Herba Cana - Northeastern Illinois University

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© 2004 by CRC Press 536 Florida Ethnobotany yerba de burro (donkey’s herb, Dominican Republic); yerba de caimán (caiman’s herb); yerba de hicotea [hycotea, jicotea] (turtle herb, the jicotea is a freshwater turtle, Taino, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico) Most of Polygonum is referred to as ‘‘smartweed.’’ Diggs et al. (1999) cite a comment by Kirkpatrick (1992) suggesting that the name was derived from the tendency of the sap to ‘‘smart’’ (burn) when it touched the skin. However, historical data support a slight modification of that view. ‘‘Smartweed’’ was applied to P. hydropiper by 1787. In that year, W.H. Marshall, writing on the rural economy of Norfolk, said, ‘‘Smartweed, biting and pale-flowered persicarias; arsmart.’’ Indeed, the OED lists ‘‘arsesmart’’ as the common name for ‘‘smartweed.’’ So, Kirkpatrick had the right idea, but the wrong part of the body. Several species have a peppery taste, like P. hydropiperoides and its namesake P. hydropiper (water pepper). Indeed, Dutch herbalist Rembert Dodoens simply called the second species Hydropiper in 1554, surely reflecting its use in seasoning food. Fernald et al. (1958) noted that application for it and several relatives. The practice is problematical because some people develop contact dermatitis from the plants (Foster and Duke 1990). There appear to be no records of people in the Americas using P. densiflorum, but Hawaiians use an infusion of the plants to purify the blood (Moerman 1998). Perhaps that species is used like some of the others in the New World although there are no records to support that. In the Bahamas, the root of P. densiflorum is crushed and inhaled to relieve headache (Higgs 1969). The earliest association of Polygonum with Florida people was P. hydropiperoides in pre-Columbian Glades coprolites from Fort Center on Lake Okeechobee (Hogan 1978). Polygonum hydropiperoides contains tannins, rutin (3% in the leaves), quercitin, and kaempferol (Hocking 1997). It has been used to stop intestinal and uterine hemorrhage, for strangury (slow, painful urination), and as a stimulant. In Brazil, P. hydropiperoides is considered diuretic, and an emmenagogue, and used as a treatment for piles. It is used to promote conception in Mexico (Ford 1975, Hocking 1997, Vásquez and Jácome 1997). Among the Houma, a decoction of P. punctatum roots was used to treat pains and swelling in the legs and joints (Speck 1941). Farther north, the Ojibwa took a decoction of leaves and flowers for stomach pain, and the Iroquois made a compound medicine for ‘‘loss of senses during menses’’ (Moerman 1998). The Tarahumara of northwestern Mexico used the plants as a fish poison (Pennington 1958). They bundled the plants, crushed them, and put them in large baskets, which they dipped into water until the water turned green. According to Pennington (1958), ‘‘fish rise to the surface almost immediately.’’ Tarahumara also added young leaves to their corn dish esquiate for a spicy flavor. In Hispaniola, P. punctatum and other plants in the genus are rubefacients when crushed; they are stimulant, astringent, diuretic, emmenagogue, anthelmintic, and antiarthritic. On that island, the species is used against urinary and gallbladder problems, and to treat hemorrhoids, intermittent fever, and malignant sores (Liogier 1974). Several of the common names mention dogs. Those are indications that the herb is wild, but perhaps also indicates that the plant has been used to treat mange (jiote, fromxiotl, Náhuatl) in dogs (Morton 1981). Europeans were familiar with Polygonum when they arrived in the New World. They had learned that the small seeds from weedy species like P. aviculare could be harvested and used, at least as a starvation diet (Fernald et al. 1958). Indigenous Americans also used P. erectum in the same way. Indeed, there is evidence they cultivated that species for food (Smith 1992). More recently, the seeds of at least P. hydropiperoides have been promoted as a protein source (Boyd 1968, Boyd and McGinty 1981). Polyporus (The genus was named by E.M. Fries, 1794 /1878, from Greek poly, many, and Latin porus, small openings) false truffle (USA) okipen (earth tuber, Virginia Algonquian) turma (truffle, name used by Fontaneda [1575] 1944) When Hernando Descalante Fontaneda was rescued from his captivity among the Calusas of southern Florida, he returned to Spain and wrote an account of his time among those people (Fontaneda [1575] 1944). One of the few ‘‘plants’’ he mentioned was a root eaten by the Floridians. In speaking of people who lived on the laguna de mayaimi (Lake Okeechobee), he wrote, ‘‘y sobre esta laguna que corre por en medio de la tierra dentro tiene muchos pueblos aunque son de treynta i quarenta vso. y otros tantos lugares tienen pan de rraises ques la comida ordinaria la mar parte del tienpo, aunque por caso de la laguna que crese mucho que no alcansan estas rraises por estorbo de la mucha Agua y ansi dejan de comer Algun tienpo este pan pescado mucho y muy bueno, otras Rayses a manera de turmas de las de Aca duses.’’
