India Herbs

Publication: drweil.com

Author: SHELLY LEWELLEN

Date: December 26th 2006

Knowledge about Sonoran Desert flora may have been lost if the Tucson Botanical Gardens hadn’t started the Heritage Plants Intergenerational Project.

Senior citizens from Catholic Community Services and students from Sahuaro High School came together in the garden to share and absorb others’ knowledge about plants.

In the second year of the program, relationships are growing. The project is not only a bridge between generations, but it also brings centuries-old knowledge about plants to today’s young adults.

Sahuaro students “asked us questions about herbs,” said Frances Ortiz, 80. “I am very familiar with herbs. I was able to tell them what I knew about herbs. I passed my mother’s lessons to them.

“My mother used to cure us with herbs. I never went to the doctor. We were very poor at the time. My mother used plants that were growing wild in the desert.”

Ortiz said she learned about plants from the women in her family. “My mother would tell me about the plants. She would use the orange leaves and corn silk to make teas. She would make all the remedies for us,” she said.

“Peppermint is one of the most common for stomachache and fever,” she said. “For colds, my mother would make a lot of teas. When our throats hurt, she made a tea of the pomegranate peel. She would dry the peels and have bags of it. That would cure us. We never had to go to the doctor.”

Maria Luna, 88, said through a translator, “My mother taught us to use plants to cure our sickness. There were many thing growing that she could use to heal us.”

Ortiz is always looking to add to her knowledge of plants. “I learned a lot more from the (Tucson Botanical Gardens) when I was there.”

The Tucson Botanical Gardens’ Office of Educational and Horticulture Therapy started a similar project in 2005 and the Heritage Plants Intergenerational Project grew out of it. The project operates with the help of four 2006 grants.

The Arizona Humanities Council, The Elizabeth Read Taylor Foundation and The Stocker Foundation all contributed to the project.

“The people share more than stories of plants, for plants are woven into the stories of their lives,” said Yarina Hynd, the community education coordinator at the garden.

The garden group is also working to put together a booklet of the seniors’ plant memories. It is to be printed in February, Hynd said.

“When the seniors came to the garden and we asked about how plants played a part in their lives, it was like a flood gate opened,” Hynd said.

“They said no one wanted to hear their stories, until they came to us. They were so pleased to be able to pass the knowledge along.”

For more information on the intergenerational project, call the Tucson Botanical Gardens at 326-9686.

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