TONGVA LIVING HISTORY GARDEN
Native Plant of the Month
Our working encyclopedia of Native plants and their uses
SEPTEMBER: Rose Hips ('ochuur)
Rosa californica
We chose Rose Hips (also commonly known as rose haw or rose hep) as our plant of the month for September because it's the beginning of cold season and they are a great source of Vitamin C. Rose hips are often incorporated into teas, jams, and soups to treat those common Fall/Winter illnesses like colds, flus, and stomach disorders. For soar throats, the hips can even be ground into a powder and blown into the back of your throat.
We chose Rose Hips (also commonly known as rose haw or rose hep) as our plant of the month for September because it's the beginning of cold season and they are a great source of Vitamin C. Rose hips are often incorporated into teas, jams, and soups to treat those common Fall/Winter illnesses like colds, flus, and stomach disorders. For soar throats, the hips can even be ground into a powder and blown into the back of your throat.
We chose Rose Hips (also commonly known as rose haw or rose hep) as our plant of the month for September because it's the beginning of cold season and they are a great source of Vitamin C. Rose hips are often incorporated into teas, jams, and soups to treat those common Fall/Winter illnesses like colds, flus, and stomach disorders. For soar throats, the hips can even be ground into a powder and blown into the back of your throat.
OCTOBER: California Black Walnut (no name recorded)
Juglans californica
Juglans californica
Juglans californica
Our beautiful California Black Walnuts are the October plant of the month because this is the time of year when they are falling and can be collected. These are different from the walnuts that you most likely buy from the store, which are English walnuts. You can take the black powder-like residue that is under the outer shell and combine it with water to make a dye or ink. The walnuts can also be shelled, cleaned, and cut in half to be used for a Tongva gambling game. In terms of medicine, the black walnuts have many benefits. They can promote healthy skin, improve cardiovascular health, and hold anti-fungal and antimicrobial activity.
Our beautiful California Black Walnuts are the October plant of the month because this is the time of year when they are falling and can be collected. These are different from the walnuts that you most likely buy from the store, which are English walnuts. You can take the black powder-like residue that is under the outer shell and combine it with water to make a dye or ink. The walnuts can also be shelled, cleaned, and cut in half to be used for a Tongva gambling game. In terms of medicine, the black walnuts have many benefits. They can promote healthy skin, improve cardiovascular health, and hold anti-fungal and antimicrobial activity.
NOVEMBER: Acorn (Kwaar)
Names and Uses
Most of the tribes living in what is now California used acorns for food for many thousands of years. It was prepared as a mush, soup, and porridge or pudding but not so sweet like pudding is today. Southern California tribes had their own name for their favorite acorn dish including: kwaar = acorn (regardless of oak species); wiiy = acorn mush; wyook = to make acorn mush; waax- = leach acorns. The acorn meal was a side dish accompanied with other vegetables and meat when available.
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Acorn Food Value
When properly prepared, acorns contain all of the vitamins and minerals known to be needed by man. Before cooking, acorns contain 21.3% fat; 5.1% protein; 62.5% carbohydrate; water, ash and fiber making up the remainder. Acorns of the Black Oak (Quercus kellogii), the preferred acorn, are usually gathered in later September through October depending on its elevation. The same trees do not yield acorns every year. In fact, acorns of the black oak tree take two years to form an acorn and reach maturity.
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Acorn Processing
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Gather acorns when they begin to fall on the ground. Make sure they are dry and have no worm holes showing. Acorns can be dried first then cracked or crack them them to remove the white kernel (meat) to help dry acorns more quickly.
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Shelling can be done with a nut cracker or with a rock hammerstone pounding the acorn on a flat rock surface to break the outer shell. The pink skin must be removed too.
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The meat of the acorn is traditionally pounded in a mortar with a pestle to make a fine flour. Today an old fashioned meat grinder, coffee bean grinder or electric blender does a nice job in much less time.​
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Acorns must be leached to remove the tannic acid they contain. Leaching consists of mixing water with the acorn flour to remove the bitterness. Hot or cold water can be used but don't use both in the same batch. A colander lined with a dish towel or cheese cloth can be used. Add water and allow to drain slowly. Flour is ready to use when bitter taste is gone and water runs clear. Flour can be dried and stored for later use or placed in baggies with the excess water squeezed out and frozen. The flour can be used to supplement in your favorite recipes, including pancakes, muffins and cakes. Acorn flour is available in some specialty food stores.
