![]() ![]() Leaves were burned on hot coals to fumigate houses after serious illnesses like measles, tuberculosis, and smallpox.Īs a ceremonial plant, white sage has even more uses. Various ethnobotanical sources record the Cahuilla Band of Indians, the Chumash, the Kumeyaay, the Mahuna, and other Native nations using white sage as a staple food, a spice, shampoo, deodorant, a cold remedy, cough medicine, and a pain reliever for headaches, rheumatism, and body aches. Scientific American reported in 1897 that white sage helped “ supply the bees with…sweets.” In La Cría de las Abejas, a copy of which is available at the Dumbarton Oaks Rare Books Library, Mexico’s Ministry of Development instructed beekeepers to establish hives amidst dense white sage populations because the increased productivity could double or triple honey profits. Apiary guidebooks began recommending keeping bees near white sage in the mid-19th century Willis Jepson wrote that a hive would yield about one hundred pounds of white sage honey in a good season, and The Bee-Keeper’s Guide reported that white sage kept bees “roaring with activity” during California summers. ![]() White sage has been widely recognized as an important bee food plant. Leaves were burned on hot coals to fumigate houses after serious illnesses like measles, tuberculosis, and smallpox. It’s a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) and an integral component of coastal sagebrush in southwestern and Baja California-white sage’s only natural wild habitat. White sage ( Salvia apiana, Ramona polystachya) is a highly aromatic, evergreen perennial shrub that has been medicinally and ceremonially significant to Indigenous peoples in California and Mexico for thousands of years. Frank Watercolors, gra00006, Gray Herbarium Library, Botany Libraries, Harvard University. “ Ramona polystachya (White Sage) Mint Family ” Tessie K. She likened it to being promised a pet but receiving a corpse on her doorstep instead. The 300 pounds represented only a fraction of the sage illegally taken from the Etiwanda Preserve each year, but the visual was still staggering. It was crammed into three duffel bags, and thirty pounds were destroyed after fermenting and cooking in the heat and pressure of the bags. Morales-Johnson had no idea how much 300 pounds of sage really was. Morales-Johnson, an ethnobotanist and member of the Gabrielino (Tongva) Band of Mission Indians, tweeted that initially, she was excited-300 pounds was a “lifetime supply” that could be distributed to members of her community who had trouble accessing the sacred plant. In June 2021, Samantha Morales-Johnson posted a thread to her Twitter account about receiving 300 pounds of illegally harvested white sage that had been confiscated by park rangers at the Etiwanda Nature Preserve. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |