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Phyllanthus warnockii
Phyllanthus warnockii, the sand reverchonia, is a plant species of the leaf-flower family. It is an annual that specializes in growing on sand dunes in the Southwestern United States and adjacent northeastern Mexico. Though experiments found it to be poisonous to sheep, members of the Hopi Tribe in northeastern Arizona traditionally use the berries to oil and season cooking slabs for making corn wafer bread.
Sand reverchonia is native to seven central and western US states and to the state of Chihuahua in northeastern Mexico. It grows in western Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is rare in Colorado, only being recorded in Bent County. Plants are found in the three southernmost Utah counties, Washington, Kane, and San Juan, and also in three northern Arizonan counties, Coconino, Navajo, and Apache. In New Mexico it grows in five widely scattered southern counties. The Samalayuca Dune Fields that support the species in Chihuahua are south of Ciudad Juárez in the northeastern corner of the state. Its elevation range is from 300 to 1,800 meters (980–5,910 ft) and its habitat is limited to areas of quartz sands such as dunes.
The traditional way of preparing piki, a waffer bread made of corn, is on a stone cooking surface. Most frequently the seeds of watermelons or squash are used to oil the stone, but the fruits of sand reverchonia are also used at times. In 1905 H. R. Voth recorded that the Hopi living at Oraibi, Arizona would use sand reverchonia as a medicine called táingwa similarly to the roots of the "blood medicine" Eriogonum annuum to prevent postpartum hemorrhage, though Voth did not record a method of preparation.
Drummond's leaf-flower · Tahitian gooseberry tree · Jamaican gooseberry tree · Carry me seed · Phyllanthus anamalayanus · Phyllanthus arbuscula · Phyllanthus axillaris · Phyllanthus balgooyi · Phyllanthus · Phyllanthus caesiifolius · Phyllanthus calycinus · Carolina leaf-flower
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Phyllanthus warnockii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
