Yarrow: Bioregional Folk Polycrest by Paul Manski

Yarrow: Bioregional Folk Polycrest

I was alerted to the concept of a bioregional polycrest, by MT in our conversations back and forth, while traveling last month back and forth from the mid sonoran saguaro/ocotillo desert

to piñon/juniper/manzanita woods and back to ocotillo/saguaro desert and back again   with MT, a student of

MC, 7, field herbalists,

we were looking at the plants and she expressed the idea that the way the plants were combined in the environment is the way they should be combined in a formula, that could nourish the biospirit. So the plants just in the way they are together,  the space that they were sharing, the adjacent plants were themselves a formula. The three points plant, person, place. The small plant groupings are a way of healing that we had to understand. It struck me just at that moment that these groupings of plants are the same concept as the Navajo life medicines. These are the plants, we are the people. We are going to use the plants that are here. Not in the sense of using plants of commerce to develop a formula but the plants that are here.  We are here. We will use the plants that are here.

      I think that bioregional polycrest remedies, have to have a significant place in our bioregional folk herbalism. The unique biospirit unfolds in a place.

     Yarrow as a polycrest plant in our bioregional folk herbalism. Yarrow, our own variety, Achillea lanulosa var occidentallis is a circumpolar plant native here and in the northern forests of Europe to our Gila/Salt rivers bioregion. It grows in the high country It has a 60,000 year history of our  bio spiritual use. It is a widespread and powerful healing plant. It is found around the world, and in all 50 states of what have been called and once we're, United States. 

     Yarrow was named Achillea millefolium by Linnaeus in 1753. So based on this Latin name there is a question, what is our local high elevation yarrow's name? Is it A. millefolium? Is it A. lanulosa? Is it A. occidentallis? Some dispute whether the plant here in Arizona is a distinct species as compared to the one on the east coast of the United States and in Europe. Peebles and Kearney in Arizona Flora, 1943 describe it as, "Achillea lanulosa, western yarrow, a certainly indigenous plant, is not clearly distinguishable from the introduced A. millefolium common in the eastern United States."  A. lanulosa is our native Arizona species. It is quite similar and in many ways nearly identical to the eastern US variety which is said to have naturalized from Europe. 

"A. lanulosa is most commonly found in the mountains of the western United States at higher altitudes.In the Sierra Nevada range of California it occurs from ca. 800 to 3350 m altitude (CLAUSENK,ECKand HIESEY1948).It is a small, tetraploid herbaceous perennial native to North America,and has been regarded as part of the Achillea millefolium species complex"(CLAUSENKE, CK and HIESEY 1948). 

      Yarrow has one of the longest associations with humans, going back 60,000 years, traced to the cave burial site in Iraq at  Shandiar. In Yarrow (Achillea millefolium L.): A Neglected Panacea? A Review of Ethnobotany, Bioact- ivity, and Biomedical Research. By Wendy L. Applequist, and Daniel E. Moerman 2011

 "Yarrow is one of the oldest known botanicals used by humans (sensu lato): it is among the six medicinal plants whose pollen was found in a Homo neanderthalensis grave at Shanidar, dated to 65,000 B.P. (Leroi-Gourhan 1975, 1998; Solecki 1975)"

Our Neanderthal euro people, the first people of Europe, were familiar with yarrow as we are. So herbs like yarrow have deep spiritual resonance with our biospirit. 

 And yet no human single use clinical trial for yarrow has yet to be conducted. Which shows you where regime science is with regard to understanding the use and effectiveness of our herbs in a clinical practice. This is an herb which has a history of our use of 60,000 years yet not one human use clinical trial. Try to comprehend that reality because that is the reality of our plant cultural history today.

