Quelite : Tequelite
Also known as P. maculosa : tequelite, tequelite macho (1), najashuio macho, juksasan, cunsasan grande, oreja de burro “donkey ear” (Coatepec, Altotonga, Coscomatepec.), cuantepeneni (Altotonga), cilantro de monte and cilantro macho (Coatepec, Xico) P.peltilimba : Nacastequilit, tequelite, tequelite hembra (1),Tequelite de panixkaka (Cuetzalan, Zoquiapan, Tuzamapan, Huehuetla and Tlalauquitepec, in the northern highlands of Puebla (Rodríguez & al., 2010) tepoquelite, cilantro de monte, cilantro cimarrón, cilantro … Continue reading Quelite : Tequelite
Quelite Agrio : Other Sour Quelites
In my Post Xocoyoli : The Sour Quelite I mention one of my first plant memories involving what we colloquially know as sourgrass. This plant was a variety of Oxalis (Oxalis pes-caprae). This particular plant is indigenous to Southern Africa but has spread around the World. It is considered to be a weed of agricultural crops and the species can be quite difficult to control … Continue reading Quelite Agrio : Other Sour Quelites
Quelite : Mafafa
Xanthosoma robustum Also called Paxnikak (1), Lok, barbaron, pitzoquilit This plant is a “tolerated” quelite when found growing in coffee plantations or the milpa, in that I mean it will be left to grow if it sprouts up as a weed in commercial or other agricultural crops. This is often the case with quelites which are generally considered to be weed plants. There are some … Continue reading Quelite : Mafafa
Xocoyoli : The Sour Quelite
As a child one of my first plant memories involves what we called “sour grass”. This is a plant in the Oxalis family (Oxalis pres-carpae) that has four leaf clover like leaves, bright yellow flowers and long juicy stems. The stems (or peduncles) would be chewed like a farmer chews a haystalk as we walked or played. It was often a challenge to see who … Continue reading Xocoyoli : The Sour Quelite
Quelite : Anis de Chucho : Tagetes micrantha
This plant is often called Tagetes filifolia. They are similarly flavoured and can be used interchangeably both culinarily and medicinally. Anís de chucho, anisillo (Central Mexico, San Luis Potosi, Durango, Chihuahua, Michoacan – more specifically Patzcuaro), anis de campo (Michoacan), anis de suelo (Guerrero), Tanix’ ch’ian (Motozintla, Chiapas), yuku anís (Mixtec), licorice marigold, Anise marigold (Southern Baja), putsut, putzuti (Lascurain-Rangel et al 2022) Tagetes micrantha … Continue reading Quelite : Anis de Chucho : Tagetes micrantha
The Glory of the Aztec Empire
On Saturday 25/03/22 (03/25 if you’re from the E.U.A) I presented another talk at the Museum of Western Australia on behalf of the Friends of Mexico Society. (Notes in BOLD have been added to this Post and were not part of my original talk) This is an outline of my latest presentation at the Western Australian Museum as part of their Boola Bardip program of … Continue reading The Glory of the Aztec Empire
Quelite : Anís de campo : Tagetes filifolia
Tagetes filifolia The Latin Tagētes is derived from the name of the Etruscan Tages, born from the plowing of the earth.The species epithet, filifolia, is derived from the Latin, filum “thread” and folium “leaf” and describes the plant as having thread-like leaves According to a legend, Tages was a wise child who sprung up from the freshly ploughed earth. Later he taught Etruscans divination.Cicero reports … Continue reading Quelite : Anís de campo : Tagetes filifolia
Tithonia : The Mexican Sunflower
This Post is not about the sunflower you might typically think of. The flower I know as a sunflower is of the Helianthus (1) species. This plant (H.annuus) is also a Mexican plant and although it has been posited that this plant was introduced into México by the Spanish (Heiser 1998) (2), there is evidence (Lentz etal 2008) that this plant arose in the southwestern … Continue reading Tithonia : The Mexican Sunflower
Harvesting Jamaica.
First of all. It’s not pronounced like this… Its closer to huh – my – ca (the last bit sounds like cup without the p). We are talking about a species of hibiscus whose calyxes are used culinarily and medicinally. The images below are from my garden. The plant/flower is also regularly misidentified (which is kind of a gripe of mine) See Flor de Jamaica … Continue reading Harvesting Jamaica.
Totomoxtle (and the Tamal)
Hoja para tamales (leaves for tamales) One of the most interesting things (well to me anyway) when learning about something is the language used. I really enjoy looking into the etymology of the origin of a word. Mexico is very interesting as you already know several words of Nahuatl origin, perhaps even without being aware of it. Words like chocolate, tomato and avocado all have … Continue reading Totomoxtle (and the Tamal)
Masa Americana 