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The Ethnobotany 525
Pluchea: Cure-for-All
(Named to commemorate the French abbot Noël-
Antoine Pluche, 1688 /1761, a seminary teacher and
naturalist)
In 1817, the French botanist Alexandre Henri
Gabriel de Cassini (1781 /1832), who specialized in the
Asteraceae, described plants in a new genus he called
Pluchea. The reference species (type) of the genus is
Pluchea marilandica, which another French botanist,
André Michaux, previously had placed in the genus
Conyza. Indeed, Michaux was following Linnaeus who
placed in Conyza several species that today are
segregated into other lineages.
Such changing of names is a normal part of
scientific learning because evolution has selected
among different phylogenies to the point that they
are difficult to distinguish. Not only have scientists
had trouble sorting out the genera and species in the
Asteraceae, but nonscientists sometimes apply names
in what appear to be random ways. However, there are
two frequent and essentially tropical Pluchea that
people use across their ranges. Of the five native
species in Florida, this discussion focuses on P.
carolinensis and P. odorata. The second of these also
appears in the literature under the names P. purpurascens
and P. symphytifolia (Gillis 1977, Khan and
Jarvis 1989), so it is often difficult to sort out uses.
Since both species have mostly the same applications,
exact identity is not critical.
Only two indigenous common names were found
in the southeast. The Choctaw call P. foetida hoshukkosona
(haskuk, grass, kosoma, strong smell), and they
boiled the leaves and used the water extract ‘‘during
attacks of fever’’ (Bushnell 1909). The Koasati call P.
camphorata ittohapakó (ittó, tree, hapakó, death), and
also used it to treat fever (Taylor 1940). Given the
importance of the plants to the remaining Americans,
other linguistic groups probably also had names for
them.
In Mexico, the Aztecs knew these plants and used
them. Both P. carolinensis and P. odorata were known
as ciguapatle [ciguabate, cichapatle, cipatle, seguapeti,
siguapete, siguapote], a name derived from cigua,
woman, patl, medicine (Náhuatl, Mexico to El
Salvador). However, alternate names were applied.
Pluchea. Pluchea foetida (left). From Britton and Brown 1898. Pluchea odorata (right). a. Tip of flowering branch.
b. Enlargement of leaf showing glandular pubescence. c. Flower head, side view. d. Perfect disk flower, side view. e. Perfect disk
flower, longitudinally dissected. f. Floral diagram of perfect disk flower. g. Pistillate disk flower, side view. h. Pistillate disk
flower, longitudinally dissected. i. Floral diagram of pistillate disk flower. j. Achene with pappus. Drawn by Priscilla Fawcett.
From Correll and Correll 1982.