Channeling Euell Gibbons - Palo Verde, Mesquite and Brittle Bush

When I was growing up, Euell Gibbons was featured on Grape-Nuts commercials: "Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible." He followed that up by saying that Grape-Nuts "reminds me of wild hickory nuts." After many posts on plants, some of which are edible by humans, I decided to give some of them a culinary try.

The palo verde leaves and the beans inside the bean pods are edible. 

This palo verde has mostly turned to beans, but some flowers remain.

The green seeds in the green seed pods are very much like sweet peas in a pod. They even have the slightly sweet taste.

Even as the pods get older and start to dry out, beans remain good, although a little less sweet.

The leaves aren't quite so good. They were slightly bitter and certainly not something I would add to a salad unless I was very hungry.

The honey mesquite bean pod and inside beans are edible without preparation. The bean pods I were finding were deteriorating, but I was able to find some suitable to eat.

The reddish-brown bean pods are ripe.

The beans were pretty good, not as sweet as the palo verde tree beans.

The pods themselves were a different matter. I tried some and my throat was irritated by the chaff, much like the chaff from shelling peanuts, but much worse. I was not fond of the texture or taste. 

I read that brittle bush was a favorite of the chuckwalla. I did not read that it was consumed by humans (I see now that humans made tea out of the dried leaves), but decided to try the leaves. 

Brittlebush

The petals of the brittle bush were also slightly bitter, but the texture was better than the palo verde flowers. However, I think I'll leave them for the chuckwallas.

But the beans of the palo verde and honey mesquite are not bad. 

Gambel's Quail - Corn Springs

Since my first post on Gambel's quail, I've been back to Corn Springs two times and have gotten additional photos of quail each time. None of them are great, but I've got some flying shots and some shots of females. 

These were actually photographed off Hayfield Road while I was watching a jackrabbit lying down in the shade. 

A running male in Corn Springs.

A female

Western Chuckwalla

With another visit to Corn Springs in the Chuckwalla Mountains last Saturday, it was not surprising that I found three more chuckwallas, all found within a very small distance from each other. My visits to Corn Springs have been a treasure trove of knowledge about chuckwallas which I have loved from my youth. 

The first was sunning itself on a rock above me while I followed the nature trail at Corn Springs. It did not seem fazed by my movement and never ducked for cover. 

The chuckwallas here seem very old and grizzled. They are absolutely amazing looking. 

The next chuckwalla was only about 25 yards from the first chuckwalla.

This is when I first saw it, from the side.

From a different angle. 

And from another angle. 

Finally, I saw the next chuckwalla quite close to the second one, but further up on the highest rock in the area. 

I really love these lizards. It is a joy to see so many of them so close together. 

Desert Willow

I've not seen any desert willow on the south side of the I-10 freeway off Hayfield Road, but there are quite a few of them in the wash around Corn Springs in the Chuckwalla Mountains. 

The desert willow, center front, near Corn Springs. 

It can be a shrub or a tree. Those that I saw ten years ago on the north side of Hayfield Road were more like shrubs and had larger flowers. I saw flowers that were both white and lavender. In Corn Springs the desert willows are trees and have smaller flowers and the flowers are predominantly white. 

The flowers have two ruffled upper lobes and three yellow and magenta streaked lower lobes. 

A male monarch butterfly on a desert willow flower. This particular tree was being swarmed by butterflies. 

Black-Tailed Jackrabbit

I've had some amazing experiences with jackrabbits this summer - and had another one today. On May 23rd I was in the Sonoran Desert near Hayfield Road and had a jackrabbit get and stay very close to me for quite awhile. It showed no fear and never attempted to run away. 

The jackrabbit does not hibernate and stays in the same territory all its life, from .4 to 1.2 square miles. I point this out because I parked in the same spot this morning and had what has to be the same jackrabbit come near me again. I was just getting in my car to leave and he came walking in front of my car. He ate from a honey mesquite tree for awhile then walked about 30 yards away from me and laid down in the shade of a tree. It was about 8:00 a.m. and the temperature registered 91 degrees on my car thermometer.

This photo was taken from my car. Note the shade in the foreground and the rabbit's ears are sticking up toward the right side in the shade. 

I'd never seen a jackrabbit lay down before, so I got my camera and walked slowly toward it, stopping often. I got within about 10 yards of it and took some photos.The rabbit was laying flat on the ground with its back legs stretched out. Only its ears were erect. 

At one point a covey of Gambel's quail started calling from about 30 yards away and the rabbit got up and sat. I turned and took some photos of the quail.

After awhile, the rabbit laid back down again and stayed that way until I walked back to my car and left.

Incredible. I can only guess that I'm the only human it has run into and has not learned to be afraid. 

Honey Mesquite

The honey mesquite is a legume and is found in the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico. In the Hayfield Road bajada of the Orocopia Mountains of southeastern California it is a low growing shrub which provides a refuge for quail, rabbits and other animals. The fruit is a bean pod  or seed pod that was eaten by Native Americans and many animals, including deer, Gambel's quail, coyotes, jackrabbits and other small mammals and songbirds. The animals that ate the pods then spread the seeds around after they were digested and defecated.  

A flowering honey mesquite. 

The flowers, particularly when they are young and more white, reflect the early morning light. 

For man, several beverages were made from it: (a) An intoxicating drink was made by cooking the ripe seedpods, grinding them up, adding water, then allowing it to ferment; (b) A milk-like drink was made by cooking immature (green) seedpods and squeezing out the juice; (c) tea was made from the flowers; and (d) the roots were used to flavor drinks.  The bean pods were ground into flour in a mortar, then put in a container, dampened with water and allowed to sit for 24 hours to harden. The meal was then formed into cakes and eaten dry, made into a mush, or mixed with water for the intoxicating drink (above). The ripe pods can be eaten, as-is, without any processing. The Cahuilla roasted the flowers in a pit of heated stones, then formed them into balls and ate them. There were many other uses of the tree as outlined in a USDA guide. 

The leaves are bipinnate, meaning that, like a fern, the axis is the midrib and there are two leaves, one on each side of the midrib. The leaves are attached to the stem by a petiole. The leaves are willowy and shed each winter. The leaves sprout again in early spring. 

The leaves of the honey mesquite.

Flowers spring from a petiole with buds forming about half-way down and circling the petiole. The flowers are spikelike and surround the petiole like a bottle brush, They are creamy white, then get bushier and turn a golden brown. The blossoms have lots of nectar and are pollinated by bees. 

Petioles connect the branch and the buds.

The buds, center, start to spike out into flowers (top left) and eventually the flower surrounds the petiole (bottom right).

The young flowers are very reflective of the light.

Eventually the flowers enlarge and darken into a golden brown and then begin to form thin bean pods that grown longer and wider. 

The flowers on this branch are transforming into bean pods and the branch has much fewer flowers and larger bean pods than the photo above it. 

A wider image of branches laden with flowers and bean pods. The trees, in this state, can be noticed from long distances. 

Seed pods develop from the flowers with an individual compartment for each seed or bean. When the bean pods are ripe they are reddish-brown. 

The green bean pods are immature.

With the sun hitting the green pods, the compartmentalized seeds can be seen inside the pods. 

The ripe, reddish brown, bean pods.