We moved the plants from our Native garden February 9 and 16, 2015.
These pictures are from the garden before we moved from our old site.
The plants are in the ground at our new site, but need time to
re-establish. The pictures will be updates when the plants have
recovered.
Our Native Garden has a selection of plants that were found in
California prior to European contact. These plants were used for food,
medicine, shelter, clothing, tools, toys, and a variety of other uses.
Big Leaf Maple
Acer macrophyllum
California Live Oak
Quercus agrifolia
Acorns processed for food
California Wild Grapes (on fence)
Vitrus californica
Fruit eaten fresh or dried and stored for winter, vines used as cordage, stem used as rim binding in basketry, leaves used to wrap acorn bread in earth oven. Leaves used as poultice for snakebites.
Cat Tail
Rypha latifolia
Leaves bound into mats for doors, beds and coverings of summer shelters, roots peeled and eaten raw. Pollen mixed with water and made into little cakes for bread. Some parts used a diaper material for babies.
Gooseberry
Ribes roezui
Berries eaten.
Gray (Digger) Pine (foreground)
Pinus sabiniana
Nuts eaten whole and ground into pinole, cones and needles used as combs, needles used as floor coverings, pitch used as glue and chewing gum, seeds eaten, nuts shelled and used as beads.
Gray Willow
Salix argyrophylla
Twigs used for arrows and in baskets, inner bark soaked, dried, shredded and used for diaper material, inner bark woven for skirts, stalks used for fish traps and dip nets. Used to frame tule huts. Preferred for basketry, stems used as wrap, stalk used as coil foundation and as coarse twine in basket material. Bark made into tea for headaches, fever, aches and pains of rheumatism.
Manzanita Arctostaphyllos manzanta dens flora
Chewed leaves applied as poultice for sores, leaves used for tea to cure
poison oak and diarrhea, berries used for cider and ground for
sweetener, wood used for sickle, berries used in beverage, wood used for
hair pins, nose and ear ornaments, berries eaten. Leaves sometimes
mixed with tobacco for smoking.
Milkweed Asclepias speciosa
Sap applied to warts and skin ailments, root decoction used as a cold
remedy, fibers made into nets, lines and bowstrings, root used for
toothache, juice used to heal cuts, sores, warts and to mark pattern for
tattoo marks. Stem fibers used to make string. Milky juice sometimes
hardened and used as chewing gum.
Mock Orange Philadelphus lewis
Wood used for arrow shafts
Redbud Cercis occidentalis
Peeled withe used as woof and warp in basketry, unpeeled withe as
decorative coil thread for design and binding, flowers used in garlands
in girl's puberty ceremony, bark and wood used in basketry
Soap Lily (thin stem leaning to the left) Chlorogalum poerioianum
Used as soap, shampoo and fish stupefier. Eaten in famine.
Heated and used to heal old sores, fibrous covering of bulb used for
mealing brush, hair comb. Bulb mashed and applied to relieve sores and
poison oak. Gluey substance that oozes from bulb when baking used to
glue feathers to arrow shafts.
Strawberry Fragaris chiloensis
Berries eaten
White Sage Salixfluviatilis argyrophylla
Tea made from leaves was used medically for colds and diarrhea and for washing hair
Wild Rose Rosa pisocarra
Hips eaten, roots boiled for tonic, juice used for red paint
Wormwood (Mugwort) Artemisia douglasiana
Used as covering for assembly house,
carried in Bear Dance, plant had magical, purifying properties, used as
poultice for headaches, bruises, poison oak, burned to keep mosquitoes
away, component in fish stupefier