(Bulbous Spring Parsley)

Names

Shoshone:
Unknown

English: Bulbous Spring Parsley

Scientific: Cymopterus bulbosa

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Dig in early June
    • Must peel root skin promptly

Primary Uses

  • There are many types, mainly biscuit root, making up carbohydrate foods. Tops are also edible (15-18 in Wind River + Red Desert)
  • Roots for bread flour
  • tops eaten raw or dried and cooked in stews or soups, good flavor!

Secondary Uses

  • Seeds as spice in soups/stews

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • None listed

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

Medicinal Uses:

  • Intestinal Health: Cooked seeds as a digestive aid
  • Old People’s Medicine: Cooked seeds to aid digestion
  • Vitamin C: Leaves and flowers, raw or cooked

Process Prep

  • Grind roots in flour for bread, gotsup, biscuits, hard tack
  • Peel skin off roots promptly after harvest

(Wild Cilantro) Fendler’s Spring Parsley

Names

Shoshone:
Unknown

English: Wild Cilantro

Scientific: Cymopterus fendleri

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Must peel root skin promptly. Dig in early June

Primary Uses

  • The fendleri species have a cilantro like flavoring
  • Roots pounded into flour for bread
  • Roots for bread flour
  • Tops eaten raw or dried and cooked in stew or soup – good flavor

Secondary Uses

  • Dry roots; mash using Mano/matate; into a flour, make biscuits
  • Seeds as spice in soups/stews

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • None listed

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

Medicinal Uses

  • Intestinal Health: Boiled seeds as digestive aid
  • Old People’s Medicine: Cooked seeds to aid digestion
  • Vitamin C: Leaves and flowers – raw or cooked

(Wallflower)

Names

Shoshone:
Unknown

English: Wallflower

Scientific: Erysimum sp.

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Not harvested – poisonous

Primary Uses

  • Not edible

Secondary Uses

  • None listed

Cautions

  • A mustard, some of which can kill you or make you sick. Know the mustards well.

Active Principle(s)

  • None listed

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

(Fanweed/Pennycress)

Names

Shoshone:
Unknown

English: Fanweed/Pennycress

Scientific: Thlaspi arvense

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Spring and summer

Primary Uses

  • Leaves and seeds used for flavoring. Crush seeds, put vinegar on, and a little oil. Seeds sprinkled as a crunch spice, or make sauce for meat
  • Food: Seeds and leaves

Secondary Uses

  • Seeds can be crushed and used in a mustard plaster on wounds
  • Seeds ground into powder as a disinfectant for wounds

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • Isothiocyanate and mustard oil

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

Medicinal Uses:

  • Antibacterial: ground seeds sprinkled on wounds
  • Old People’s Medicine: Eaten with food as treatment for rheumatism
  • Vitamin C: Leaves
  • Wounds: Seeds powdered and put into open wounds

(Rock Cress)

Names

Shoshone: Unknown

English: Rock Cress

Scientific: Arabis drummondii

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Early Summer

Primary Uses

  • Food: Leaves, roots, flowers in soups and stews

Secondary Uses

  • None listed

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • None listed

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

General Notes:

  • Vitamin C in leaves and stems and flowers
  • Leaves, flowers, roots put in stews and soups

Process Prep:

  • Dry roots and then pound into flour

(Draba Mustard)

Names

Shoshone:
Unknown

English: Draba Mustard

Scientific: Draba oligsperma

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Spring

Primary Uses

  • Foods: trail food or flavoring in soup

Secondary Uses

  • None listed

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • None listed

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

General Notes:

  • Vitamin C in leaves and flowers
  • Raw or cooked- flowers have a mild mustard flavor
  • Flowers used as a spice

Process Prep:

  • Fresh in soups and stews

(Watercress)

Names

Shoshone:
Unknown

English: Watercress

Scientific: Nasturtium officinale

Zone

Desert

Harvest Time

  • Any time: grows in warm springs

Primary Uses

  • Food: leaves in soups and stews

Secondary Uses

  • None listed

Cautions

  • Boil before eating to avoid giardia campylobacter

Active Principle(s)

  • None listed

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

General Notes:

  • Vitamin C in leaves and stems
  • Pot herb brought west by settlers

Process Prep:

  • Dried or fresh leaves in soups and stews

oh·hah·yap (Stonecrop)

Names

Shoshone:
oh·hah·yap

English: Stonecrop

Scientific: Sedum lanceolatum

Zone

Upper Foothills

Harvest Time

  • June, July
  • Leaves and flowers eaten as trail food

Primary Uses

  • None listed

Secondary Uses

  • Traveling food

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • Ascorbic acid

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

General Uses:

  • Food: leaves/flowers
  • Vitamin C in food as flowers and leaves and stems

Process Prep

  • Trail foo

day·ah·koo (Curly Dock “known as Yellow-Dock”)

Names

Shoshone:
day·ah·koo

English: Curly Dock “known as Yellow-Dock”

Scientific: Rumex crispus

Zone

Upper Foothills

Harvest Time

  • Spring
    • roots foot long, peel down to yellow core
  • Late summer for seed pods dry
  • Early summer for medicinal roots

Primary Uses

  • Ground-up roots can be purchased
  • Seed pods = indian tobacco
  • Roots: for bleeding wounds for abrasions

Secondary Uses

  • Young leaves: food

Cautions

  • Some problems can get worse initially after the Rx, then clear up (skin rash). Dilute seeds with other tobacco before use when smoking.

Active Principle(s)

  • Chrysophanic acid

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

  • Peeling outer bark from foot-long taproot, shows yellow root. Dice up and dry this out then put in sun-tea
  • Dry seed pods for tobacco additive: Indian tobacco
  • 3 to 4 Tsp in 1 gallon water

Medicinal Uses

  • Abrasion: Split fresh roots topically or cold tea
  • Allergy: Root cold infusion drunk daily in spring
  • Bleeding: Tea for bleeding ulcers
  • Burns: Fresh root applied to burns
  • Constipation: Root tea 3x/day
  • Detox: Root tea for liver detox to clean blood
  • Healing: Root tea as general detox
  • Hemorrhoids: Root tea internal 3x/day
  • Kidney Stones: Root tea for stones
  • Liver: Root tea to de-fat fatty liver
  • Nervous system: Root tea used to treat nervousness
  • Rash: Root tea to treat allergic rashes due to fatty liver
  • Skin: Root tea for acne and skin allergy reactions

see·goe (Sego Lilly)

Names

Shoshone: see·goe

English: Sego Lilly

Scientific: Calochortus nutallii

Zone

Upper Foothills

Harvest Time

  • June
    • sandy soils, sometimes clay; use digging sticks
  • Digging stick to harvest at traditional collecting sites… when in flower

Primary Uses

  • 100% digestible carbohydrate; add to stew pots.
  • Staple food
  • Bulb

Secondary Uses

  • Pre-biotic to improve digestion and immunity

Cautions

  • None listed

Active Principle(s)

  • Starch and inulin

Video Description of Plant

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Notes

Medicinal Uses

  • Immune: Contains inulin as immune support
  • Intestinal Health: Food: roots contain inulin

Process Prep

  • Roots: dried and boiled