CERRILLOS HILLS HISTORIC PARK

A mid-size shrub, 2 to 8 feet tall, with many slender angular branches that in time become shaggy or shredded, the Apache Plume is found in canyon bottoms and the dry, sandy, gravelly soils of arroyo margins. In New Mexico it may be found as high as 9,000 feet elevation.

From spring to late summer the plants are covered with spectacular white, 5-petaled roselike blossoms. This is followed by an even more spectacular display of feathery pink puff-ball seed plumes ("achenes").

This shrub is found in areas with some moisture; along arroyo edges and on sandy flats and on disturbed land. It spreads by underground vegetatively, forming dense clumps, and is an excellent choice for cold-desert soil stabilization.

Apache Plume is of some importance as browse for mule deer, but has low domestic livestock palatability.

Apache Plume branches were one source of arrow shafts. They are still popular for rough brooms, which are said to have positive spiritual effects on the household. The petals, eaten raw, are said to be antiflatulant. Apache Plume is used as a hair rinse, and the powdered stems are an ingredient in a muscle salve.

A concoction comprised of ground poñil plumes, dragon's blood, rock salt, fireplace soot, and church wine is said to counter the evil effects of magic. This has not been verified.

A dense cluster of blade-like, sharp-tipped leaves that usually bear gray or white fibers along the edges, all stemming from a central basal point. The Banana Yucca's leaves are succulent, stiff, and broad; up to 3 inches wide. The leaves of the Narrowleaf Yucca are flat, somewhat flexible, and less than an inch wide. In late spring both yuccas produce a single erect stalk up to 3-feet tall with many creamy white flowers, followed in summer by a series of large, fleshy green fruits that are a favorite food of wildlife. The Narrowleaf yucca is more common at lower elevations.



The yucca was so important to ancestral Native Americans that it may sometimes be seen in petroglyphs. The thick, sweet fruit of the Banana Yucca was eaten green or dried, sometimes roasted, ground, and mixed with chokecherries and made into a pressed cake. The roasted seeds as well as the flower buds are quite edible.

The young flower stalks of the Narrowleaf Yucca were eaten occasionally, or roasted or dried for winter. Yucca leaf fiber was the single most important source of cordage in the Southwest. The flesh was chewed off or soaked or boiled, and pounded to extract the fibers. Yucca fiber for belts, sandals, nets, headstraps, ladders, matting and basketry was widespread, with Narrowleaf fibers preferred. The traditional 'paintbrush' used to decorate pots is always a finely frayed yucca leaf. Yucca root, known as AMOLE, pounded and thrashed in cold water until sudsy, was and is still today prized as a shampoo.

Yucca elata, the Soap Tree Yucca, a yucca with a definite trunk and the tallest flower stalk of all the yuccas, is the state plant of New Mexico. Its cream-colored flowers can reach 8 feet into the air. Thus far no Soap Tree Yuccas have been identified in the Cerrillos Hills

Common on dry hills and mesas, the long-lived, perennial Beargrass evergreen shrub resembles narrowleaf yucca, but its leaves are much longer and triangular in cross section, with rough margins of minute teeth.

Beargrass has a large, underground, woody caudex (root), and a basal rosette of the long narrow leaves.

The flower stalk is sometimes 8 feet tall with a densely-flowered terminal panicle (ending with a many-fingered spray), which appears in late May or June. The tiny, round, three-lobed capsule fruits are only about ¼ inch in diameter.

The plant is poisonous to sheep and goats, and disagreeable to cattle, but deer like it. Beargrass is more common in areas that have been grazed by domestic livestock and that have been subjected to years of fire suppression.

In the Middle Rio Grande Pueblos Beargrass leaves were preferred for making rough baskets and mats. Beargrass is also an alternative broomstraw.

These low-growing perennial native shrubs are bright green in late spring and early summer, but in mid-summer their tight clusters of tiny flowers burst into golden-yellow globes of color, which may remain well into the fall. Broom Snakeweed is usually between 8 and 28 inches tall, and may survive 20 years or more. Crushed leaves have a turpentine-like fragrance.

One plant may produce more than 10,000 seeds in a single year, and Broom snakeweed seeds are a very important food source for kangaroo rats and quail.

Broom snakeweed contains saponin, which makes it toxic to all livestock except goats, and it is a secondary absorber of selenium, a common toxic metal. However, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, and black tailed jackrabbits find it acceptable fodder.

