The Journal of California Anthropology

In 1969, while working in Baja California on Tipai (the Diegueno dialect of La Huerta), I made a collection of local plants and discussed their Mexican and Tipai names and uses with my two main consultants, Maria Aldama and Alejandrina Murillo de Melendres (referred to below as MA and AM respectively), and a third woman, Anfelina Merchado, with whom I consulted less frequently. The purpose here is simply to reproduce these notes, scanty as they are, for the use of other people doing ethnobotanical studies. This collection makes no pretense of being complete. Various plants that are surely well-known to the La Huerta community (such as mescal and yucca) were left out because they were not encountered during my stay there. No attempt was made to do an exhaustive analysis of La Huerta ethnobotany.