Beatty Museum & Historical Society in Beatty, Nevada

Seeds an important food source. Flower tea used to ease the aches and pains of advanced pregnancy, also used to treat sick headaches such as hangovers.

Seeds an important food source. Grows in valley, foothill and mountain native grasslands.

Twisted pods gathered when dry and toasted then pounded into fine textured flour baked into cakes. Hard, water resistant wood provides firewood, building materials, bowls, planting sticks, awls, pestles, and cradle boards. Roots separated into fibers and twisted into cordage. Leaf tea treated sore eyes and stomach disorders. Black pitch from trunk used as medicinal tea, hair dye, and pottery paint. Ash Meadows is the only screwbean site in Amargosa and Death Valleys.

Sugar rich pod of 8-10 seeds gathered when dry and toasted then pounded into fine textured flour baked into cakes and rolls. Hard, water resistant wood provides firewood, building materials, bowls, planting sticks, awls, pestles, and cradle boards. Roots separated into fibers and twisted into cordage. Leaf tea treated sore eyes and stomach disorders. Black pitch from trunk used as medicinal tea, hair dye, and pottery paint. Mesquite Springs and Mesquite Flats were major sources.

Pinion trees grow above 7000 feet in the Panamint, Grapevine, and adjacent ranges on north and east aspects. Each adult harvests about 200 pounds of pine nuts. Ground, pine nut soup is a winter food staple.

Native Americans common name was buckberry that they found on trees in groves on foothills and mountains. Berries are pressed into a sugarless sauce that is tart and full of seeds, or sun dried for winter.

Berries collected and eaten by Native Americans who in lean times raided wood rat nests for slabs of dried berries.

Fresh or dried fruits (lemonade berry) used to flavor water and as a mordant in dyes. Fresh young shoots used in basketry and dried for arrow shafts. Dried and powdered leaves produce salve for mouth sores and nasal spray.

Other common names bluedick or covena. Early settlers called it ‘grass nuts’ because of its edible bulbs.

Edible bulbs. Lilies are protected by law. Do not pick flowers or dig bulbs.

Edible bulbs. Lilies are protected by law. Do not pick flowers or dig bulbs.

Also known as ajo lily. Ajo means garlic in Spanish, a probable reference to the flavor of its edible bulbs. Lilies are protected by law. Do not pick flowers or dig bulbs.

Preserved fruits. Ground seeds into meal. Leaves used to thatch dwellings. Leaf fibers woven into ropes and baskets. Typically found in steep canyons near small trickling streams.

Native Americans boiled first leaves twice to remove bitterness and toxic selenium before eating as spinach. Additional common names are squaw, cabbage desert plume, Indian cabbage, and "sentinel of the plains."

Stems contain a resinous fluid and were dried and burned as incense. Spanish common name: incienso.

Used medicinally for various gastrointestinal ailments.

Plant used for eye drops, purgatives, and antiseptics. Fresh stems exude highly toxic yellow sap.

Cucurbitacin compounds make the gourds very bitter. Juice used as an insect repellent and is toxic in large quantities.

Contains the toxic alkaloids nicotine and anabasine. Smoked by Native Americans on ceremonial occasions and to relieve lung congestion. Leaves used externally to treat headache and congestion.

Tea made from pounded root used to treat diarrhea and skin infections.

Used to reduce swelling and treat wounds and bruises.

Another common name is quinine bush for its medicinal properties.

Medicinal tea made from leaves and yellow dye made from flowering branches. Stem sap is almost 3% rubber.

Resins in the leaves are toxic in large doses but in small doses are used for stiff limbs, sores, snake bites, menstrual cramps, and other ills.

Camphor in leaves used as poultices for stomach ache, tea for gastrointestinal disorders, hot vapor bath for colds. Camphor has astringent properties but might trigger seizures. Grows along dry stream beds or shaded slopes often in the shelter of shrubs.

Datura contains solanaceous alkaloids including atropine, hyoscamine (isomeric with atropine), and hyoscine (scopolamine) which cause intense thirst, visual disturbances from 6 hours to 3 weeks, flushed skin, central nervous system hyperirritability, delirium, rapid heartbeat, elevated temperature, violent hallucinations, convulsions and coma leading to death. Hallucinogenic dose very close to fatal dose. Children have died from sucking the nectar. Native Americans applied the leaves or buds as poultices to heal sores and boils and ease pain; and crushed seeds or mashed roots to a damp paste that was applied to war arrow points and allowed to dry.

Tea from leaves for treating stomach disorders, rheumatism, malaria, and poultices for snakebite. Additional common names ‘resin weed’ and ‘turpentine weed’ refer to the odor of narrow, green leaves. Common name ‘matchweed’ recognizes that resinous stems catch fire easily.

Source of fuel in salt desert scrub zone. Very salt tolerant and usually found on flat valley floors.