Tidestromia lanuginosa  ( ) ( ) Amaranthaceae This summer-fall ephemereal is common through most of the Seri region. The plant has a silvery, speckled look, due to dense pubescence of branched hairs, and thus was said to cause dandruff. Medicine:   to relieve aching feet, the herbage was heated and placed under the feet. An infusion of the leaves was used for drawing out a thorn. The twigs were cooked and used as shampoo to cure a headache . “People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser”

    Amaranthus fimbriatus   ( ) ( ) Burseraceae The plant has relatively flexible herbage ant thin, delicate leaves; the bracts are not prickly. These characters are indicated by its Seri name ( ziim caitic "soft ziim"). This common hot-weather ephemeral occurs on the islands and throughout the mainland region. While generally reaches maximum development along washes and arroyos, it may be seasonally common on open desert and rocky slopes. The seeds are dark brown or black, lens-shaped, and less than 1.0 mm in diameter. There are three other kinds of ziim : A. watsonii, Chenopodium, and Salsola.   Food: the seeds were prepared in the same manner as for A. watsonii . Since A. fimbriatus is not as abundant as A. watsonii , we assume that it was of less importance. The seeds were stored in pottery ollas. The leafy green shoots, when tender and young, were prepared as greens. The "leaves" (shoots or herbage) were cooked in water, and then the water squeezed out by h...

    Sesuvium verrucosum ( sea purslane) ( ) Aizoaceae The Seri distinguished Sesuvium by its narrow leaves and Abronia maritima by its rounder (broader) leaves. They have similar life forms and occupy similar niches, and both were considered to be "soft" plants. This trailing perennial herb is glabrous, and has succulent leaves and stems. It forms low, spreading mats along the margins of mangroves and on upper beaches. Food preparation:   A sea turtle carapace or basket was lined with Sesuvium or some other "soft" plants to provide a bed on which to place meat to keep it clean. "People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser."

  Guaiacum coulteri  ( ) (guayacán) Zygophyllaceae Face paint materials: for blue color the resin was used. "People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser".

    Bursera hindsiana  ( ) ( ) Burseraceae The Hant Caai (land maker) caused a tree to grow. This first tree was a red elephant tree ( Bursera hindsiana ).  The common elephant tree was strongly involved in the vision quest and religious concepts and might be considered as the Seri "holy bush".  Icoocmolca  "what (blame) is put on (plural)"fetishes carved from the wood of the red elephant tree ( Burserda hindsiana ) served as messengers to the spiritual world. Also involved in the quest for spiritual power were desert lavender ( Condea emoryi ). This large shrub or small tree has a thick woody trunk. It is readily distinguished from, B. microphylla by its smooth reddish gray bark, larger simple or tri-foliate (occasionally 5-folliate) leaves and somewhat harder wood; also, it is generally not as abundant. The wood is excellent for carving because it is relatively soft but firm, and does not split upon drying It was preferred over soft woods (such as B. micr...

     Fouquieria columnaris  (boojum trees) ( ) Fouquieriaceae The firs man and woman had children and eventually a number of giants inhabited the land. The land was flat, without mountains or even sand dunes, so it was natural that floods should occur. Floods were accompanied by fire, smoke, and earthquakes. After one such disaster, Hant Caai (land maker) saw that because the land was flat, the people had little chance to escape the destruction. So he sang a song, causing mountains, hills, and dunes to form. These were to provide protection for the people during floods. In one such flood a group of giants from the south fled northward to the mountains south of Puerto Libertad. There the flood overtook them and changed them into boojum trees, which still occur there.  “People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser”

  Xanthium spinosum  ( ) ( ) Asteraceae Stems erect or ascending, branching, 2-10 dm. tall, puberulent; leaves lanceolate, 4-8 cm. long, with a pair of long, narrow lobes on lower half of blade, sometimes with a few small lobes above middle, green above, densely white-pubescent on lower surface, shortly petioled, each with a pair of long, yellow, 3- or 4-parted, stipular spines at base; fruiting bur weakly spiny, tomentose, about 1 cm. long, the beaks inconspicuous. Abundant in waste fields, sometimes along dikes and edges of marshy areas; introduced European weed occasional throughout the United States.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".

  Iva hayesiana  ( ) ( ) Asteraceae Herbage glabrate to rough-pubescent, more or less resinous-dotted; stems woody below, not densely leafy, openly branched, the branches ascending from base, to 1 m. tall; leaves spatulate to linear, 3-6 cm. long, narrowed to a short petiole, usually obtuse, heads clustered on short peduncles in a narrow, spike-like, bracteate panicle, the bracts leaflike but reduced; phyllaries distinct, oval to orbicular, 5-10, deciduous in age. Alkaline flats or brackish areas: San Diego County, south to Baja California.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".

