Brittlebush Flowerby *PatGoltz

Photography / Animals, Plants & Nature / Flowers, Trees & Plants

Encelia farinosa.

This plant is so named because the stems are brittle and wll snap off when bent.

In spring, these bushes make butter yellow mounds all over the hillsides. Right now, our hillsides are covered with them.
A decoction of the leaves, stems, and blossoms can be held in the mouth for toothache. It is good for lung congestion, cholera, and springtime allergies. It calms vomiting. A green twig without the bark was heated in ashes, and then put in the mouth. A person bit on it to harden a loose
tooth. The root was also used for toothache, with Milkweed (Asclepias) and Spurge (Euphorbia), and for heart pain. The ground resin was sprinkled on sores. It can be used as a salve for burns, aching muscles and bones or, heated, to
relieve pain in the chest, toothache, and infection, or applied to the body to relieve pain. Chew it and rub it on. It may be used to treat cholera in cattle.

In times past, priests gathered the brownish resin which exudes from the ends of the stems to use as incense, hence the Spanish name Incienso. It is also used as glue to
fasten arrowheads to the shaft and as varnish. When hardened it is used as chewing gum, and it is heated to make vessels waterproof. The resin from the upper plant was used for violin rosin. The branches will make a quick fire. This plant was also used to make windbreaks for hunters. The leaves are browsed by bighorn sheep.