DECEMBER: Toyon or California holly
DECEMBER: Toyon or California holly
DECEMBER: Toyon or California holly (no name recorded)
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Description
Found both as a shrub and a small tree from 15 to 30 feet tall. White, five-petaled flowers that form in terminal clusters appear in the summer, followed by 1/4 inch orange-red fruits that resemble tiny apples.
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Uses
Food
California Indians rarely ate the berries raw, but cooked them to remove the bitter taste, either by roasting the bunches of berries over hot coals or by roasting them in a cooking basket with hot stones or hot coals.
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The Miwoks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and western foothills boiled the berries, then baked them in a deep narrow earth oven with a fire banked around it for two to three days.
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Sometimes the berries were stores for two months until soft, parched later in a large cooking basket with hot coals or rocks.
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Medicinal
A tea was made from the bark and leaves to alleviate stomach aches.
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Practical
Catalina fishermen used to tan their nets with a decoction from the bark.
Description
Found both as a shrub and a small tree from 15 to 30 feet tall. White, five-petaled flowers that form in terminal clusters appear in the summer, followed by 1/4 inch orange-red fruits that resemble tiny apples.
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Uses
Food
California Indians rarely ate the berries raw, but cooked them to remove the bitter taste, either by roasting the bunches of berries over hot coals or by roasting them in a cooking basket with hot stones or hot coals.
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The Miwoks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and western foothills boiled the berries, then baked them in a deep narrow earth oven with a fire banked around it for two to three days.
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Sometimes the berries were stores for two months until soft, parched later in a large cooking basket with hot coals or rocks.
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Medicinal
A tea was made from the bark and leaves to alleviate stomach aches.
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Practical
Catalina fishermen used to tan their nets with a decoction from the bark.
JANUARY: Plantains (no name recorded)
Plantago major
Plantago major
Identification
The common plantain has broad ovoid to round basal leaves and a long slender flower head with the flowers tightly packed. Other plantains have narrow leaves with linear veins and looser flower heads.
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Season
Spring to fall
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Edible Parts
Leaves (spring), seeds
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Other Uses
Fibers from the leaves can be used to make cord.
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Preparation for Food
Gather the leaves when young and tender as they become tough and stringy with age. Chop and use in salads and soups or cook as potherb. The seeds are used by the Chinese and Malay for making cooling jellies. They may also be eaten as a nibble or sprinkled on cereal.
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Nutritional Value
The spikes of the seeds when ripe as as rich in vitamin B1 as rice polishings. The fresh plant is 87.4% water, 2.7% protein, 0.4% fat, 2.2% ash, rich in potassium, making the plant somewhat diuretic. The leaves contain aucubin, an astringent, and some vitamin C.
Identification
The common plantain has broad ovoid to round basal leaves and a long slender flower head with the flowers tightly packed. Other plantains have narrow leaves with linear veins and looser flower heads.
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Season
Spring to fall
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Edible Parts
Leaves (spring), seeds
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Other Uses
Fibers from the leaves can be used to make cord.
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Preparation for Food
Gather the leaves when young and tender as they become tough and stringy with age. Chop and use in salads and soups or cook as potherb. The seeds are used by the Chinese and Malay for making cooling jellies. They may also be eaten as a nibble or sprinkled on cereal.
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Nutritional Value
The spikes of the seeds when ripe as as rich in vitamin B1 as rice polishings. The fresh plant is 87.4% water, 2.7% protein, 0.4% fat, 2.2% ash, rich in potassium, making the plant somewhat diuretic. The leaves contain aucubin, an astringent, and some vitamin C.
FEBRUARY: Stinging nettle (Chokiishar or Shokiishar)
Urtica dioica
Caution!
Stinging nettle causes a sharp burning sensation when touched with the bare skin. It is best to handle with gloves. Reportedly, exposure can be treated by rubbing affected areas with crushed leaves of mugwort, curly dock, one of the jewelweeds, or alcohol. Slender nettle (U. gracilis) resembles stinging nettle but stinging hairs are sparse.