     

Yarrow, belongs to the family Asteraceae, considered the largest family of flowering plants with 23,000 species. Achillea, the Latin name of yarrow, refers to Achilles the Ancient Greek hero of the Illiad. Although, it is Patroclus, the beloved comrade of Achilles who uses the healing herb, "Book XI, line 844 Patroclus helps Eurypylus as follows: “...help me to my black ship, and cut out the arrow-head, and wash the dark blood from my thigh with warm water, and sprinkle soothing herbs with power to heal on my wound, whose use men say you learned from Achilles, whom the noble Centaur, Cheiron, taught...There upon, Patroclus made him lie at length, and with a knife cut from his thigh the sharp-piercing arrow, and from the wound washed the black blood with warm water, and upon it cast a bitter root, when he had rubbed it between his hands, a root that slayeth pain, which stayed all his pangs; and the wound waxed dry, and the blood ceased.;” Pliny the Elder in, "The Natural History", 73AD, mentions, "Achilles too, the pupil of Chiron, discovered a plant which heals wounds, and which, as being his discovery, is known as the "achilleos." It was by the aid of this plant, they say, that he cured Telephus." 

This is an accurate description of yarrow, Achillea millefolium, it was used in the American Civil war as a hemoststic, with marigold petals in the American South as a wound dressing and up until WWI to heal wounds and stop bleeding. 

"Wound healing is a complex process characterized by homeostasis, re-epithelization, and granulation tissue formation and remodeling of the extracellular matrix. Medicinal plants may affect various phases of the wound healing process, coagulation, inflammation and fibroplasia."-. Priya KS, Gnanamani A, Radhakrishnan N, Babu M. Healing potential of Datura albaon burn wounds in albino rats. J Ethnopharm. 2002;83:193–199.  

     Our great western herbalist pioneer physicians, the eclectics preserved their knowledge in books. Unlike the native people who didn't pass their knowledge on except as it lives on in the writings of western white men and women. Truely what pride to own that privilege and carry forward that knowledge into the future. It is mainly through these great western men that we know plants today. One such giant was Finley Ellingwood writing in 1898 of yarrow, "Therapy — Yarrow is advised by Webster in uterine hemorrhage. It is a mild astringent, probably acting also as a tonic. It is useful in passive hemorrhage when not persistent in character. It is a beneficial remedy in diseases of the mucous surfaces, relieving irritation and profuse secretion. It soothes intestinal irritation and overcomes mild forms of diarrhoea. It is of benefit in improving the tone of the urinary apparatus, relieving irritation, overcoming strangury and suppression of the urine. It acts best in strong infusion and its use must be persisted in. In general relaxed conditions it is a cure for leucorrhoea, where there is a profuse discharge, or thick, heavy mucus from enfeebled mucous membranes." -from "Materia Medica and Therapeutics: Finley Ellingwood, MD 1898.

Nicholas Culpeper another great western herbalist preserved his vision in his writings. Every time I read these white western teachers I am grateful to their tradition and my kind. Culpeper writing in 1652, likewise  "Government and virtues.] It is under the influence of Venus. An ointment of them cures wounds, and is most fit for such as have inflammations, it being an herb of Dame Venus ;

it stops the terms in women, being boiled in white wine, and the decoction drank ; as also the bloody flux ; the ointment of it is not only good for green wounds, but also for ulcers and fistulas, especially such as abound with moisture." When Culpeper referred to yarrow as under the influence of Venus he meant it's aromatic quality, secondly it's tonic quality to the female reproductive system and its help to the menstrual cycle. Thirdly it's place in the tonic to digestive, kidney and urinary issues. 

      There are long documented uses for wounds both topically to stop bleeding and as a salve applied topically as an anti microbial to prevent infection, and to speed healing by facilitating growth of granulation tissue, internally for ulcers, gastric distress, and painful periods as an antispasmodic, as a headache reliever and as a diaphoretic to induce sweating. 

         Michael Moore,   Describes a standard method of preparation: tincture or infusion ACHILLEA (Yarrow, Milfoil, Plumajillo) WHOLE FLOWERING PLANT.Tincture [FRESH 1:2, DRY 1:5, 50% alcohol] 10 to 40 drops. Standard Infusion, 2-4 ounces. ROOT. Fresh Root Tincture, topical to gums as needed.      

