Re: Coffeeberry - Rhamnus californica
- To: , <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
- Subject: Re: Coffeeberry - Rhamnus californica
- From: J*
- Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 12:05:05 -0700
Hmm I hadn't noticed whether the neighborhood deer herd had browsed the
coffeeberries in my garden, so I just went to have a look. Oddly enough,
although the deer have eaten a morning glory tower down to nubs, and all the
flowering stalks off a border penstemon, the coffeeberry just two feet away
is untouched. Maybe deer only eat native shrubs when they can't get yummier
garden produce? These deer have dined well on roses, grapes, and tomatoes.
-----Original Message-----
From: paul@nevco.k12.ca.us <paul@nevco.k12.ca.us>
To: medit-plants@ucdavis.edu <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Date: Wednesday, September 29, 1999 9:19 AM
Subject: Coffeeberry - Rhamnus californica
>Coffeeberry is one of the most common shrubs on my property (along with
>ceanothus and manzanita) and throughout our chaparral/lower montane
>plant community. There are a lot of native plants that aren't grown
>commercially (yet), but just last weekend, I purchased a 6" Rhamnus
>californica plant at a California Native Plant Society sale in our area.
>(Don't ask why I bought this plant when it's growing thick as weeds
>here...) I hadn't seen it sold commercially before. I've noticed that,
>in the last year, a lot of new native (California) plants are coming on
>the market, which is very encouraging.
>
>According to an obscure research document titled "Maidu Uses of Native
>Flora and Fauna" (1972) by Dorothy J. Hill, the indigenous people of the
>Northern Sierra Nevada used coffeeberry both for food and ritual. Hill
>reports that the root and leaves were used "for internal medicine and
>poison oak remedy." She doesn't say how it was used, exactly. Also, as
>others have stated earlier stated, the berries were used as a laxative.
>The root was heated and chewed for toothache. Finally, the berries were
>strung as beads.
>
>>From another document I have, a Sacramento State College Master's Degree
>project titled "Maidu Ethnobotany" (1963) by John Whitfield Duncan III:
>The Nisenan (southern) Maidu word for coffeeberry was la'a'. The Maidus
>a bit further north called it sumpiti or sympiti, which translated as
>"dog excrement." You can guess why. Duncan, and many other
>ethnobotanists who researched the Maidus, interviewed Maidu elder Lizzie
>Enos, who was still living in a fairly traditional manner in the 1950s
>and 1960s. Anyway, Lizzie said coffeeberry root was boiled to make a
>medicinal tea. She told a story that this tea was given to a white
>woman, who promptly died. "She said the tea must have been made too
>strong." The tea was used both externally and internally as a remedy for
>poison oak. Beads were made from seeds. A few berries were eaten as a
>laxative.
>
>As for gardening with coffeeberry, it probably has drawbacks that might
>prevent it from ever selling like hotcakes. Like many shrubs native to
>this area, it grows fairly slowly (slower, it seems, than redbud,
>fremontedendron, spicebush and ceanothus), so a gardener would have to
>be patient to get a plant big enough to produce a lot of flowers (it
>doesn't bloom very long, either) or berries. Also, coffeeberry is
>heavily browsed by deer, so it would have to be protected for many years
>until its leaves get up high enough to escape being eaten. I'm looking
>out my window right now and noticing one 6' plant with no leaves below
>5'. On the positive side, coffeeberry obviously needs little water in
>the summer. We have had less than 3 inches of rain since the end of
>March and no measurable rain for over 70 days and the bigger coffeeberry
>plants here still have mostly green leaves (they turn bright yellow in
>the fall.) But our native shrubs survive the long dry season, in part,
>because they are rooted in heavy clay soil which takes a longer time to
>dry out than loamy soil. So, you might plant coffeeberry outside its
>native habitat, you might be risking that the soil might be too rich or
>too loamy, or it might get too much water. Then again, it might respond
>to better growing conditions and a milder climate.
>
>Barry ... "mucilaginous texture." Nice wordsmithing!
>
>Paul Harrar
>Nevada City, California
>Sunset Zone 7
>2,700 ft.
>
>
