Pluchea sericea

{{Short description|Species of plant}}

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|image = Pluchea sericea 1.jpg

|genus = Pluchea

|species = sericea

|authority = Nutt.

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Pluchea sericea, commonly called arrowweed or cachanilla (Mexico), is a rhizomatous evergreen shrub of riparian areas in the lower Sonoran Desert and surrounding areas. It is common in the lower Colorado River valley of California, Nevada and Arizona, as far east as Texas, and in northern Mexico where it often forms dense impenetrable thickets. It is a perennial shrub and grows along watercourses.{{Cite web |title=Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - The University of Texas at Austin |url=https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PLSE |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=www.wildflower.org}}

Uses

It was once used medicinally by Native Americans as an antidiarrheal and eyewash. Other traditional uses include thatching, arrowmaking and food, especially the edible root.{{Cite web |title=BRIT - Native American Ethnobotany Database |url=http://naeb.brit.org/redirect/?referer= |access-date= |website=naeb.brit.org}}

In other uses, the gum resin that exudes from the plant was used by the Papago Indians to make a mending glue on broken pottery.{{cite book|last1=Fontana |first1=Bernard L.|last2=Robinson|first2=William J.|last3=Cormack|first3=Charles W.|last4=Leavitt|first4=Earnest E.|year=1962|title=Papago Indian Pottery|publisher=University of Washington Press, on behalf of the American Ethnological Society|location=Seattle, Washington|page=81 |language=en|oclc=869680}}

References

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