Broom snakeweed prefers moderately disturbed land and is known for quickly invading overgrazed land.

This is one of the most important medicinal plants. Snakeweed tea is an emetic, a birthing aid, for menostasis, good for urinary retention, rheumatism, rattlesnake bites, hemorrhoids, and eye problems. It has been used for sweat baths and purification rituals.

The Buckwheatbrush is a shrub of the dry, sandy plains and hills. It has masses of white lacy flowers atop two-foot tall woody branches that turn reddish-brown in the autumn. It is very tolerant of drought.

The image to the right includes details of the flower (left), and the pistil and stamen (right).

This species is present in the Cerrillos Hills and the Ortiz Mountains, but is not common in New Mexico.

There are several species of this many-branched shrub in the area. Pale pink or yellow bell-shaped flowers appear in late spring and red to dark purple berries come in the late summer. Gooseberries have bristles on the stems where the leaves are attached, and currants are spineless.

Perhaps the most common local species, the wax currant, is among the least sweet or flavorful, but it is still an ancient and important food source. The fruit is consumed fresh or dried. Branches of the currant bush were one of the favored hardwoods for both bows and arrows (along with Sumac, Mountain Mahogany, and Oak).

An irregularly branched spiny evergreen shrub usually 3 to 4 feet tall (max. 7 feet), with with thick, gray-green canoe-shaped leaves and an extensive root system that is commonly twice the dimension of the above-ground plant.

Saltbush is regarded as one of the most rapidly evolving species in North America, with many variants, cross-breeds, and polyploid (multiple chromosome sets) versions. It mixes well with the inhabitants of the P-J forest and is rarely found in pure stands. Saltbush is a valuable food source for wildlife such as deer, rabbits, and birds, and also for domestic livestock. Saltbush can live for 10 years in good soil and significantly longer in drier and more alkaline soil.

Saltbush is resistant to drought and tolerant of soil alkalinity. Soil salts tend to accumulate in plant tissues where they may function during cold winters as a kind of antifreeze.

Saltbush is widespread throughout New Mexico, from alkali flats to ridgetops, and is one of the most valuable forage shrubs. Some people think saltbush is an indicator of ancient disturbance or ruins.

The genetically simpler 'diploid' saltbush (common in northern New Mexico) are both more productive (more foliage) and more fertile (more of its seeds germinate) than the 'tetraploid' (more common elsewhere) and beyond (up to 12x 'polyploid') varieties. "Rincon", a cultivar (purposely selected and bred) from the Santa Fe region is widely used for highway plantings and as an ornamental. Saltbush is very suited for revegetation of mine spoils and soils with high soluble salts.

Saltbush is normally either a male or female plant ('dioecious'), but sometimes both male and female parts will be found on the same plant (the word for this is 'monoecious'). Male flowers are arranged in small glomerules - rounded dense clusters - on spikes along the branchlets, and female flowers produce a tiny, oblong seed with four paperlike wings. The seeds disperse over the winter, from October to April.

Stress, as from overcrowding, drought, or extreme cold, can cause saltbush to change its sex. More often when this happens the pistillate female plant assumes male characteristics.

In the old days the seeds were ground and cooked as a cereal, the leaves were eaten cooked or raw, or were dried and mixed with other ingredients to form cake or bread flour. Seeds parched and ground, and then mixed in water with sugar make a drink called pinole. Ashes from saltbrush were used as leavening for breads, as a food coloring, and to make lye to soften the hulls of corn. In all these ways Saltbrush provided niacin, which was deficient in corn ("maize"). Hard twig ends were used as swift or war arrowheads. (Stone points were used for game.) Crushed flowers with a little water was used as handsoap, and applied directly to treat ant bites.

The leaves of the Fremont Barberry are much like spiny holly leaves, and the fruits are similar to miniature grapes. This is among the tallest of barberries, commonly 5- to 10-feet tall, but growing sometimes as tall as 15 feet. This barberry produces clusters of 2 to 9 small yellow flowers that in late summer are replaced by tiny (less than half an inch in diameter) dark blue berries. The leaves each consist of 3 to 7 leaflets, each one inch by half an inch in size, and with several short points along each margin. In fall the leaves change from dark green to red and purple, but they are not shed during the winter.