     In a "Guide to the Ethnobotany of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Region", editor Kevin Jernigan interviewed elders and there accounts, "The whole plant can be boiled and used as a hot compress to treat arthritis. According to Rita Blumenstein of Anchorage, the roots can be chewed to help relieve sinus infections and toothaches. The whole plant can also be boiled and put in a spray bottle to use for sinus infections, or boiled to steam for coughs and colds. Another way to treat coughs is by making a tea with the younger plants. One elder, Oscar Alexie of Bethel, said his mother used to dry the roots for treating asthma and pneumonia. Chewing on them opens up the air channels in the same way that menthol does. Oscar tells the story of a friend at the hospital who was being treated for pneumonia. She chewed on the fresh roots (while also receiving western medicine) and reported that she had no more problems in the month following her release. Elders noted that the plant does not lose its medicinal properties when dried. Antispasmodic flavonoids have been isolated from this species and it has also been studied for the ability of aqueous (water) extracts to inhibit gastric ulcers (Saeidnia et al. 2011)." 

      The use of it in the Kuskowim region parallels it's use by the Dinè people of mid-Arizona, The Navajo consider it a 'life-medicine' it does  not need to be fresh, so it can carried and used dry. "Achillea millefolium L. var. lanulosa (Nutt.) Piper.

Achillea lanulosa Nutt. Common Milfoil, Common Yarrow, Sneeze- weed. 1. 'Azee'iiltshee'ih (medicine, dried ; j. e. [plant which is] dried [and used for] medicine) . 2. Xazéeiltshee'éh (chipmunk tail ; i. e. [plant whose leaves look like a] chipmunk ['s] tail). A universal tonic or remedy known as a "life medicine" is applied in cases of "impaired vitality." A provision of this medicine is usually kept in stock and carried on journeys for even- tual use. The stems and twigs of various herbs are gathered in season and dried, in which condition they are called 'azee'tshin (medicine twigs)(26 :44) . They are eventually pulverized, mixed with water, and applied internally as well as externally... In an emergency two or four of these plants may be used, but it is better to have six. Any others may be added if at hand"- Ethnobotany of the Navajo, by Francis H. Elmore 1944. Without these western Euro writers we would not have the knowledge, it's so important now to embrace our privilege. I can remember one incident with several Dinè, we were walking after a meeting back in 1991 when I was trimming a horse. Later we walked by some kinnikinnick and Nicotiana, tobacco. I said, "There it is.", and pointed down and said, "Prayers and smoke." They didn't know their own ceremonial plants. It had been lost to them. Embracing our privilege and culture is really about, do no harm. These plants, this knowledge as part of our western tradition is for anyone who can benefit by part. It is based on love and compassion. Others can do what they need to with the knowledge because it is our tradition it is an open tradition, much different than theirs which is locked down and closed.

Yarrow as a polycrest?: while studying yarrow, and spending time with yarrow in the Sierra Blanca, Ancha, the Chiricahua, the Mule Creeks and along the Blue and Gila, I began to be aware of yarrow serving as a healing remedy in many different situations. Yarrow as having the possibility of being an anticoagulant hemostatic. Yarrow  being used to balance and work on stuck periods and menstrual flow. Yarrow as a root medicine used by the Yup'ik people, in a way similar to how I experience osha, Ligusticum porteri

, for colds,  and lung issues, coughs. Yarrow to induce sweating, diaphoretic and diuretic.  

     Yarrow and the concept of of 'Life Medicine', The practice of using five or six different herbs, life medicines, used within the base of your materia medica as a way to return to balance, as mentioned by Francis H. Elmore is attractive to me. Local herbs and plants gathered from the bioregion that aid and strengthen the life force in returning to balance. In the concept hózhó, the balance is with above and below. Often times with healing I see the above as the little and great bear in the sky Ursus major Ursus minor we turn and rotate below on the earth, but above us at the sky and between us and the earth is the great star that doesn't, move the great Polaris. In the healing and return to balance we must go that far to include the great stars above us in the earth below us.  The balance is not solely the balance of the body. And I think it appropriate to say that if the disease state was somehow cured but Hózhóni was not returned then the disease state would return. 

     My teachers were using the term polycrest, I first heard JS

use it not with regard yarrow but to estafiate, Artemesia ludoviciana. In the sense that estafiate had many uses,  a single herb with many uses.

