Edible and Medicinal Plants Tour
9:30 a.m. May 25, June 22, July 27, August 24

        Please note the 9:30 a.m. start time for this tour during summer months. Did you know that creosote leaves contain a brew of medicinal oils which have antibacterial and antifungal healing qualities? That jojoba seeds are edible? Our popular and educational guided tour of "Edible and Medicinal Desert Plants" will be offered at 9:30 a.m. on the fourth Sunday each month this summer: May 25, June 22, July 27 and August 24. Tour guides include Choctaw Tribal nation member and ethnobotanist David Morris, who alternates with Apache Junction author Jean Groen. During summer months public hours at the Arboretum are 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

         Have you ever sampled the sweet jellies made from prickly pear cactus fruit? How about crackers or cookies baked with mesquite meal? Tour guides Jean Groen and co-author Don Wells are seen at right and their book "Foods of the Superstitions" is available in our gift shop. The more recent and expanded companion volume describes desert plants and recipes. "Plants of the Sonoran Desert and Their Many Uses," published in 2006 has 157 pages and describes how to identify and where to find three dozen plants, their medicinal uses and how these plants have been used by Sonoran Desert natives for hundreds of years. 

      "My favorite plant is the prickly pear," says Jean Groen. "There are so many things you can make to eat and drink from parts of the plant. My absolute favorite food to make from the pads, nopalitos in Spanish, is a wonderful soup. Nopalitos are good in salad, salsa, scrambled eggs, and pickle relish using the nopalitos in place of cucumbers. Prickly pear fruits, also called "tunas," are wonderful made into brandied tunas. For beverages there are Prickly Pear blush, prickly pear tea, cactus shakes, and my all time favorite: prickly pear margaritas."

        "We try to portray the Sonoran Desert for what it is: a wonderland of mountains, rivers, trees, cacti, flowers, and wildlife to be enjoyed, used, and left intact for generations to come," says Groen. Her new book contains 72 recipes, 47 color pictures, and a wealth of information. It is available here at the Arboretum and also at the Superstition Mountain Historic Museum in Apache Junction, Tonto National Monument visitor center near Roosevelt Lake, at the Casa Grande Ruins, the Besh Ba Gowah archaeological park in Globe and at La Hacienda RV Resort Country Store on Ironwood Road just North of Highway 60.

           Ethnobotanist David Morris is a fan of jojoba seeds, which you can see above at left and also below. These acorn-size seeds can take on a mild hazlenut flavor after being lightly roasted.

           Jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) is also known by the nicknames "goat nut," deer nut and coffeebush -- the latter from its reputation as an acceptable coffee substitute when mature seeds are roasted. Waxy oil pressed from the nuts is widely used in shampoos and skin lotions; tea brewed from jojoba leaves can sooth inflamed mucous membranes. 

       Ask Dave about his favorite desert plant and he will probably cite the agave. "Fleshy leaves of the agave were the source of fiber (sisal) for the early desert natives. The fibers would be used for cordage, rope, baskets, mats and sandals. The heart of the agave was roasted and eaten and the leaf tea is thought to relieve arthritic pain," said Morris. Learn more about this plant, about creosote and others which continue to nourish, heal and clothe people of the Sonoran desert. Here's another, too: Native Americans in the desert refer to the mesquite tree as the "tree of life". The pods can be ground up and they provided the main source of flour until the introduction of European heat, rye and barley. The bark of the esquite can be boiled to produce a germ-killing wash for minor cuts and scrapes. The Piipash (Maricopa) obtain a black paint from mesquite bark that is used to add designs to their traditional pottery." 

         "My second favorite plant is the mesquite tree. Almost every part of the tree can be put to good use. The Indians used it for medicine, food, tea, implements, weapons, twine, and paint. I use the pods to make jelly and to make flour which can be substituted in place of regular flour. You wouldn't want to substitute more than a half-cup in each cup of regular flour. The mesquite flour will make the product sweet so you might want to decrease the sugar called for. Also, the mesquite flour has much less gluten than regular flour so you might want to make note of this when making yeast bread."                

     As with most other weekend guided tours the edible/medicinal plants walk is included with regular park admission of $7.50 for adults and $3.00 for ages 5-12. Boyce Thompson Arboretum is affiliated with the UA's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in addition to being an Arizona State Park... so UA students, faculty and staff may bring your CatCard or University I.D. to save an addition dollar off admission!

     Painter Martha Burgess drove up from her Tucson home to attend one of the tours that David Morris uided here one hot summer day in 2005, and was pleased at the level of detail explained about plants and their uses. "Ethnobotany is my thing, and your Curandero trail is one of my favorite places -- its where the plants bring many cultures together - that's a switch! It brings our local Tohono O'odham, Akimel O'odham and Maricopa together with African, Anglo, and Native people from farther afield together, joined for the mutual purposes of healing, curing, or culinary excitement using desert flora."

     "On the trail I always get my eyes opened to new talents in "old friends," in the plants which I've long loved for their beauty, aroma or perseverence. Invariably, delving into the detailed signage, or hearing of new uses by personable and humorous Choctaw interpreter David Morris, I came away enriched and ready to grow them, honor them, try them out, and even experiment with their attributes."

Read about other weekend guided tours and events