Fremont barberry fruits are prized for jellies and jams, and may also be used in a bitter tonic. The root and yellow-wood stems are a source of a yellow dye.

A sparse, rigidly-branched evergreen shrub 1½ to 4 feet tall, with deep, fibrous roots and numerous slender (1/8-inch diameter), jointed stems, scalelike leaves, and opposite or whorled branching.

Joint-Fir is found in open, dry, rocky lower elevations. It is sexually dimorphic -- the male and female plants have different forms.

In late spring small yellow flowers form in dense clusters. The fruit, containing small paired nutlike seeds, ripens in mid- to late-summer.

Many of the multistemmed plants that appear to be single individuals are in fact two or more genetically distinct plants originating from a rodent's seed cache.

Joint-Fir is important winter and drought forage for quail, cottontails, and mule deer.

The most popular use is as a hot beverage but also drunk cold, and chewing on stems is said to quench thirst. Joint-Fir contains tannin and pseudoephedrine (a decongestant) and has various medicinal uses. In historic times it has been used in leather tanning. It is said that this plant was once thought to be a safeguard against venereal diseases.

Mountain Mahogany is a native xerophytic (dry-loving) deciduous (sheds leaves in winter) shrub of the Rose Family. Though it is usually about the height of a person, it can grow to 20 feet and live over 50 years. It is an understory species in the P-J forest. In the higher elevations it prefers steep slopes.

The taproot of the Mountain Mahogany commonly extends over 3 feet downward. If it encounters bedrock the root will grow along it until it finds a crack into which it will grow downward again.

Its simple, alternate ¼- to 2¼-inch-long wedge-shaped leaves have notched margins along the apex (point) but straight margins at the base. The small, dull, petal-less white flower of early summer produces a remarkable long, silvery, twisted plume that lasts well past fall.

Mountain mahogany reproduces by sprouts from the root crown and by wind-dispersal of seeds. The seeds and seedlings need both shade and plant litter to do well, and are usually happiest beneath an old plant. Piñon also may be found growing out of the litter beneath a Mountain Mahogany.

Mountain Mahogany is good forage for wildlife and domestic livestock, especially wild and domestic sheep. But as the plant contains high concentrations of copper animals may be poisioned by a constant diet of it.

It is a popular drought-resistant water-efficient ornamental shrub.

Mountain mahogany was used for fire sticks, throwing sticks, and prayer sticks. It is recorded that the hard wood was occasionally carved for arrow points. The twigs are a bedbug inhibitor, and in Tewa it is recorded that young mountain mahogany in powder form and mixed with water is a good laxative. The roots and bark are well-known for producing a reddish-brown dye for use on leather.

Lavender-colored flowers at the end of long -- commonly 3-feet tall -- spindly stalks with few leaves. Most of the dark green prickly leaves are concentrated around the base of this plant. The spines along the margins of the leaves are frequently found in groups of three.

The Cerrillos Hills are near the north limit of the range of the New Mexico Thistle.

Chamiso (often "Chamisa"), one of the earliest native shrubs to green-up in spring, grows along dry, sandy watercourses, its deep root system well designed to tap underground moisture. The varieties of Rabbitbrush are many, with over 25 subspecies identified. It is found from sea level to as high as 10,500 feet, but thrives in cold desert envrionments. It requires about 4 years to reach maturity, when it may be between 1 and 8 feet tall. It is often found in association with Apache Plume.

Two of the many varieties of Rabbitbrush in the area are C. graveolins, with longer leaves, smooth and blunt-ended bracts (the petals at the base of the flower), and commonly growing to a height of 4 feet, and C. bigelovii, which has shorter leaves, pointed fuzzy bracts, and rarely grows more than 2-feet tall.

Young twigs and leaves are covered with a fine felt-like white wool ("trichomes") which insulates the plant and reduces transpiration, and gives the plant a gray-green appearance. Rabbitbrush produces large quantities of leaf litter, an excellent soil mulch and soil regenerator.

Dense clusters of yellow-green flowers turn to rich gold by late summer, turning arroyos into golden rivers.

Reproduction is both by means of root sprouts and by seeds.

Rabbitbrush is a favorite of jackrabbits, and pronghorn antelope like to browse flowers and current-year leafage, but it is of little importance to most larger animals. Rabbitbrush is slightly toxic to livestock, who use it mostly for winter forage.

