Discussion thread: Ethnoecology (ETHNOBOTANY) is live! (Patreon)

Y’all I’m back! Last week was only the second time in 7 years we didn’t post a show and it’s because (little drumroll) I got hit with a double whammy of RSV and norovirus and yes, it WAS hellish. I tried recording for about 4 minutes, and had to lie down on the floor with my head in a dog bed.

However: I’m doing great now. All better and was able to finish up this week’s wonderful botanical romp with almost-doctor Leigh Joseph. She’s an ethnoecologist, ethnobotanist, and member of the Squamish First Nation in the Pacific Northwest. It's all about the what, where, and who of native plants

She chats medicinal and ceremonial plants, identifying and relating to flora around you, Latin vs. traditional naming, and uses for barks, berries, roots, shoots, saps, leaves and more. We also talk about the chilling family history that inspired her and how pharmaceuticals can be derived from Indigenous knowledge. Oh – and the dos and absolutely do-nots of harvesting certain species.

So I hope you enjoy this one, and attached are some photos of our native garden taken by the wonderful David Newsom of Wild Yards Project here in LA.

Anyone else thinking of planting native? And what apps or books do you like for identifying local plants? Also we talk about what to rub on your face.

Bon a-plant-if,

Your Plant Daddy PodWard

Some pictures taken by David of our native garden, including:

Calochortus plummerae, Plummer’s Mariposa Lily

Bloomeria crocea, aka: Golden Star”

Erigeron foliosus -a bee magnet

Bloomeria - short lived firework among the lupine

Eriogonum elongatum - single most valuable pollinator plant during late summer (see final slides)

Asclepius fascicularis- Narrowleaf milkweed, Monarch butterfly-essential host plant

Dichelostema capitatum- Blue Dicks, elegant and delicate-seeming survivor on baked, rocky slopes.