DESCRIPTION: Also known
as Rocky Mountain Beeplant. Annual dicot. Native to the U.S.. Widespread throughout
most parts of the United States at elevations under 8,500 ft, on waste lands,
sandy soils, and lower mountain slopes. This member of the caper family was
collected in quantity by pre-historic peoples in the Southwest for food, medicine,
and dye. It is one of the few wild foods still collected and used.
An infusion of the plant is used to treat stomach illnesses and fevers. Poultices
of bee weed can be used on the eyes. The leaves, flowers and shoots can be
eaten as a ‘potherb’; native peoples eat the plants cooked in
cornmeal porridge. The seeds can be eaten raw, cooked, or dried and ground
into a meal, to be cooked as mush. The whole plant was boiled down into a
thick syrup which was used for painting pottery. A decoction of this syrup
was also used as “a body and shoe deodorant” (2).
Copyright 2003 Northern Arizona University.
page was authored by Vanessa Cornell