What Is Ethnobotany?

WHAT IS ETHNOBOTANY?

ARIZONA ACADEMIC STANDARDS: A background reading DOING THE ACTIVITY and survey to help Tell your students that they are going to be Science Strand 4, Concept 3 students understand how ethnobotanists, people who study the relation- Concept 5: Environment and Society native people in the ship between people and plants. Have them PO 1. Sonoran Desert region do the background reading “Ethnobotany: have use plants to meet How Do People Use Plants?” and discuss the from flax fibers, and rayon, made from wood their basic needs and different ways that native people in our region pulp, are more recent developments. discover the impact of have used plants. Do the students think these Medicine plant resources in their uses were very different from how people use own lives. plants today? Aloe vera is not a native plant, but it is com- mon in many backyards for use on sunburn ETHNOBOTANY SURVEY and other burns. Creosote has been called the OBJECTIVES: Pass out the “Ethnobotany Survey, Plants in “pharmacy of the desert” because of its many Students should: Our Lives” form for them to fill out. You can uses. Its leaves have antibiotic properties and  Understand that have them survey items they see at school, or can be made into tea used for skin infections people depend on or internal conditions like coughs or pneumo- plant resources for a save it for home that evening. Discuss their nia. Prickly pear plants have been used me- variety of different findings. Explain that you’ll be doing a Son- needs. oran Supermarket unit that will give them a dicinally by native people. The split pads chance to experiment with and experience make poultices for cuts, bruises, and boils.  List examples of some of the uses of the native plants they The fruit can be lightly roasted and split to plant materials used have been reading about. treat warts. Knowledge of regional plant for food, clothing, medicines has been passed down from gener- medicine, shelter, Answers: When discussing answers to the ation to generation, ensuring that proper uses and tools both by Ethnobotany Survey, consider the following: native people in the and doses are followed. Remind your stu- Sonoran Desert and Food dents that they should not ingest plants or by themselves in their medicinal derivatives without consult- Foods would include examples such as… their own lives. ing with an expert.

 Roots: carrots, potatoes, turnips, beets, MATERIALS: Shelter: etc.  A copy of the Shelter materials include wood for roofing  Leaves: lettuce, spinach, kale, cilantro, reading and shade cloth. “Ethnobotany: How etc. Do People Use Tools and Utensils: Plants?”  Seeds: wheat, rice, sesame seeds, al- Tools and utensils can be anything not al-  A copy of the monds, peanuts, beans, etc. ready covered: wooden spoons, chairs, bed- students’ survey  Fruits: apples, bananas, pineapple, plums, “Ethnobotany frames, playhouses, musical instruments, etc. Survey, Plants in Our etc. Modern Materials: Lives” Fiber Many of the items in our modern world are Encourage the students to look at labels and VOCABULARY: made of non-plant based materials such as list any articles of clothing or other items they plastic and metal. How do these differ from  ethnobotany have that contain cotton, linen, or rayon. plant materials? How might they have a  ethnobotanist They’ve probably all heard of cotton. Wild greater or lesser impact  fibers strains of cotton are native to the Sonoran on the environment  natural resources Desert region and would have been used by than plant-based mate- indigenous people to make cloth. Linen, made rials?

Ethnobotany: How Do People Use Plants? Name______

What is Ethnobotany? agave, cotton, and some grasses were used for fiber. Ethnobotany is the study of the relationship between people and plants. Plants have provided people with MEDICINE most of their needs for thousands of years. The Sonoran Desert has many different kinds of plants – Around the world, plants have been the main source for nearly 2500 species. Ethnobotanists estimate that human medicines for thousands of years. Plant-based native people used 750 of these for food, fiber, medicines include teas, medicine, shelter, and tool materials. washes, powders, vapors, and smoke. Many Sonoran Desert plants have How Do People Use Plants? medicinal properties. One is the creosote bush. Have Native people like the Tohono O’odham, Yaqui, and you noticed how the air Seri have used desert plant resources in many of the smells so good after a rain same ways. storm? That smell comes from creosote, one of the FOOD most important medicinal plants in our desert. Plant foods include fruits, seeds, leaves, roots, buds, flowers, and SHELTER shoots. In the Sonoran Many desert plants make good building materials. Desert, people ate cactus Mesquite and palo verde wood, saguaro cactus “ribs,” fruit fresh, dried, or and ocotillo branches provided support for shade cooked into syrup. They ramadas and round houses. Grasses were mixed with ground dried mesquite mud to strengthen plaster and adobe bricks. beans to make sweet flour. They harvested leafy wild greens that TOOLS sprouted in the winter Strong woods like mesquite and ironwood were used rains, and collected for bows and arrows, handles, cooking and food cactus buds. Many of collecting tools, and planting tools. Plants were used to these and other plant make other items like musical instruments, toys, and foods could be stored to ceremonial masks. last throughout the year.

How do you use plants? Do the FIBER surveys your teacher gives you to Plant fibers are strong, stringy tissues that people can find out! weave, braid, or plait to make rope, twine, clothing, matting, shoes, and baskets. Plants such as yucca,

Ethnobotany Survey, Plants in Our Lives Name______Plants are important sources of many things we need every day. Find objects in your school, house, or yard to complete as many of the categories on this chart as you can. The first one has been done for you.

Type of Object Example

Root carrot FOOD Leaf (canned or processed examples okay) Seed

Fruit

FIBER Cotton (find clothing or other items made with these Linen plant fibers) Rayon

MEDICINE Aloe Vera (look for these plants and make an X in “example” if Creosote you find them) Prickly Pear

SHELTER Porch (look for these examples of shelter and list any plant Roof materials they contain) Shade Umbrella

TOOLS/UTENSILS (list any other objects you found made of plant materials)

Which materials not based on plants make up many of the objects in your home and school? 1. ______2. ______