Manzanita Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, little apples Manzanita

Manzanita Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, little apples Manzanita.
      So here is Arctostaphylos uva-ursi,

little apples Manzanita. Rich red brown shiny bark, astringent sour leaves.

A tree a bush, a friend who reminds me of an anonymous spring somewhere in Southern Utah, up on the Cockscomb above our house at Paria.

 A seep of water, canyon oaks, coolness and hair like water grabbing the minds eye. 

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Manzanita:Sp 'Little apples", at Oak Flat, AZ

       Pale pink trumpet delicate flowers that bloom quickly in early spring. I searched for years to see those flowers up on the coxcomb. And they were always gone. Always too soon or too late tour too early or just not the right time. 

Now I find them everywhere,, I see them in the Santa Catalina's, along the rim rocks below Saguaro. They are always near the oaks, you see them with the gamble oak,

 with the white oaks, the Black Oaks, the blue Oaks, Manzanitas love the oaks. You see them with the silk tassel, with the alligator Juniper you see them all together growing happily. 

    For me always the smell of the manzanita leaves mixed with pinyon pine pitch,

juniper and artemisia: to take the Manzanita leaves and mix them with piñon pine sap Juniper

and sagebrush and then make an incense and use it as a way to pray. It makes a very thick fragrant meditative smoke.

I would go up to the slickrock and gather the piñon pine pitch & the Manzanita leaves, put them in a little depression in the slickrock and light them on fire and use it as incense. It sat on a piece of slick rock, wafting up and swirling around into the sky. Reminds me of prayers or "intention",

like Kristina said, or dreams or blessing and protection. With every dream or intention or prayer there is memories of dreams that were only dreams, no more no less, but dreams only. Smoke that didn't rise, fires that burned out, roofs that fell in leaving only rusted tin and walls. Yet still we pray

and we follow our dreams and make new dreams and new prayers a new medicine.

I now use Yerba Santa in the same way. As Kristine would say, "I make my intention."

          Manzanita is a good medicine for physical ailments to for the burning itching of a urinary tract infection. It's good for those itchy burning down there sorts of things that some unlucky are prone to, even though they wipe the right direction. Moist warm hairy soft places are sometimes problematic for multiple reasons, manzanita leaf tea can help. So Manzanita is for urinary tract infections, UTI. It's the medicine for that painful burning itching, it can be used The same way that people talk about cranberry juice to drink cranberry juice. Well drink leaf Manzanita Tea, you make a tea from the leaves and it has the same type of properties as cranberry. It would be good to mix it with the bark of the Mahonia the Berberis

or creeping Oregon grape which also grows around these manzanita.

       Then there's the apples, the little apples that tempted and nourished and guided us back in a dream, those fruits are there for jam

and tea and just to have and hold a tiny apple less than your baby finger nail, ripening in the sun. Nice to know and praise fertility and youth.

Arctostaphylos Sp, growing at Oak Flat, AZ 4100 ft

          But back to the name and burning dried manzanita leaves mixed with pine pitch and juniper branches. This is the bear. The north circling above, the hunter, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, the bear

that circles upon which all the stars follow like shadows, like dreams, like prayers. Good to see manzanita again and in that pollen of spring a memory of hair sparkling like water drawing the eye in closer and closer. Manzanita.
by Paul Manski

Mahonia, bajos-Pelvic steam and bilis by Paul Manski

Algerita, Yerba de Sangre, Sangre de Christo, Mahonia.

Berberis wilcoxii, grows as a woody shrub. It is growing here in the coolness of a sky island at about 8000ft. It's neighbors are pine and fir along with narrow leafed cottonwood.

Mahonia spp.

    In the southwest  in Arizona and New Mexico we have this plant growing in a wide variety of habitats. Mahonia app grows high and low elevation and takes many forms.  Wherever it grows it has a reputation as a strong medicine plant. People look at it that way and respect it for it's tenacity and its ubiquitousness. It's not a secret, it's a screamer. Spending time with the plant you look beyond its expression to its inner form.
    Peal back the bark on a stem and taste. It's an enlightening bitter, provocative and profound. Looking at the bark: go for that intense hotdog mustard yellow color, in the peeled roots and stems. And that Guinness stout on steroids bitterness taste.
     It is Evergreen and the leaves are glossy. If you look at the leaves, you'll see that they are green and shiny. They're also pointed and prickly and if you look at the leaf pattern you'll see that they are opposite. Here below is another Mahonia, Berberis repens, growing low to the ground, short and squat, somewhat dainty and delicate in the fresh snow. Similar opposite leaf pattern.

