Medicinal application of Desert Plants
Medical studies of mesquite and other desert foods, have said that despite its sweetness, mesquite flour (made by grinding whole mesquite pods) "is extremely effective in controlling blood sugar levels" in people with diabetes. The sweetness comes from fructose, which the body can process without insulin.
Types of Desert Plants
Pinyon
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Seeds of the nut pines or pinyon pines (Pinus monophylla, P. edulis), for one classic example, were highly prized. The single leaf pinyon pine (P. monophylla) can be found throughout the western Great Basin (southeastern California, Nevada, Utah and northern Arizona). The double leaf pinyon (P. edulis) is characteristic of the eastern Great Basin and the Southwest (western Utah, western Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico) Pinyon-juniper wooded shrubland is often found in, but is not restricted to, areas where winter precipitation predominates, including portions of northern Arizona and New Mexico. It can occur on a wide variety of substrates and terrain.
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Agave
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Throughout the region are found a large number of species of agave (Agave desertii, A. utahensis and others), a second classic example of a prehistoric food plants. These include the century plant, so known for the odd mythology that the plant only blooms once every hundred years, which is fortunately untrue. The life history of the plant is, in fact, rather brief. Actually, it only takes some 12 to 15 years before it reaches maturity. As they grow, they emerge into small rounded heads or "cabbages." Over the years they enlarge, throwing out fibrous leaves tipped with an armor-like spike.This clumping plant was an important food source for Native Americans.
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Chia
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Many centuries before the modern late night advertising icon of ch-ch chia pets, the Indians harvested the seeds from this rather exotic plant. Chia (Salvia columbariae), another classic food plant, is among the smallest of the sage family. It is noticeable in the spring for its slender, square branching stem, terminated by several whorls (as many as five pods per stalk) tipped by bright blue purple flowers.Chia was widely used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and had medicinal and religious value in addition to its culinary applications. Together with beans, corn (maize), squash, and amaranth, chia seeds constituted a significant portion of the diet of the indigenous peoples.
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