When and Where to Collect
Common in damp places below 9000 feet, particularly along margins of woods, trails, stream banks, roadsides and vacant lots. It is a single erect stalk, 2-4 feet tall, with opposite, coarsely toothed, strongly veined, oval to oblong leaves with heart-shaped bases. Leaves are soft down-like and grayish beneath. It flowers in the summer in greenish or cream-colored loose clusters forming at the base of the leaves. The stalks, leafstems, and leaves are fuzzy with fine stinging bristles or hairs, filled with a fluid of chiefly formic acid.
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It is best to collect in the spring, with gloves, using scissors to cut young shoots and tender top leaves directly into a bag. While young nettles can be gathered with bare hands, do so only when you are sure the irritant will not affect you. The uppermost young leaves can be gathered later in the year if still tender.
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Uses
The leaves are edible. The outer layer of the dried stalks makes excellent strong cordage and was used for bow strings, carrying nets and rabbit nets. Nettle was also used in basketmaking. Nettles were medicinal, particularly as counter-irritant for aches and rheumatism. Boiled roots have been used to obtain a yellow dye. Nettle is an active decomposer and used commercially for organic fertilizer.
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Boiling destroys the irritant experienced when the plant is touched.. Leaves are steamed or boiled, like spinach. Usually the young nettles are preferred. It can be substituted for spinach or chard. It is high in vitamins A and C, protein, and minerals. Others report making a nourishing tea by boiling young shoots or leaves for several minutes, strain, and add lemon and sugar.
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MARCH: Elderberry (Hukaat)
Sambucus mexicana
Identification
A shrub or small tree (6-20 feet tall), with rounded crown, grows in open flats, valleys, and canyon slopes below 4,500 feet, preferring moist soil. The opposite leaves are divided into 3, 5, or 7 or more leaflets. The leaflets have have tiny teeth that are bright green, long, usually uniformly wide, and pointed at the tip. Flowers are cream-colored in clusters at the end of branches, blooming from March through September. The small berries follow and are blue with a whitish texture and grow in clusters like grapes. While the flowers are pleasantly scented, the twigs and leaves reportedly have a rank smell. Young stems are greenish, but as the bark matures it becomes grayish-brown.
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Uses
The blossoms and berries are edible and used for medicinal purposes. The wood is used for bows, arrows, flutes, whistles, clapper sticks, tobacco containers, bow drill fire making, and for dye.
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Elder Elixir Recipe
1. Fill a mason jar with elder berries. If you have elder flowers on hand, you can add some of those. Rose hips are often added as well.
2. Fill the jar to cover the contents with half brandy and half honey.
3. Screw the cap on tightly and store in a cool, dark place for 6 weeks, or as long as you want after that.
**NOTE: Dosage is better in small quantities as often as possible. For instance, one teaspoon every hour as opposed to a tablespoon twice a day.
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Elder Elixir Uses
1. Flu: Elder elixir with boneset and a tea with elderberry, elderflower, yarrow and sage.
2. Colds with heat signs: Elder elixir plus elder flower, yarrow and mint tea. Honeysuckle, peach, or rose are often added as well, depending on what's going on.
3. Fevers: Elder elixir, boneset, elderflower and yarrow tea. Obviously, each condition is different and so different herbs would be called for but elder can work consistently on a wide range of symptoms.
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APRIL: Mugwort (no name recorded)
Artemisia vulgaris
Description
The leaves of this green plant are long, often cleft, dark green on the top side and silvery grey on the underside. The flowers are tiny, hairy, and yellowish. They grow in dense little clusters branching off the stem. Mugwort blooms from June to October and is commonly found in low, shady places.
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Uses (medicinal)
Among the Cahuilla Indians, the primary use was to induce menstrual activity and and assure a comfortable childbirth and rapid recovery. In difficulties attending childbirth, the patient was steamed over a shallow pit containing mugwort.
The Yuki Indians in Northern California brewed the dry or green leaves into a strong hot drink with "white man's salt" added to sue for any trouble inside, such as dysentery.
Cuts, bruises and sores were bathed with a tea, and poultices were applied until a cure was effected. For pains from rheumatism or arthritis, the leaves were pounded and applied with a hot stone placed over them. The Miwok Indians are also known to have used this cure.
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For pains in the back, treatment consisted of scooping out a place in the earth where a small fire was built. Then, hot ashes were covered with pounded mugwort and the patient lay on this with blankets spread over him until he/she would sweat.
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Local Gabrielino Indians used mugwort to prevent and cure the rash from poison oak. The juice was rubbed over the affected area as soon as possible after contact.
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