If you're looking very quickly you may think it it is an oak. Holly-like, oak-like leaves. The pattern is different though. The leaves grow from the stem directly opposite one another. They are pinnately opposite. You can see the flowers or racemes are yellow. As you go up and down in elevation with this barberry you'll see different types of leaves sometimes thin other times more fat and round.

      The greater plant species is now Berberis formerly Mahonia. In this region where I live you can find it in the lower deserts, in the Pinion and junipers and then higher in the Pines and firs. 

     The plant  can be used from the berries, to the leaves to the stems and branches and down to the roots. It has lived with us for a long time and is the plant that goes back-and-forth speaking to us of healing in addressing our needs. The whole plant is useful from top to bottom. 

     The plant is useful both externally or topically on the skin, and also inside, internally. It is a complex plants with many medicinal components and applications. In terms of plants energetics return to work tomorrow the cold bitter taste indicates a powerful effect on the digestive complex. From the first taste in the mouth you will increased salivation. 

The plant energetics have to do with coolness, cooling and the taste is immediately bitter. You'll immediately notice saliva flowing and increased gastric secretions. This is characteristic of what is in herbal medicine called a bitter. So the bitter encourages digestion the movement of food and rapid transit of food through the intestines. Yet the bitter taste goes deeper than saliva in the mouth it extends all the way to the liver, the bile, and even further into the heart, and the seat of the emotions. In herbal energetics when ever you have this profound bitterness you can almost always be sure that it extends deeper to the cellular level in the way that we process nutrition and the glucose energy pathway. Recent studies have confirmed an effect similar to the pharmaceutical drug metformin. With a likewise similar effect on the red blood cell indicator test the HgA1c, showing promise for one of the great plagues of our modern society, metabolic syndrome and adult onset diabetes. 

      If you look at the stems, or the roots of the plant you will see a distinct hotdog mustard yellow color. If you scrape off a little bark of the stem and chew on it you'll get that intense bitter flavor which is the character of Algerita. It is common to make an alcohol tincture of the fresh plant bark and chopped roots. It is also common to combine the dried plant material including powdered leaves in oil to create a salve with beeswax. The leaves themselves can be powdered,  dried and stored to be utilized later, topically directly or added to salves. 

When tinctured in alcohol algerita, creates a dark red,  colored liquid, also known as yerba de sangre, sangre de Christo, the blood herb, the blood of Christ. 

    Uses: as a cold digestive bitter and liver tonic. Used for conditions that are hot- the liver is connected to emotion, specifically with hot thinking like angry blow ups, and the tradition of using estafiate in this way relates to bilis rage and angry hot conditions. Men often rage and smash things up, punching holes in walls and things like that and the two medicines together are good in addressing men's anger. It's also important to know that when a man is angry it also means that he is caught in a stock condition. People who have been schooled to something like a psychology often call this a depression. So often you may hear someone say, "I've caught a depression", make no mistake depression is contagious and whether it's spread by a virus or bacteria I'm not sure, but I know it's spread.  so if you're around a lot of people who are angry and smashing things up it could be that you might've caught their depression. Kind of like Wal-mart-itis. Mahonia is good for this and likewise estafiate. Bilis.

I advise men to steam their nuts, like a lady's bajo, but when (men) are that pissed off, they probably don't want to sit with the steam pot between their legs are too impatient for that. its more likely to use something an herb hops or anenome with estafiate or mahonia tea internally, or as a tincture. Here you can see clearly the distinctive yellow of the root mass. The same color and quality is also found in the above ground stems when peeled.

     Similarly women can use estafiate, algerita and romero together for steaming their pussy in a calming bajo, for that angry energy that comes from hot stuck periods. Often times women too can catch a depression bug, and rather than smashing things up, they often smash them selves up with negative thinking and sometimes this can manifest as bad period. So ladies out there should consider steaming their pussy with algerita, romero, and yerba santa.

