Anemopsis californica (yerba mansa) (hierba del manso) Sauruaceae La hierba del manso es común en las áreas húmedas y anegadas; desde la costa hasta el desierto.  Las plantas bajas forman colonias por sus raíces; sus hojas son de verde morado, grandes y elípticas; sus espigas de flores vistosas, y su aroma de madera y tierra húmeda la hacen fácil de identificar.  Es la única especie de la familia cola de lagarto ( Saururaceae ) en Baja California. Los pueblos nativos a lo largo de las Californias aprecian mucho esta planta por sus múltiples aplicaciones medicinales. La raíz, las hojas y las floress tienen propiedades antisépticas. Los kumiai hacen una infusión de las hojas o la raíz para lavar áreas afectadas de la piel, sean heridas o llgas infectadas. También aplican las hojas directamente después de calentarlas lo suficiente para hacerlas suaves. Para las heridas o lesiones internas toman una infusión de hierba del manso. Las hojas actúan como anestesia que adormece l...

 Agave shawii (coast agave, Shaw's agave) (mescal, agave) Asparagaceae En toda la península, arqueólogos han registrado y en algunos casos excavado, sitios de asado o tatemado de agave. Además de su gran valor como fuente de alimento, el agave también proporciona fibra que puede ser extraída para hacer cuerdas, sandalias, cuerda de arcos, cinturones y otros objetos    (Etnobotánica kumiai, Michael Wilken-Robertson) Desde la llegada de los españoles a la península, se registró el uso del agave tanto como material textil como alimento. Agave shawii var. shawii El agave costero crece a lo largo de la costa del Pacífico, del noroeste de Baja California.

Adenostoma fasciculatum (chamise) (vara prieta, chamiso) Rosaceae La vara prieta, un componente principal de la vegetación de caparral a lo largo de la región Kumiai, es un arbusto cuerudo de la familia de las rosas. Las ramas con hojas se encienden fácilmente, debido a los aceites inflamables en sus hojas. Los kumiai valoral los duros troncos como leña, porque producen carbones ardientes y duraderos. Los kumiai producian flechas con puntas desprendibles de vara prieta y endurecían las puntas con fuego.  (Etnobotánica Kumiai, Michael Wilken-Robertson A flowering chaparral shrub that produces flammable resin; the plant is also rejuvenated by fire and is one of the first plants to sprout out of the blackened earth. “Wicked Plants, Amy Stewart.”

 Bursera microphylla (elephant tree) Burseraceae If the bark of the short tapering trunk is damaged, it exudes blood-red sap from the inner layers.

 Psorothamnus spinosa (smoke tree) Fabaceae The smoke tree seeds sprout only after rocks and gravel carried by floodwaters scar their coats. Only those seed that have been carried 150 feet or more from the parent smoke tree germinate, because seeds carried shorter distances have not been sufficiently damaged. A seed carried more than 300 feet has been severely injured that it dies.

 Carnegiea gigantea (saguaro)   Cactaceae After ten years of the slow-growing saguaro is still only four inches high, and it takes more than a hundred years to reach maturity. Then the plant may live to a ripe old age of 250 years. The saguaro is the largest of all North American cacti. They begin their growth in the shade of another plant, growing very slowly at first; it takes 25 years for the plant to reach a height of 2 feet. At 50 years the saguaro is 6 feet high. The first arms develop when the plant is 75 years old. Most saguaros reach a height of 35 feet by the time they are a hundred years of age. Some very old specimens have had as many as 50 arms.

Cactaceae  Succulence helps the barrel cactus resist drought. In dry weather the plant becomes shriveled as stored water becomes low. In wet weather the barrel cactus grows plump as special storage cells fill up with water. The cacti may contain 80% water in their bodies.  The larger cacti need stronger structures to support their weight, and consequently they may be ribbed with woody tissues, much like an internal skeleton.  in spite of it lack of leaves, the cacti carry on the same work of photosynthesis that other green plants do. It simply transfers the process from the leaves to the stems. A cactus is green all over, which means that the chlorophyll is present in all the external above-ground parts. The spines of the cacti can also cast shadows; not very big shadows, but a cactus that is covered with tens of thousands of spines may get a good deal of safe. The spines break up the sun's rays and help keep the plant from getting the air currents that pass over the surf...

