Menu list goes here

Herbal Database Search Results

Back to: Pathways Main Search Page For Metaphysical uses visit The Witchs Haven

Stanleya pinnata

Common name:	Prince's Plume	Family:	Cruciferae
Author:	(Pursh.)Britton.	Botanical references:	71, 200
Synonyms:	Stanleya pinnatifida (Nutt.)
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	South-western N. America - California.
Habitat:	Seleniferous soils, desert slopes and washes to 1500 metres[71].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	2

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	Cleome pinnata[G]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Desert Princesplume [P], Golden Prince's-plume [B],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	pinnata = pinnate
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Capparales. Renamed to Brassicaceae -- Mustard family

Physical Characteristics

Perennial growing to 1m by 0.45m . It is hardy to zone 7. It is in flower from July to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Insects. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 2/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils, requires well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Cultivated Beds.

Edible Uses

Leaves Seed.

Seed - cooked. It is used as a piñ ole[105, 161]. The seed can be parched, ground into a powder and used as a mush[183].
Young leaves and stems - cooked[46, 61, 95, 161]. A cabbage-like flavour, they can be quite bitter at first but changing the water once or more whilst cooking removes the bitterness[183, 257]. Used in the spring[216]. Changing the water also removes many of the vitamins and minerals[K].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Antipruritic Odontalgic Poultice Tonic VD.

A decoction of the root has been used as a tonic to treat general debility after an illness[257]. The pulped root can be placed on the gum or in a tooth cavity in order to relieve toothache[207, 257]. It can also be applied externally as a poultice to relieve earache and rheumatic pain[207, 257]. A poultice of the mashed root has been applied to the throat to treat throat pain and is also used to treat the congestion of diphtheria[257].
A poultice of the plant has been applied to glandular swellings[257]. The powdered plant has been applied as a specific to scraped syphilitic sores[257].
A poultice of the freshly chewed seedpods has been used to treat itches[257].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Requires a perfectly drained soil in full sun[200]. Grows well in an ordinary garden soil[1]. Prefers a poor dry soil[187].
Hardy to about -20° c[187].
Grows well at Kew in a warm sunny well-drained border[K].
There is some confusion over the correct name of this plant, 2 different spellings having been used. Whilst it is possible that these are 2 different plants, it is more likely that the name used at the top of this form is the correct one, whilst the name in the synonyms list is a mis-spelling[161, K].
The plant is often found growing in soils rich in selenium and is a fairly good indicator that selenium is present[200].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a greenhouse. Germination should take place within 3 weeks. Pot up into individual pots as soon as the plants are big enough to handle in order to preserve the root system. Plant out in summer.
Division in spring?

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
Images from the CalPhoto database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[71] Munz. A California Flora. University of California Press 1959
An excellent flora but no pictures. Not for the casual reader.

[95] Saunders. C. F. Edible and Useful Wild Plants of the United States and Canada. Dover Publications 1976 ISBN 0-486-23310-3
Useful wild plants of America. A pocket guide.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[161] Yanovsky. E. Food Plants of the N. American Indians. Publication no. 237. U.S. Depf of Agriculture.
A comprehensive but very terse guide. Not for the casual reader.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[187] Phillips. R. & Rix. M. Perennials Volumes 1 and 2. Pan Books 1991 ISBN 0-330-30936-9
Photographs of over 3,000 species and cultivars of ornamental plants together with brief cultivation notes, details of habitat etc.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[207] Coffey. T. The History and Folklore of North American Wild Flowers. Facts on File. 1993 ISBN 0-8160-2624-6
A nice read, lots of information on plant uses.

[216] Whiting. A. F. Ethnobotany of the Hopi North Arizona Society of Science and Art 1939
A very good guide the the plant uses of the N. American Hopi Indians.

[257] Moerman. D. Native American Ethnobotany Timber Press. Oregon. 1998 ISBN 0-88192-453-9
Very comprehensive but terse guide to the native uses of plants. Excellent bibliography, fully referenced to each plant, giving a pathway to further information. Not for the casual reader.

Readers Comments

Main Search Page Help Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Stanleya+pinnata
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Stanleya+pinnata

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
(You can copy, distribute, display this works but: Attribution is required, its for Non-Commercial purposes, and it's Share Alike (GNUish/copyleft) i.e. has an identical license.)
We also ask that you let us know (michael@thewitchshaven.com) if you link to, redistribute, make a derived work or do anything groovy with this information.

Pathways Home :: View Cart :: Shipping & Returns :: Contact Us :: Privacy Policy :: Philosophy :: The Witchs Haven

We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.