The word polycrest or polychrest, was originally first used by Dr Samuel Hahnemann, 1755-1843 a German physician, the founder of homeopathy  who first used the term polychrest in an essay about the medicine Nux vomica. The word polycrest is derived from a 19th century Greek origin where ‘polu’ means many and ‘khraosos’ means use. So a medicine that has many uses and applications and acts simultaneously on many systems of the body. -"Complete Cure in Homeopathy by Polycrest Remedies" Author: Dr. Apurva A. Tamhane http://www.kasakaru.com/240-complete-cure-in-homeopathy-by-polycrest-remedies/?v=7516fd43adaa  However although yarrow certainly fits this use of the word, both in western herbal use of Achillea and in the Yup'ik and Navaho use of yarrow. I think the key use and understanding of poly crest lies not so much as a single herb with many uses but a single remedy with many uses a poly crest remedy. 

    Closely connected to polycrest in homeopathy is vital force. "Vital force is the inner animating force in a living being which helps to perceive, understand, analyse and respond to a situation and thus, maintain the body in normal function and rhythmic sensation.", Dr Apurva A. Tamhane. Disease is a disruption in vitality, so that the rhythm of the life force is disrupted. The tendency towards health and vitality which guides the whole person becomes a tendency towards illness and imbalance. So instead of walking with a steady gait one continues to move but awkwardly, stumbling and falling. The disease state itself becomes a force of inertia which takes over the vital force and leads the person into greater and greater problematic states. These can be seen by both the person himself and others in terms of diseased body states: chronic inflammation, pain, shortness of breath, whatever the symptoms may be; as the disease state continues it manifests further into a psychological component of malaise. 

      I am seeing yarrow, within the context of bioregional herbalism as a poly crest. With the caveat being that not so much a single herb with many uses, but a single remedy crafted from the place with many uses.  In short yarrow as a leading ingredient in a folk polycrest formula. The remedy being connected intimately with the bioregion in terms of herbs that are here. Connected intimately with the bioregion in terms of place, growing together in a place, gathering those herbs that grow together in a place and then having them be the salient points of remedy. A lot of these ideas crystallized for me recently on a short trip to Oak flat.

I was traveling with MT, a student of 7 and MC.

      As we traveled from the low desert to the montane,

at one point in a white out snow storm we sought to understand the plant relationships in front of us.  M kept insisting, "the formula is there. We need to mark the spot with our eye and see the relationship between the plants and build a formula on those plants right there directly in front of us." As i wrote and studied on yarrow, I kept seeing yarrow coming up with other plants. I can recall a day, I was gathering redroot up near Mule Creek and I kept seeing the yarrow. Gathering osha, and there's the yarrow. Yerba del Lobo (Hymenoxys hoopesii),

and cut leaf coneflower, there's yarrow. It's these combinations that we have to utilize, they are the polycrest. 

     

       

  

So when we come down this way: Salt River, Paul Manski

So when we come down this way were always walking across the salt river.

This is our great river the salt river. One of the things that i do when i come to the salt river

is offer salt river yerba santa, fragrant plants,

the Gobernadora, Larrea tridentata.

       I offer it to the river for safe passage, salt river, take these fragrant leaves, this yerba santa, for my brothers and sisters who use this water and who used this water.

      Everything you see everything you hear doesn't belong to me. It's part of what i need to use to survive. It doesn't belong to me but i use it and the way that i use it, is the way i define myself...the way i define myself as a person. I define myself as a person in this salt river, salt river valley...

i see over here la Gobernadora, Larrea tridentata, this is the plant, this is the plant that we use when we come this way. 

      When we come down to the salt river we see our plants that grow here, and some of the plants that grow here they are what they are. Here we have jojoba, here we have Larrea tridentata. These are the plants that we use.

 these are the plants that are our medicine here. The salt River is a great river for us. And it's important, when ever you cross the river, whenever you come into this country, whenever you plant your feet in a different way on this earth to walk to a new place...

acknowledge the river, acknowledge the truth of this river, the truth of this water that flows, like blood, like mud from way up above, from way up above, yes that's right, the salt river. The white river, the black river they come together, they mix, they mix right here.