Estafiate with a little algerita is great for a ladies depression which is often inactive, and sad with more passive self directed destructiveness. While a man's depression is often outward destructive smashing walls or fist fights, road rage and the like. But we have female MMA with Ronda Rousey so maybe will see more women punching walls. 

     Finally yerba de sangre is antibacterial, you have to see that intense hotdog mustard yellow in the stems and roots. Will go further into it for salves later- stay tuned...

i think the squirrel is a really good animal

I think the squirrel is a really good animal. I was watching the squirrels today and I learned a lot they like to eat the piñon pine nuts, acorn oaks. Those are things we should be eating and things we should be doing. The squirrel is a good animal you know?

Always working always running around. Staying out of trouble,  getting things done, living in the forest, you can learn from them.

      Tonight I was listing to the elk bugle and they make a loud grunting sound and I could hear a high-pitched noise. The elk are good, good people, more like people than the squirrels, there are the squirrel people, the elk people, and right now flying above me is one of the bat people. There's one you can see him, flying around flying around. This happened last time too he came right to me.

The bats are flying eating, getting the last of the bugs. And I'm happy for them.

Torote, Bursera microphyla, this is the way to return, by Paul Manski

Torote, Bursera microphyla,  this is a way to return, if you are lost, or have been lost. The plant taste is aromatic, hot dry and astringent, the gum like resin sap or copal comes out of the tree, pictured below and is a prized medicine. The aromatic scent is a combination of orange peel and piñon pine resin. 

I’m continuing to work with these plants and use them from a bioregional herbalist perspective. I first met them 25+ years ago in the Sonoran desert west of the Colorado river, in eastern San Diego and Imperial counties,  California, while working for the California Department of Parks and Recreation.      Torote is a powerful plant that can define the bioregion.

It’s scent is warm maybe pine sap maybe orange peels, kind of like both, you decide. It also has a hint of fresh cilantro seed/coriander. It’s a perennial, a tree. It keeps it’s small leaves year round except in drought and cold, in Arizona and California it’s at the north end of its range. It’s aromatic leaves are on cherry red stems coming from a swollen white papery trunk. In the south and heart of Mexico it is more evenly distributed, but in Arizona and California it grows in the warmest mico-climates often situating itself near dark desert varnished boulders or at it’s reported most Northern point in the Harquirvar Mountains 33.7N, 113.4W near Salome, AZ it will be in the wash. 

Thin papery bark admits light to photosynthetic layers beneath. Given rain it may leaf out at any season like an Ocotillo. Bursera Microphylla is considerd a sarcaulescent tree and stores water like a cactus in its lower trunk.

This sarcaulescent quality means it can survive dought alough it tends to like the summer rains coming from the Gulf of California. It has a an affinity to the grey vireo who eats and speads its seeds.

      I’m not sure I should mention any of this, I have no right to speak, probably no reason to speak, yet I’m speaking. I’ll tell you why, maybe one person will hear it and and it will help them come back to center. Robert Levi a Cahuilla elder and bird singer passed away August 29, 2007 he was 89. He talked to me one day about Mukat and Temayeit and bird songs. I listened to what he said, you couldn’t ask him if he remembers, he’s dead. I’m still alive so I”ll tell the story and no one can argue with it. That’s just the way it is.

     I found this tree maybe 30 years ago or at least 25. I was looking for something, I’m still still looking for something. I found a few things here and there, in the deserts. Probaby want to know where? Well this tree speaks for itself. It tells us where we are. It shows us which way to go, here, home. I can’t even tell you where it grows I found it at Bow Willow, Martinez Canyon and Ocotillo Wells when I was a young man.

My hair was brown and thick and I used to enjoy sleeping and cuddling with a beautiful woman , a youngish girl actually, my wife and friend, Eileen. She had my son and I named him after the tree that grew east of us in the Mohave, Joshua tree, with its arms out raised. I felt lost in the desert somehow I would see the promised land, but I wouldn’t enter like Moses, but Josh my son would, that’s another story. I just want you to know that now I think more of the past than the future, and if I think of anything it’s these plants growing here. They have an ability to pull us into the conversation of place.  I want you to remember them and seek them out, like I did and do. These plants and stories connect us to each other and the place we share. A place beyond fronteras, beyond jurisdictions and boundaries. Place is like that it is and will be, after our time is gone.

