Ethnobotany of my yard, Part 3

Ok. This is a fast, under-researched entry. It was actually somewhat difficult to find much about it.

Red Fairy Duster

Calliandra californica

Fabaceae

It is a small, evergreen shrub. Native to Mexico, especially around Baja, where it is common in desert washes and on dry hill slopes (Barneby 1998:42).

Obviously grown as an ornamental.

Root extract has been shown to have antimicrobial properties.

The Yavapai, Zuni, and Navajo used related species (C. eriophylla and C. humilis) for medicines (Moerman 1998:131). The Mayo allow their cattle to consume the leaves and stems of C. emarginata (Yetman and Van Devender 2002:196).

Barneby, Rupert
1998      Silk Tree, Guanacaste, Monkey's Earring, Part III: Calliandra. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, NY.

 Moerman, Daniel E.
1998 Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press, London.

Yetman, D. and T. R. Van Devender 
2002 Mayo Ethnobotany: Land, History, and Traditional Knowledge in Northwest Mexico.

Ethnobotany of my yard, part 2

So, here is another entry as I explore the names, histories, and ethnobotanical uses of the plants growing in my yard. This entry is a tad under-researched, but perhaps someone can give me some additional information.

Texas Ebony
 
Ebenopsis ebano (formerly Pithecellobium flexicaule)

Fabaceae family

It is a small tree to shrub but can get quite large. Its reduced size is because it is often planted as an ornamental (and I've seen it referred to as a bonsai tree). It is an evergreen tree with alternate, pinnately compound leaves; thick, hard pods with hard seeds; and branches filled with the thorns that are common in this family. 

The tree is native to arid scrub forests and deserts of North America (especially the Chihuahuan desert) but also in scrub forests of tropical Mexico, as in Yucatan and Campeche.

In addition to its use as an ornamental, the wood is good for crafts. The seeds appear to be edible (Alanis Guzman et al. 1998; Estrada et al. 2007). The Mayo of NW Mexico, for example, use related species for food and construction (Yetman and Van Devender 2002:214).

I was surprised not to see it in Moerman's (1998) huge volume. But if anyone has any additional information, I would be interested.

Alanis-Guzman, M.G., M.R. Gonzalez-Quijada, and R. Mercado-Hernandez
1998 Effect of cooking on the chemical and nutritional value of the Pithecellobium
flexicaule (Benth.) Coult. seed. Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutricion 48(4):328 -333.

Estrada, E. J.A Villarreal, C. Cantú, I. Cabral, L. Scott and C. Yen

2007 Ethnobotany in the Cumbres de Monterrey National Park, Nuevo León, México. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 3:8.

Moerman, Daniel E.
1998 Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press, London.

Yetman, D. and T. R. Van Devender
2002 Mayo Ethnobotany: Land, History, and Traditional Knowledge in Northwest Mexico.