    This is Larrea tridentata, the Gobernadora,

this is the plant that we use when we come to this place. Some people will say, "well, what plants do you use?", I say, "i use the plants that are here." Ha ha Ha ha ha, i use the plants that are here in the way that i use them. So that's what i do. So that's who i am.

Red Root, Ocotillo and an approach towards the spiritual heart by PaulManski

     

Red Root: Ceanothus spp. Rhamnaceae (Buckthorn family) Buckbrush, because deer may and do browse it. Growing in  a 6200ft low elevation coniferous forest. It grows in piñon juniper woodlands to open pine forests. Ceanothus fendleri Three parallel leaf veins, a central vein from the base to tip of leaf, a central longitudinal vein with two symmetric veins, together in a trio. In our southwest the leaf size varies greatly from species to species. fendleri presents as a small thorny shrub with narrowly oblong leaves about 3/4's of an inch in length. 

     Ceanothus greggii, or desert ceanothus is found at lower elevations. In flower it is fragrant and the plant is showy with white puffy flowers. It tends to not have the three parallel veins and the lacks the thorns of fendleri, in addition having  grey, more white tinged branches. It tends to grow at lower elevations inhabiting a zone called Arizona chaparral- which is not to be confused with the herb of commerce sometimes called chaparral, Larrea tridentata.

Associated with scrub oak Q. turbinella, manzanita, silk tassel, cliffrose and hollyleaf buckthorn.

      A third type of Ceanothus is C. integerrimus

which appears more montane, growing at higher elevations with higher precipitation, the leaves reflect this more abundant water supply and are larger, it has a mild 3 veined presentation, and it lacks the leathery waxy quality of our other Ceanothus. 

      Ceanothus has a history in western herbal medicine notably during the time of it's flowering from the 1830's to the early part of the 20th century. In the colonial period Red Root,  was called 'New Jersey tea' and was a substitute for the imported Chinese tea which was in short supply, as in the revolutionary act of dumping tea into the Boston harbor, the Boston Tea Party and was considered patriotic to part ways with the British, during the Revolutionary War time.

     "The Family Flora and Materia Medica", by Peter P. Good, A.M written in 1847 speaks of it being astringent and slightly bitter. Useful as an astringent in dysentery and as a febrifuge in Mexico. Good describes it as appropriate for sore throats, and the congested symptoms of impaired circulation in the throat area, here we are building a case for its use in the lymph transport of waste material from the throat into the surrounding tissue. In addition red root was described as an expectorant in relation to lung congestion. He also acknowledged its use in the portal system and uterine/menstrual pelvic stagnation.

     "Specific Symptomatology—It has a specific influence upon the portal circle, influencing the circulation. In lymphatic patients, with sluggish circulation and inactivity of the liver of a chronic nature, with doughy-sallow skin, puffy and expressionless face, pain in the liver or spleen with hypertrophy of either or both organs, and constipation, it has a direct and satisfactory influence, especially if the conditions are of malarial origin...or in general glandular disarrangements, the agent is indicated. Bronchitis, chronic pneumonitis and asthma are found present with the above general symptoms. Ovarian and uterine irregularities with such conditions will also be benefited by its use." -American Materia Medica:

Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy: Developing the ...
 By Finley Ellingwood, John Uri Lloyd 1915.

    While current south west herbalists, strongly influenced by Michael Moore, tend to view Red root as a lymphatic remedy, aiding the portal liver system, which was acknowledged by the eclectics of the time.

The herbalists of the period saw in red root a remedy for..." with my application of this shrub to diseases of the lungs. In 1833, while out botanizing one day, my attention was directed to this shrub, by its beauty while in full bloom, and the peculiar appearance of the root. I gave it the name of wild snowball, knowing no other name for it at that time. I tasted and chewed some of it, and I conceived the idea that it would be good for coughs. I gathered some of the shrub, dried it, and added some of it to my compound, used at that time for coughs. I was successful in treating coughs...In such cases I keep a syrup to suit. It is made as follows: Take ceanothus two parts, asclepias tuberosa one part, boil down till you have a very strong decoction; strain, and add refined sugar, and boil down to form a thick syrup; add the tincture of Tolu, to give a flavor, and bottle. Dose—one tablespoonful three times a day." -The New England Botanical and Surgical Journal, by Calvin Newton MD 1849.