During World War II, Rabbitbrush was used in the production of rubber. It was found that Rabbitbrush latex production was best in high-temperature, low soil-moisture environments.

Chamiso flowers are a source of yellow dye used for leather, cotton, and wool. A tea made from chamiso leaves is said to be good for colds and stomach disorders. Chamiso galls, caused by reaction to insect eggs, are good for toothache and stomach problems.

Chamiso is the name for saltbush, Atriplex canescens, and Chamiso Hediondo is sagebrush, Artemisia spp.

This 7-inch tall woody member of the aster family spreads by underground stems. The half-inch long glandular, hairy leaves are oblong or linear. The half-inch diameter flowers are composed of white ray florets and yellow disk florets.

The Rose-Heath is also known as the Baby Aster or the Heath Aster.

The Rose-Heath likes the rocky soil of the piñon-juniper woodlands where it may be seen to bloom from May through September.

Many species of sagebrush are in the area. All grow several feet tall and have highly aromatic silvery leaves. Sand sagebrush is willow-like with thread-like leaves, and is common to sandy places. Fringed sagebrush is lower, has tiny, crowded leaves, and has an extremely wide range.

Sagebrush has many ancient medicinal uses related to its aromatic oils. Teas are used for digestive problems, and the leaves can be chewed to induce vomiting. Either steamed or applied as a pack, preparations of sagebrush leaves are used to treat congestion, colds, and coughs. In the 18th century sagebrush tea was thought to treat Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Called in Spanish chamiso hediondo because of its pungency, teas and baths with it are said to promote sweating and thereby bodily cleansing.

Fringed sage A. frigida, or Mexican sage A. ludovician, is estafiate, and is used as a stomach tonic.

This native, perennial, cold-season shrub, generally rounded in shape and 2 to 8 feet tall, reaches maturity in 10 to 20 years and may live to 30 years or beyond. Found on rocky slopes and sandy bottom land, the Threeleaf Sumac is a climax community indicator; when you see it established you can be reasonably sure that the overall plant community is mature.

The Threeleaf has deep and extensively-branched roots, and reproduction may be from root-crown rhizomes (suckers) or by seeds, often from seeds left in rodent caches.

In early spring, before its leaves come out, it shows clusters of small yellow flowers. Soon afterward come, on alternate branches (not paired), the triplet leaves; toothed, shiny green on top and pale below. The leaves and branches, when broken, are unplesantly aromatic. The small orange-to-red, highly acidic berries are sticky and have short, glandular hairs. The fruit persists into winter and is an important food source for many birds and small mammals.

Thickets of Threeleaf Sumac may provide shelter to a wild variety of wildlife, and because it is unpalatable to livestock it is sometimes planted as a deterrent to grazers.

Threeleaf foliage takes on an exceptional bright red or orange color in the fall.

Sometimes called lemonade-bush after the taste of the berries, it was and is crushed and used as flavoring in drinks. Commonly associated with old settlement areas. New branches are straight and supple, but dry hard and rigid; ideal for making arrow shafts. Sumac stems have long been used in basketry, and sumac leaves, along with piñon gum and clay, are ingredients of a black dye for cotton or wool. Crushed leaves may be used as a foot powder or deodorant!

A spiny, scraggly, densely branched, saline tolerant shrub rarely more than a yard tall, the Wolfberry is one of the first plants to break winter dormancy. The Wolfberry's extraordinary root system may extend 25 to 30 feet beyond the above-ground plant.

New growth is a glistening pale yellow and old growth is dark reddish brown. Small clusters of leaves on the branches are leathery and pale green, and are shed during winter, during droughts, and when the air / soil temperature exceeds 86°F.

Inch-long creamy green bell-shaped flowers appear singly or in clusters in May and June, and half-inch long, orange-to-red, juicy berries with 30 to 50 seeds ripen in July. The berries are a favorite food of rodents and birds.

Domestic livestock may browse some foliage, but the Wolfberry is not much used by larger wildlife. Coyotes often make use of Wolfberry thickets as cover.

Wolfberries are regularly associated with the disturbed land of prehistoric settlements.

Leaves were applied to cuts; the ripe berries are eaten, and sometimes green berries are sweetened with sugar and eaten. Bits of wolfberry root were placed with corn seeds to inhibit worms and speed the corn's growth.