Larrea tridentata (creosote bush) (gobernadora) Zygophyllaceae  Root toxins produced by the roots of creosote bush reduce competition for water by killing plants that grow too close. Because of this it is sometimes spaced perfectly regularly, as if planted by man. A waxy covering on creosote-bus leaves slow down water loss through the leaf surface. By reflecting heat, the shiny covering also help to keep leaves cool. A means by which desert plants influence the energy balance of their leaves comes with leaf orientation. Many desert leaves have a favored direction of placement, often meaning that they are oriented vertically. Such a position allows the leaves to maximize the amount of direct solar radiation they receive in the morning and afternoon hours when temperatures are cooler, and to minimize the direct solar radiation they receive at midday. By orientating the leaf vertically, chlorophyll and stomata are effectively hidden on both upper and lower leaf surfaces. This reduces ...

Parkinsonia Fabaceae  Leaf shedding helps the palo verde conserve water. When moisture is plentiful, tiny leaves manufacture food. As soon as moisture becomes scarce, the leaves are shed to cut down on water loss, but photosynthesis continues in the chlorophyll-containing bark. The yellow-blossomed paloverde grows only in dry washes where there is water a few feet underground. The Parkinsonia genus which comprise the palo verde tres-whose name refers to their distinctive green bark- are another group of closely related trees that rely on photosynthetic stems yet also form leaves after spring wains. These species keep their leaves only for a matter of weeks before shedding them and relying on green stems for photosynthesis over the remainder of the year. Parkinsonia is an interesting genus in that it occurs widely in arid and semi-arid regions of both the Americas and Africa. While it might seem tat the largest photosynthetic area of these trees must be on their broad, green trunks,...

Agave   Agavaceae Sunken stomates help the century plant endure drought. Water also evaporates through stomates but in the century plant and many others, stomates are placed in shallow pits that help cut down water evaporation by shielding the stomate from drying air currents. Although the genus Agave is a large group of some 250-300 species that range across arid North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, just two species of agave occur in the desert regions of California. Many more agave species are found to the south in Baja California and southeast and east in other portions of the Sonoran Desert with biseasonal or summer rainfall regimes. Like the cacti, agave have succulent storage tissue and utilize Crassulacean acid metabolism. A difference between the groups, however, is that the leaves are the primary organs for water storage-although the fibrous leaf structure of agaves holds only moderate amounts of water compared to the succulent stems of most cacti. "Californ...

Prosopsis  Fabaceae  The deep roots of mesquite frequently extend down sixty feet or more to tap the water table. Mesquite can send down roots as much as a hundred feet to tap surface water. Aronia (2015) dice que el uso de la substancia blanca que está bajo la cortea de este árbol servía para el dolor de estómago. Francisca comenta que éesta también sirve para preparar agua para lavarse el pelo y curar la orzuela. Esta informante afirma que la goma negra del mezquite la recogían con todo y cascarita, la ponían a cocer y luego la mezclaban con tierra; el agua negra que salía del barro se la ponían en el cabello y luego se la embadurnaban con la goma cocida, dormían con ella y, al levantarse, se enjuagaban; esto servía para tener una cabellera hermosa, larga y gruesa. "Los cucapá, Everardo Garduño."

Less than 1% of desert annual wild-flower seeds germinate after a brief rainstorm, whereas a heavy rainstorm causes more than 50% pf the seeds to sprout. (The Life of the Desert, Ann and Myron Sutton) The seeds of ironwood, smoke tree and palo-verde grow only in arroyos. These seeds are made in such a way that they will not germinate until their coatings are scarred by torrents of water rushing down the arroyo channel after a heavy rainstorm. Even more startling is the fact that seeds of the desert plants will not sprout unless the water comes from above. They are covered with a water-soluble substance that keeps them from germinating until it is removed by certain acids that are formed as the rain leaches downward through the soil.  Some desert annual wild flowers are among the tiniest flowering land plants on earth. A few grow as high as three or four inches, while others never reach one inch. Because they are so small that yo have to get down on your stomach to see them, they ar...

  Malvella leprosa ( Alkali mallow) family Malvaceae A dicot, is a  perennial herb  that is  native  to California, and also found elsewhere in  North America  and beyond. (1) Bloom from April to October  (2) Malvella leprosa  is a species of flowering plant in the  mallow family  known by the common names  alkali mallow  and  alkali sida .  (3) On roadsides and in fields, often in saline soils;; 50-1500 m (100-5000 ft); flowering throughout the year, or at least in summer months more northerly.  Ecology : Found in heavy, saline soils on roadsides or mud flats from 4,500-5,500 ft (1372-1676 m); flowers throughout year.  Notes : The stellate puberulence on the backs of the petals is a striking character.  Ethnobotany : Used for dysentery, diarrhea, and inflammation of the bowels.   Etymology : Malvella is a diminutive of Malva meaning little malva, while leprosa means scurfy or spotted like a ...