  Helianthus annuus  (common sunflower) (girasol) Asteraceae Stout annual; stem very hispid and rough, simple or profusely branching, 3-30 dm. tall; leaf blades 7-30 cm. long, usually broadly ovate, serrate, truncate to subcordate, rough-scabrous, green, the petiole often as long as or longer than the blade; heads single and terminal on long, stout peduncles, or the inflorescence forming an open, cymose, long-branched, long-peduncled, leafy-bracted panicle; phyllaries 1.5-2 cm. long, 5-10 mm. wide, broadly ovate, as long as or sometimes longer than the disc flowers, often conspicuously ciliate and densely hispid to hirsute, the apex abruptly narrowed and produced into a long, tail-like acumination; receptacle bracts apically 3-cleft, all 3 cusps acute, the lateral ones somewhat lacerate, the longer, lanceolate middle cusps acute, the lateral ones somewhat lacerate, the longer, lanceolate middle cusp hispid almost to its purple, acuminate, tip, about as long as the disc flowers...

   Pseudognaphalium luteoalbum  ( ) ( ) Gnaphalium luteoalbum Asteraceae Annual, stems 1-3 dm. tall, usually with many sterile, leafy branches from base; herbage white-woolly; leaves oblong-spatulate, auriculate and clasping but scarcely decurrent; inflorescence mainly terminal, usually a dense, globose cluster or the clusters forming a congested or open, corymbose panicle; heads 3-3.5 mm. high; involucre greenish to light brownish, woolly only at base, the phyllaries ovate to oblanceolate or lanceolate, hyaline except for the small, central, herbaceous part, which is pubescent but scarcely glandular, the tips or papillate; pappus bristles hairy below, the hairs interlocking and the bristles tending to cohere at base and to fall in groups. Cultivated in fields and along irrigation ditches; introduced from the Old World. This weedy species has become increasingly common in California in recent years. It is not always easily distinguished from the larger Gnaphalium chilense...

   Erigeron canadensis  ( ) ( ) Asteraceae Erect annual; stems simple below, paniculately branched above, 2-20 dm. tall; herbage hispid with scattered hairs or glabrous, usually dark or bright green; leaves linear to lanceolate, sessile or the lower leaves narrowed to a petiole, entire or toothed, 5-10 cm. long; heads 3-4 mm. high in a dense panicle; phyllaries scarious-margined, nearly glabrous; rays inconspicuous, white, toothed. Common weed in waste places, often abundant on floodlands and along streams. Throughout California at low altitudes; to eastern United States. It is not common in wet habitats, but as a wasteland weed it is to be expected on floodlands.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".

   Solanum douglasii  ( ) ( ) Solanaceae Bushy perennial, 0.6-2 m. tall, with angled stems; herbage puberulent to subglabrate. the simple antrorse hairs with heavy, conical bases; leaves ovate, 2-10 cm. long, coarsely sinuate-dentate. acute to short-acuminate, cuneate to subtruncate at base, sparsely puberulent; inflorescence several-flowered, the peduncle 1-3 cm. long, remaining erect at maturity, the pedicels slender, 5-12 mm. long; calyx 2-3 mm/ long at anthesis, the lobes lanceolate-oblong; corolla white with greenish basal spots, the lobes lanceolate-oblong, 6-11 mm. long; anthers 2.6-4 mm. long; style well exserted beyond anthers; seeds light yellow, minutely reticulate-pitted. Streamsides, swales in coastal dunes, drying floodlands, dry slopes, and waste places: coastal North Coast Ranges in Mendocino County, South Coast Ranges from San Mateo County south to southern California; Baja California, east and south through Arizona and New Mexico to northern Mexico....

   Stachys ajugoides  ( ) ( ) Lamiaceae Rhizomatous perennial; stems erect, or decumbent at base, 10-60 cm. long; herbage villous to hirsute and somewhat glandular; leaves oblong to oblanceolate, narrower at base. crenate to crenate-serrate, long-petioled to sub-sessile; spikes 8-20 cm. long, dense or interrupted, verticels 6-flowered; calyx 6-8 mm long, the teeth lanceolate to deltoid, cuspidate; corolla white to rose, 10-15 mm. long, the upper lip 4-6 mm. long, the lower lip 5-7 mm. long, the tube 7-0 mm. long, saccate near the base, the hairy ring oblique; filaments pubescent. Wet ground at low altitudes: Central Valley and bordering foothills, Coast Ranges south to Los Angeles County.  "A Flora of the Marshes of California. Herbert L. Mason".