Meet a medicinal desert native, Brittlebush.

Encelia farinosa also known as Brittlebush, Incienso and Yerba del Vaso. This will be one of the medicinal plants that folks will meet on the Desert Medicine Plant ID Hike on December 9th @ Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. Visit my website for my events calendar. www.everyleafspeaks.com

I love this plant, I love her vibrant yellow flowers, I love how she grows off steep cliffs and dresses the foothills with her golden glow. Her flowering months are in spring.

The leaves and resin are used in medicinal preparations. I’ve experimented with the flowers & leaves for topical oil for arthritic pain triggered by cold, damp weather for my mother. Topically and internally the plant can be an ally for arthritic inflammation in tea or tincture form.

Encelia farinosa is astringent (drying) and can be an ally for hay fever, allergies with watery eyes and a runny nose. Though I like Mormon Tea with Nettle for allergies.

The resin can be found on the desert floor, never remove resin from the plant or tree from its wound because it will further expose the plant to disease. The resin has been used as incense and known as “Poor mans copal” and was used as incense in Mexican churches. The resin can also be chewed on as a gum to loosen phlegm, tooth and gum pain, melted down or made into an oil for a chest rub to loosen up lung crud.

I’ll cover other medicinal uses of this plant and many others. To clarify there will be no wildcrafting.