HOW NATIVE AMERICANS USED AND MANAGED NATIVE

Here follows a partial list of common useful native plants

• Achillea millefolium, yarrow. Medicinal. Cross-cultural. I Ching in Asia • Adiantum aleucticum, fivefinger fern. Stipes decorate basketry • Aesculus californica, buckeye. Fire . Twigs for fire drills, seeds to stupefy fish or leached for food. Medicine. • spp., century or maguey. Tough fibers for twine; young flowering stalk roasted for food. • Allium spp., wild onions. dug for food. • Alnus spp., alders. Red dye from root bark. • Apocynum cannabinum (also Psoralea macrantha), Indian hemp. Fine quality twine and string from stem fibers. • Arctostaphylos spp., manzanitas. Medicinal. Berries for food, drink. Smoking mixture from . • Artemisia douglasiana, mugwort. Medicinal. • Asclepias spp., milkweeds. Young buds for food, fibers from stems, fluff from seeds. • Berberis spp., barberries. Inner bark for yellow dye, berries for food. • Brodiaea spp., wild hyacinths, brodiaeas. [Indian potatoes] Bulbs for food. [actually includes genera Dichelostemma and Triteleia] • Calochortus spp. Bulbs dug for food. • spp., camas. One of the favorite foods; often roasted in masses in earth ovens. • Carex spp., sedges. Rhizomes for tough fibers for baskets. • Ceanothus spp., wild lilacs. for soap, seeds for Pinole, leaves for tea. • Cercis occidentalis, western redbud. Fiber from bark; also dye. • Cercocarpus betuloides, mountain mahogany. Twigs used for fire drills and digging sticks. • Chenopodium californicum, California soaproot. Roots for soap. • pomeridianum, soap plant. Multipurpose: soap, glue, poison, food, and fibers for brushes from bulb. • Claytonia (Montia) perfoliata, miner's lettuce. Leaves eaten as greens in season. • Cornus spp., dogwoods. emergency food, bark for smoking mixture • Equisetum spp., horsetails. Emergency food, sandpaper, scouring. Accumulates metals. • Eriodictyon spp., yerba santa. "Holy herb" of Spaniards. Leaves used medicinally. • Eschscholzia californica, California poppy. Roots for numbing toothaches. • Gaultheria shallon, Salal. Berries for food. Used for Christmas greens today. • Helianthus spp., sunflowers [and many other composite achenes]. Fruits harvested for pinole. • Heracleum lanatum, cow parsnip. Root peeled for food; leaves dried and burned for salt substitute. • arbutifolia, toyon. Fruits parched and eaten. • Iris douglasiana, Douglas iris. Outermost leaf fibers woven into high-quality string. • Juglans hindsii, black walnut. Fleshy hulls for dyeing; nuts for food; shells for gambling games. • Lilium (lily) and other bulbs. Edible raw or cooked. • Lithocarpus densiflorus, tanbark oak. Acorns for food; bark for tanning hides. • Myrica californica, Calif. bayberry. Leaves for medicine (also flavor food); berries for wax

Reformatted April 26, 2018 HOW NATIVE AMERICANS USED AND MANAGED NATIVE PLANTS

today [minor use]. • Nuphar polysepalum, yellow pondlily. Rhizomes for food; seeds roasted for food. • Perideridia spp. Tuberous roots dug and roasted for food [another form of Indian potatoes]. • Petasites palmatus, western coltsfoot. Leaves dried for salt substitute. • Pinus lambertiana, sugar pine. Pitch as sweet chewing material. • Pinus quadrifolia, monophylla, and edulis, pinyon pines. The oil-rich seeds were the staple for desert Indians. • Pinus sabiniana and coulteri, digger and Coulter pines. Edible pine nuts; roots for basketry; pitch for sealing. • Prosopis spp., mesquite. Pods and seeds were used for food, often ground into flour. A staple for desert Indians. • ilicifolia, -leaved . Pits roasted and ground for food. • Pseudotsuga menziesii, Douglas fir. Young needles for tea, symbolic cones. • Quercus spp., oaks. The acorns of most were the staple food for foothill peoples. Acorns were ground and leached for mush and bread. Also galls for dyeing. • Rhamnus spp., coffee berry, cascara. Bark for laxative. • Sagittaria latifolia, wapiti or Indian . Edible tubers. • Salix spp., willows. Young flexible stems for basket coils and for framing various structures. Bark for medicine. • Salvia spp., native sages and chia. Leaves used medicinally; seeds for high-energy food and in pinole. • Sambucus spp., elderberries. Music Tree. Twigs for pipes, flutes, gambling sticks. Medicinal. Fruits for food. • Satureja douglasii, yerba buena. "Good herb" of Spaniards. Medicinal tea. • Scirpus spp., tules. Boats, housing material, seeds for food. • Torreya californica, California nutmeg. Dagger-tipped needles used for tattooing. • Toxicodendron diversilobum, poison oak. Leaves wrapped around food in earth oven, juice for tattooing. • Trifolium spp., clovers. Flowers and/or leaves eaten in season as food. • Typha spp., cattails. Multipurpose plant. Starch from rhizomes, edible young flowers, pollen for food, parched seeds for food, fluff for stuffing, mats from leaves. • Umbellularia californica, California bay laurel. Nuts roasted and ground as condiment; leaves to drive away fleas and headaches. • Vaccinium ovatum, evergreen huckleberry. Excellent seasonal berries for food. • Vitis californica, California grape. Edible leaves and fruits, twine for tying timbers together. • Washingtonia filifera, California fan palm. Leaves for thatching; fruits for food (both flesh and seeds) • Wyethia spp., mule's ear. Seeds for Pinole, medicinal roots. • spp. Multipurpose plant. Soap from roots, fibers from leaves, edible flowers and fruits. • Zygadenus spp., death camas. Occasionally dug and consumed by mistake in place of Camassia bulbs; deadly poisonous.

Other important food plants: • California hazelnut, Corylus cornuta californica

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• Chinquapin, Chrysolepis spp. • Juniper berries, Juniperus spp. • Madrone Arbutus menziesii berries • Goatnut, jojoba, Simmondsia chinensis

CHANGES IN NATIVE PLANTS AND ROLE FROM California’s PAST TO PRESENT • No agriculture • Frequent small brush fires and controlled burns Large tracts of woodland, forest, brushland Large areas of rich coastal waters • Large areas of swamps and marshes in Central Valley and east of Sierra • Finite, well-distributred populations of nomadic peoples • A diet of vegetable staples, additional vegetables in season, and animal meat Areas of human occupation and areas avoided • Ecology of gatherers: leaving bulbs behind, leaving some seeds or fruits behind Coppicing to obtain straight shoots for basketry, etc. • Staples and major and nut plants • Staples mostly nuts (acorns or pinyons) or seeds • Roots included cattail, nuphar, balsamroot, lomatium, lysichiton, bitterroot, cowparsnip, sagittaria, and a wide variety of bulbs • Grains: mostly grasses but very small (Oryzopsis, Elymus, Panicum, Setaria) Major staples acorns, mesquite fruits, or pine nuts

• Explain distribution, availability, gathering acorns, kinds used, and their distribution, preparation and consumption, methods of cooking

• Pine nuts, kinds used, distribution and preparation

Reformatted April 26, 2018