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© 2004 by CRC Press 506 Florida Ethnobotany Fruits of most species are edible when ripe, either raw or cooked. They are fried, boiled, or stewed to make marmalade by cooking them with syrup. Leaves and green fruits are somewhat poisonous, as they are laxative and diuretic because of their solanine content (Morton 1981, Turner and Szczawinski 1991). Species are often used indiscriminately as medicines (Lipp 1971, Hussey 1974, Wong 1976, Bye 1979, Coe and Anderson 1996). In the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico, the fruits are considered febrifuge, and both leaves and fruits are used as diuretics. The leaves or sap are applied as emollient plasters, for rheumatic ailments, or as drops for sore eyes in children. Leaf teas are taken to dispel indigestion, cure nephritis, cystitis, otitis, jaundice, herpes, and bowel problems called bich. Leaf suppositories are also used for bich, and the roots are used to treat toothache. Some consider the genus narcotic and stimulant, at least partly because of its alkaloid, tannin, potassium chloride, and potassium citrate content. Berries contain acetylcholine, calystegines, ascorbic acid, and vitamin A (Zennie and Ogzewalla 1977, Morton 1981, Mello and Afiatpour 1985, Asano et al. 1995, 1997). Several species contain physalins, and the alkaloid hygrine is known from the roots (Willaman and Hui-Lin-Li 1970, Kawai et al. 2001). Withanolide glycosides have been found in Physalis peruviana (Sakurai et al. 1976, Lee et al. 1991, Ahmad et al. 1999), and the alkaloid 3-alpha-tigloyloxytropane is known from P. alkekengi (Yamaguchi and Nishimoto 1965). Aqueous extract of leaves is antimicrobial (Ayensu 1981, Cáceres et al. 1991). Other laboratory studies indicate possible use against gonorrhea (Cáceres et al. 1995), cancer (Chiang et al. 1992a,b), and diabetes (Roman-R. et al. 1992). Modulation of the pituitary and basomedial hypothalamic lysyl-aminopeptidase activities has been shown in P. alkekengi (Vessal et al. 1996). Nutritional and quality analyses have been made of tomatillos (P. ixocarpa), and other species are presumably similar (Bock et al. 1995). Fruits are high in niacin (Morton 1981). Two recent studies have been made of the relationships of the genus, one based on morphology (Alelius 1996) and the other on molecular genetics (Mione et al. 1994). The results are that Physalis may be paraphyletic, and P. alkekengi may not be closely related to the other species. The American Physalis seems to be most closely related to the endemic genera Chamaesaracha and Margaranthus. If that is true, then French botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort was correct when he segregated Alkekengi as a distinct genus in 1742. Physocarpus (From the Greek physa, a pair of bellows, and karpos, fruit, a reference to the inflated carpels) Physocarpus opulifolium. From Britton and Brown 1897. Physocarpus opulifolius (powerful leaves, but probably a comparison with the leaves of Viburnum opulus) Blasenspiere (bladder spit, German) [common, eastern] ninebark (dating from 1796 or earlier when it was applied to Spiraea, and alluding to multiple bark layers) Linnaeus called these shrubs Spiraea opulifolia in 1753. He had studied living plants at the Hortus Cliffortianus and specimens sent by John Clayton from Virginia. They did not seem all that different from the other ten species of Spiraea that he described in Species Plantarum, and he saw no reason to separate them. However, Carl Johann Maximowicz, 1827 /1891, studying them over a century later, decided they were distinctive. The fruits were inflated, unlike Spiraea, so he named it Physocarpus. There are now ten species known in the genus, which grows in North America and Asia (Mabberley 1997). The best-known species in Physocarpus is the one in Florida, and it also grows from Virginia and West Virginia to Tennessee south to Alabama and Georgia. Ninebark barely extends into Florida, known only from Calhoun and Jackson Counties near Tallahassee (Wunderlin and Hansen 2002). Moerman (1998) listed three eastern tribes who used the plants. The Iroquois used ninebark as a gynecological aid. The Menomini made a bark drink to cleanse the woman’s system and enhance fertility. The Ojibwa used the root as an emetic (King 1984). Tribes in the western states used it to treat gonorrhea
© 2004 by CRC Press The Ethnobotany 507 and tuberculosis, and as a laxative (Foster and Duke 1990, Moerman 1998). These plants are potentially toxic (Foster and Duke 1990). Presumably that toxicity is due to the cucurbitacins and triterpenes (Sarker et al. 1999, Kim et al. 2000). Phytolacca (Greek, phyton, a plant, and lacca, derived from Hindi, lakh, referring to a crimson dye) Phytolacca americana. a. Part of fleshy taproot. b. Upper branch with flowers and fruits. c. Flower. d. Upper surface of berry. e. Seed. From Buchholtz 1968. Phytolacca americana (American) amerikanische Scharlachberre (American scarlet berry, German) bledo carbonero (charcoal saltwort; also used for Blutaparon, which see) cancer root (one of many plants with this name, Carolinas) chou-gras (fat cabbage, Louisiana, fide Rafinesque) cokan (northern tribes, fide Millspaugh 1892; Algonquian and cognate with pakkan) coskîlpâ [oskílpá] (Creek; in Oklahoma, the word applies to Sambucus) crow-berry (USA) dla:-ya-de (Cherokee) garget (the throat, originally from Old French gargette; the association is not clear) herbe de la laque (lacquer herb, Quebec) ink-berry (Carolinas) Kermesbeere (scarlet berry, based on kermes or cochineal insects, German) koshe [kó:sî, ko:si] (Mikasuki); koshiba (Choctaw); koshibba’ (Chickasaw); kosiba (Alabama); kosabí (Koasati); os’a [osa, osá:] (Creek, Muskogee) kox tinpka (Biloxi) morelle a gràppes (bunch blackberry, Quebec) paok (by Swedes in Pennsylvania in 1740s, fide Kalm [1753 /1761] 1972; from an Algonquian word; cognate with pakkan) pigeon [poke] berry (Carolinas) poke salat (although ‘‘salat’’ and ‘‘salad,’’ are etymologically the same word, from Latin salata, they are not the same preparation; ‘‘salat’’ is made by boiled the young green leaves as a potherb) [American] poke weed [pokeweed] (in use by 1751, USA); [Virginian] poke [skoke] (from Virginia Powhatan pakkan, based on Algonquian cognates meaning ‘‘blood’’; in use by 1708; see also Lithospermum; OED 1971 incorrectly derived it from the Powhatan uppówoc or apooke, smoke, and cognate with the Narragansett puck, smoke) tabosso (sometimes used for this plant, although also for sumac, Rhus, Alabama) wild spinach (Carolinas) Each spring when I was growing up, we went farther into the country to gather ‘‘poke’’ for greens. When just the first young leaves and stems came through the ground, we cut off the tops and took them home. After monotonous winter meals mostly lacking vegetables, those ‘‘greens’’ were a treat. We called the meal ‘‘poke salat.’’ Anyone growing up in the eastern United States is likely to have eaten this spring potherb. The dish was shared by the Cherokee, Malecite, Iroquois, and Mohegans (Moerman 1998). Interestingly, the modern Alabama have noticed that ‘‘white people eat the young leaves,’’ but they do not (Sylestine et al. 1993). ‘‘Poke salat’’ is a dish of the young Phytolacca shoots and/or leaves eaten well cooked and with two changes of water. The potherb, however prepared, is somewhat laxative, and historically constituted an important addition of vitamins and minerals across the South (Morton 1968b, Nellis 1997). The entire plant is poisonous when raw (Morton 1974, Foster and Duke 1990). Perhaps the first record
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