© 2004 by CRC Press The Ethnobotany 537 Buckingham Smith translated this as follows: ‘‘On this lake, which lies in the midst of the country, are many towns, of thirty or forty inhabitants each; and as many more places there are. They have bread of roots [Smilax], which is their common food the greater part of the time; and because of the lake, which rises in some seasons so high that the roots cannot be reached in consequence of the water, they are for some time without eating this bread. Fish is plenty and very good. There is another root, like the truffle over here, which is sweet.’’ In spite of Fontaneda’s comparison of the second root to truffles, Smith interpreted the turma as being Apios americana. Smith had apparently never been in swamps where Apios grows, or he would not have selected that species. If the water was too high for their common food (Smilax), it was certainly too deep to gather Apios. Elsewhere I have made the argument that the ‘‘bread’’ noted by Fontaneda was the carpophore of Polyporus (Austin 1980). Gerard (1907) found the product also being eaten by the Virginia Algonquians. Polypremum (From Greek polypremnos, many-stemmed) Polypremum procumbens. a. Flowering branch. b. Twig with flower. c. Flower, from above. d. Flower, longitudinally dissected. e. Pistil. f. Floral diagram. g. Fruit within calyx. h. Fruit. Drawn by Priscilla Fawcett. From Correll and Correll 1982. Polypremum procumbens (prostrate or lying on the ground, meaning the stems) rust-weed Polypremum was named by Linnaeus in 1753. The genus contains a single species in the warm parts of the Americas. Although few disagree that it a distinct species, there is contention regarding its familial relationships (Cronquist 1981, Mabberley 1997). The plant is used as a remedy for metritis (uterus inflammation) in El Salvador (Von Reis 1973). Polystichum (From Greek polys, many, and stichos, rows, alluding to the sori of some species being in ranks) Polystichum acrostichoides (resembling Acrostichum, which see) bear’s bed (derived from the Cherokee name); yana utseta (the bear lies on it, Cherokee) canker-brake (‘‘canker’’ came from Old Northern French cancre, and appeared in English by about A.D. 1000; the word is cognate with ‘‘cancer’’; historically, the disease was a malady of the mouth; ‘‘brake’’ is akin to Old Swedish braekne, fern) Christmas fern dagger fern (from the shape of the leaflets) fougère à faucilles (sickle fern, Quebec) shield fern tapasi’ moso’here (flower on [branch grows] rough, Catawba; not distinguished from Pleopeltis, which see) No one had to explain the reason for calling the plants ‘‘Christmas fern’’ when I learned it on a college course field trip in the early 1960s. Around us the woodland was bleak from the winter cold, with bare trees, dead and fallen leaves on the ground, and ice covering the surface of the creek. Tucked in a hillside crevice of rich organic soil was this single green plant. From the name, I surmised that people had used this evergreen plant in decorations at Christmas time. I was correct, but the fern appeared in the literature under that name only in 1878. People of North America probably began using the name much earlier. Polystichum is a genus with four European species (Mabberley 1997). While Kartesz (1994) recognized 24 species and 2 named hybrids in the United States and <strong>Cana</strong>da, only 15 were included in the Flora of North America (Wagner 1993). The German physician Albrecht W. Roth (1757 / 1834) created the genus Polystichum in 1799 for a
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