What is a weed? 
A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.
 ~ Ralph Walso Emerson

That's Yerba Santa Shrubs (Eriodictyon californicum) in the foreground.

Yerba Santa means "Sacred Herb" or "Saint Herb" in Spanish.  It is so named by the early California missionaries who learned that West Coast Native People have a pharmacopeia of herbal medicine including this powerful plant whose effects can often seem to be near miraculous.

These low, shrubby evergreens require hot and dry hillside conditions with maximum sun exposure.  The thick, leathery and slender leaves are covered with a resinous substance which prevents rapid moisture loss and gives them an appearance of being varnished.

Native Americans and the early settlers ate and brewed the leaves as an herbal remedy for respiratory maladies, such as colds, asthma, bronchitis and hay fever. Click here for other medicinal uses.  

The leaves were once known as "Indian Chewing Gum" with a balsamic and sweetish taste, followed by an acrid, but not bitter (some say spearmint) aftertaste.  

Please don't pick and try these leaves. I saw a male dog lift his leg and pee directly on them. ;-)

>> The Yerba Santa Story

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