     Like Torote Colorado, the Bursera Microphylla, Robert Levi said the bird songs were songs of people looking for a place to live, looking for good things

Bird songs were in the Cahuilla way of making connections to this place of abundance and riches, beauty. They were sung in ceremonies and at a certain point Robert Levi recognized his work was to sing. His work was to preserve the songs. So he traveled and sang, he would shake the rattle and sing all over the Mohave, Banning and Morongo. He came to the Borrego valley a couple times and sang.

    He said, "So everyone are like these birds, looking for a place to live." Robert Levi was interviewed by LA Times, Jennifer Warren August 31, 1990 and he talked about the bird songs,

   “In one song, for example, the First People "feel this strong wind, coming up behind them, and they are looking for a place to stay," Levi said. "Then in the next song, it's getting cold as the wind is catching up to them."

The following piece tells of "clouds of rain gathering, and then of the rain falling on them," Levi said. "There is talk of the mournful cry of the bluebird, and the blackbird, and the cold rain.

http://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2009/10/climbing-san-ysidro-peak.html

  "It goes on like this and they finally come down on a high plateau or mountain, and see this lush valley below," Levi said. "This, the songs says, is the land where they will stay."” 

     I heard Robert Levi

sing them at Borrego Springs, Banning, 29 Palms, and up above at Los Coyotes. I had a cassette recorder, I would listen to them. I wrote a poem about Robert Levi, and the mountain in back of where we lived. The stories I knew, even though they weren’t mine, I asked Robert if I could record his songs and tell his stories, he told me yes, I needed to do that. He was a good man. I’m glad I met him only briefly.

   OK back to Torote. the Elephant Tree kelawat eneneka. This was an important tree in terms of medicine, song and story.  I went to the museum in Morongo and met Catherine Siva Saubel who was known in legendary terms, (by me mainly) as a Cahuilla woman who knew the stories of the plants. She was elegant and had a strong presence about her. I feel fortunate to have met people who loved the plants and their stories.

    My question is this, how can we describe our place? It’s important for me to use a bioregional perspective, the rivers and watersheds will do. It’s of the greatest importance that you know the first flower of spring, that the bushes are people just like you and I. When a drop of rain falls where does it go? That’s your life’s work, place. Where you are. Not so much where you’re from, or where you’re going but here and now, where does that drop of rain go? Follow it home. See it in your dreams, the clouds and the rain, four directions.

     Here where I live, it travels to the Colorado and the Gulf of California. I live just north of the Salt River, and the Agua Fria comes from the North, then the Gila River, we follow these rivers. This is how we describe our place. Now it’s work to say where you’re your from with the rivers and mountains. Then there are the plants. Saguaro, goes a long word towards describing this place. Yet here is Arizona, both torote and saguaro are at their northern limits. Torote much more so than saguaro. Torote is a guest here, saguaro is a local, and defines the bioregion. Saguaro i would say, makes known  us the place.

Another one, is ocotillo. In one place you'll find torote  ocotillo and saguaro together all three at the same time. Ocotillo crosses the Colorado into California. Saguaro does not cross the river. Saguaro and ocotillo coinhabit a large swath of Arizona. Then somewhere along the Gila near Safford, the saguaro peters out, too much cold but the ocotillo continues into New Mexico and Texas, places the saguaro doesn't go.

Then with the Madraen Sky Islands we have higher elevations, more rain and here we have pine, and Fir and Cedar. 

So within any watershed or drainage we have the Sky Islands that collect rain and these plants that go with the rain in these sky Islands are circumboreal. Often plants in these islands come from the north, Asia, Europe, Norway, they creep down these sky island roads like Juniper communis does, or Aralia spp, that is the north and a good thing. I met Juniperus communis plant with Aralia and Osha in the Sierra Blanca. These are for Bears, beaver and Elk and in the same way the south creeps up here. Bursera microphylla is like that. It creeps up following the sun, it’s part of us too. Just as much as deer and pine.  it’s not really belonging here. Yet it defines Sonora. These treaties of Hidalgo and Guadalupe, Tratado de Guadalupe Hidalgo, didn’t touch Torote, or any of the plants or animals, even the people, no one can live by lines, we breathe beyond lines and we move too. So I’m not good with borders, I do my best, but my thing is the plants, they are beyond the lines of Hidalgo.