     Besides the possibility of combining red root with pleurisy root for lung congestion, it is fascinating to see the renaissance scientist Dr Newton exploring the fields and forests, directly tasting the herbs and plants and developing an intuitive treatment from the forests of New England. 
     In my own studies of herbal medicine I was led both by intuition and direct suggestion from two teachers I had been studying with,

Michael Cottingham from Silver City and John Slattery

from Tucson, to combine two south west native plants. Specifically Red root, Ceanothus greggii and ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens. 
     First an attempt to grasp systems of the body in relation to the lymphatic system. John Slattery quote, "Putting ocotillo and red root putting them together, and I could give that happily to a vast portion of the population and in a subtle way enhance their immune response because of how it clears stagnation in the lymph, because how it mobilizes how waste products are removed and facilitates transport throughout the body." This is possibly what Dr Calvin Newton in 1849 had encountered and utilized in his formula to treat  tenacious coughs, and lung stagnation, expediting the transport of accumulated waste products in the lung. 
    Herbalist Paul Bergner writes, From The Healing Power of Echinacea and Goldenseal (Prima 1997), "The Eclectics used red root for stagnancy of the portal venous system.

The is the series of veins that carries nutrients from the digestive tract to the liver for processing before it can enter the general circulation. Like other venous blood, portal blood has no pulse or pressure. It also has to move upwards, against gravity, to get to the liver. A sedentary lifestyle, a heavy diet, intestinal disorders, and liver stagnancy can all cause this network to become stagnant. This also effect immunity because blood from the spleen, a lymphatic organ that filters the blood, must also drain through the portal system. Key Eclectic indications for the use of red root were a swollen spleen and a stagnant liver. It was used by soldiers during the Civil War for spleen inflammations that accompany malaria."
     

Darcy Blue an herbalist currency living near Flagstaff AZ writes, describing the energetics of ocotillo, writes that ,"Ocotillo is a warming and mildly drying lymphatic and blood/fluid mover. It has an affinity for the tissues and region of the pelvis and liver/portal vein system, and the respiratory system." It feels natural to combine red root and ocotillo, they both have affinity for the liver and lymph, ethnographical literature describe both as treating coughs, and Charles Kane, writes,

"traditional use of ocotillo among hispanic New Mexicans has been for sore throats, tonsillitis and to stimulate menses." Almost exactly as the eclectics described red root. 
     The idea and real quality of an organ system being stuck, like congestion in the lung, bronchitis, pneumonia, inflammation heat, swelling  has a psychological component. It produces a mental effect. Pelvic congestion, pain, stuck menses, painful cramps- these bodily states impinge on our thought processes. There is a way of being well and a way of being sick. A disease state within the body calls forth a subtle mental attitude. Of course we have to distinguish between chronic and acute. The length of time the disease state has effected consciousness. So that the treatment of disease is also the adjustment of mental states. 

      Herbs and plants like red root and ocotillo are both 'heart' medicines, medicines of the emotional spiritual heart. These medicines while not 'psychological' deal with our healing journey. They address the soul and our way of becoming in the place. Plants can be a way back to a place of balance. Our bodies may be out of balance with disease yet our hearts and minds are also stuck in the paradigm of disease states. Part of the process of healing is acknowledging the psyche and mind states through plant medicines.

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Currently I went back and found a quart of Ceanothus integerrimus I had fresh tinctured earlier this year. I had forgotten how astringent and sweet it was, with the strong taste of wintergreen. I decided I need to go back to my herbal medicines. I also pulled out the red root i harvested and mixed up a batch of 50% ocotillo bark and 50% red root, and will begin using it again.

I realized my heart is in need of healing and I felt I need to return to this herbal work for obvious reasons. 

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.