Foraging Native Plants: Look to Your Own Backyard

Native plants play an important role in living sustainably.  They furnish habitat, create shade, improve the soil and provide edible and craft materials.   To put it simply, California natives are remarkable additions to the garden ecosystem. But it’s important to remember that these plants are also critical components of natural ecosystems.

The increased interest in edible and medicinal native plants creates several unintended consequences.   Most important is the overuse of natural stands of native plants growing in the wild.   This is not just a problem in California; over-collecting of native plants is a critical issue world-wide, leading to the extinction of entire plant species.

While some California native plants are still common, others are rare – even endangered - in the wild.  Humans have played a key role, primarily by destroying habitat (building houses, roads, etc.).  Global climate change is putting further pressures on wild plants and animal populations. 

To stress wild populations further by wild foraging is unsound.  In fact, there are legal, health/safety, practical and ethical/stewardship reasons to limit wildland foraging.  For more see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2016/06/sustainable-living-foraging-for-native.html

Aches and Pains? Mother Nature May Have a Cure for That

Making a tincture from Telegraph Plant.  This is a great medicine for aching hands!

California native plants are useful as well as attractive.  In fact, many have significant histories as medicinal plants. This should not surprise us; plants produce a wide range of chemicals for their own protection.  It turns out that some are also effective against human pathogens and conditions. 

Western medicine is just beginning to discover the benefits of chemicals produced by locally native plant species.  There is also increasing interest in the many practical uses of California native plants.   That’s one reason why we created Mother Nature’s Garden of Health at the Gardena Willows Wetland Preserve  (http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2014/03/our-new-garden-mother-natures-garden-of.html).

Most of us suffer from joint and muscle aches every so often. Pain medications can cost a lot – and have serious side effects.  What if there were an inexpensive alternative that could be applied externally to help reduce the aches?  

It turns out that several native plants have long been used to ease painful muscles and joints, usually in combination with warm water.  If you grow these plants, you may want to try them to see if they work for you.  They may provide a useful complement to Western medicines, working in concert with them.

 

 

For more, see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2015/10/garden-of-health-making-tincture-for.html

Lemonadeberry (Lemonade sumac) – Rhus integrifolia

Lemonadeberry (Rhus integrifolia).  Entrance to Garden of Dreams.
CSU Dominguez Hills

We have several Lemonadeberry shrubs growing on the CSUDH campus.  This is a true Southern California shrub, growing from south of Santa Barbara to Baja California, Mexico.   While primarily a coastal species, it ranges east to Riverside County, appearing in the Coastal Strand, Coastal Sage Scrub and Chaparral plant communities.   Typically it grows in drier canyons, either on north-facing slopes or slopes/bluffs facing the ocean.  A lowland species, Lemonadeberry is rarely found above about 2500 ft. (900 m.) elevation, its distribution likely limited by freezing temperatures.

Lemonadeberry is a large evergreen shrub, reaching a maximal height of 6-10 ft. in protected areas and 2-3 ft. along the immediate coast.  It is usually somewhat wider than tall, spreading to as much as 10-12 ft. in diameter in favored spots.  Interestingly, it can be kept to a much smaller size with regular pruning

 

Learn more about Lemonadeberry at: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2014/12/plant-of-month-december-lemonadeberry.html

 

 

CSUDH student measures Lemonadeberry.  Palos Verdes peninsula.

 

California wood mint (Stachys bullata) can be seen at Mother Nature's Backyard garden (above) and
at the Garden of Dreams (CSU Dominguez Hills)

One of the plants that’s blooming right now in the Garden of Dreams is the California woodmint, Stachys bullata.  This isn’t its peak season, but the flowers keep our hummingbirds and the few remaining butterflies happy.

California wood mint is a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae), a large family that includes culinary mints and the Salvias.   Plants in this family often have aromatic foliage and are used for cooking and potpourri.  Within the Mint Family, the wood mints (hedge nettles), genus Stachys, make up one of the larger genera.  Stachys species can be found on most continents and many are used in traditional herbal medicine.

For more on this interesting plant see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2014/11/plant-of-month-december-california-wood.html