     Bursera Microphylla defines Sonora, and yes I live in Sonora, I live with Torote. From Borrego Springs to Marana, Arizona it’s a place defined by Torote, the medicine. So I make medicine beyond the borders, I try to respect the borders but the medicine comes first.

     Michael Moore in his Materia Medica writes, “BURSERA MICROPHYLLA (Elephant Tree, Torote)
GUM. Tincture [1:5, 80% alcohol], 5-20 drops, and diluted for mouth wash. TWIGS/LEAVES. The torchwood family contains 550 species of shrubs and trees worldwide. Torote trees are nearly unknown to the general public, but nearly everyone has heard of their Old World relatives. The aromatic sap of the Boswellia sacra (Frankincense) and of Commiphora spp.( Myrrh) were once worth equal their own weight in gold. They were offered to Christ by the 3 Magi, the wise men who came from the east. Both myrrh and frankincense grow as small trees, on the Arabian peninsula or shrubs; they are of the botanical family Burseraceae. The Chineseview of these resins are,  “When combined, they provide these properties:

Fresh plant tincture [1:2], 10-30 drops.” And further in his book Los Remedios writes, that the resin or gum, is tinctured in alcohol and appled to sore gums, cold sores and tooth abscess, also the dried stems and leaves drunk in a tea for both painful urination and as an expectorant for lung, colds and chest congestion.

"One tends to rectify the blood; the other to rectify the qi;

When these two medicinals are combined together,

they complement each other.

Together, they effectively move the qi and quicken the blood,

dispel stasis, free the flow of the viscera, bowels, and channels,

quicken the network vessels, disperse swelling, stop pain,

constrain weeping sores and engender flesh."
     So now you have Torote. There was a place called Rabbit House, I would watch it way up there near Toro Peak in the Santa Rosas. There was an eagle flying, and called it Umna’ah, it was a good medicine with brittle bush and Elephant tree bark , for asthma and the resinfor dreaming  medicine, gambling medicine. An extract of the branches was effective against Staphylococcus aureus. {"Cahuilla Indians called the Elephant Tree kelawat eneneka and believed that the sap, ... red ..., had great power and was dangerous to be kept in the open. It was always hidden and used by tribal shamans"

    A teacher i studied with, John Slattery, of Tucson, AZ writes,

http://www.desertortoisebotanicals.com

“Bursera sp. – Elephant Tree/Torote bark

Bursera spp. only grow in diversity from there(Mexico)...  Closely relate to Myrrh which was traditionally used to stimulate vitality in response to an infection, oral infections being foremost.  In the past, I have thought of it as a local analog for Echinacea, but it doesn’t do everything that Echinacea does (nor vice versa, for that matter).  It has been used for scorpion bites, cough, and bronchitis throughout our region.  I see it as a lymphatic, antitussive, and expectorant great for thick, mucousy, intractable coughs.” Another teacher I have studied with Michaeal Cottingham, of Siver City NM, writes,

“ELEPHANT TREE (Bursera microphylla)

Some observations and notes

A remarkable plant medicine

 for depressed white blood cell count

and endogenous and deep tissue infections, and can be helpful in these conditions:

MRSA, Sepsis, Periodontitis, Herpes, Gangrene (bacteria - Clostridium perfringens), Streptococcus spp., Staphlococcus spp., Lyme and its many coinfections, Venomous Bites with Sepsis or Tissue Necrosis, Pediculicide (Lice treatment), Venereal (gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis) and other problematic and deep infections.

Elephant Tree (ET or Bursera) -

Is an antiviral, anti-fungal, antibacterial, astringent, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, mucolytic, diuretic, diaphoretic, emmenagogue (lightly), vasodilator, and immune stimulant.”

https://www.facebook.com/michael.cottingham.Herbalist/posts/256028524607724

I wanted to end the blog post with quotes from these two teachers, because they bring the circle around. They both studied with South west herbalist, Michael Moore was passed away in 2009. They both teach and communicate the knowledge of plants in the Southwest and I am grateful for having met each of them and been able to hear their stories of the plants from this unique place. The Gila/Salt River Sky island province.