Leaf Type: Evergreen
Flower Color: Yellow
Foliage Color: Silvery-green
Stem Color: Gray
Height: To 4 feet (1.2m) tall
Description: A common native shrub often growing wild in the high deserts of the western United States, it is very well branched, with narrow aromatic leaves. Leaves are simple, alternate, pubescent on both sides, on inch long, usually with 3 blunt apical teeth, and strongly scented. Flowers monecious, small (3/16 inch), yellowish and tubular in panicles. Bark is grayish-brown with lengthwise splits.
Soil: Well drained
Sun: Full sun

Special Characteristics
- Drought tolerant
- Fragrant - The leaves give off a musky, slightly sweet odor that becomes more pudgent after precipitation.

Traditional Uses
- A diaphorertic which stimulates sweating and helps break fevers.
- This plant also may work as a disinfect and skin wash.
- Used to smudge for spiritual health.
- The fresh green leaves, wrapped in a cloth, can be used to stop external bleeding in both men and livestock.
- Sagebrush contains no santonin or quinine like other species of Artemesia, but the presence of tannin in the plant makes it effective in lowering body secretions.
- Green leaf tea used for stomach complaints; in larger doses to induce vomiting.
- For head colds, branches are burned and fumes inhaled.
- Tea of branches was taken to relieve diarrhea, stomachaches and stomach cramps.
- Leaf tea used as antiseptic gargle for sore throats, gum and mouth diseases and as a wash or poultice for cuts, wounds, sores, or pimples.

Warnings
- The plant's oils are toxic to the liver and digestive system of humans if taken internally, so care must be taken during any form of internal use. Generally, toxic symptoms will subside 24–48 hours after ingesting the plant.

References
Medicinal Plants of the Desert Canyon West by Michael Moore
National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States: Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah (Audubon Field Guide) by National Audubon Society
Western Medicinal Plants and Herbs by Christopher Hobbs and Steven Foster
Denver Botanic Gardens Website - Link
 
Very happy to see this thread. I know absolutely nothing about the desert and really want to learn.
 
Winterhorse said:
Very happy to see this thread. I know absolutely nothing about the desert and really want to learn.
Click to expand...

I'm glad that you took some time to view this thread. While far from giving a lot of answers, I am hoping that it does provide some good information! Nice to have you along for the journey.
 
New Desert Dwellers Group on BCUSA Forum

Kitfox76 said:
Like all things, the native flora of desert and semi-desert areas serve a purpose, although oftentimes that purpose goes largely unknown, or forgotten about. This thread will provide desert bushcrafters a place to share, learn, and rediscover many of the uses for the flora native to our regions.

If you post:
- Please include high quality pictures with posts and
- Give references

Keep in mind that information within this thread is not intended to give medical advice or treatment; see this thread: http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=29)
Click to expand...

I was inspired by your great post to start a Desert Dwellers group! I'm very interested to share experiences and knowledge of desert bushcrafting. Thanks!
 
Wild Edible Plants: Pinon Pine

I found a great channel on YouTube, Martin Survival, who does a great job of explaining about edible plants in arid regions of the US. In this video, he talks about uses of the Pinon Pine.

[video=youtube;VQwJGwfGkk8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQwJGwfGkk8&index=31&list=PLA8E365980FEA5C8D[/video]
 
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