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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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Allelopathy and Companion Planting.

The language of botany and medicine can be quite poetic. The words are derived from historical languages and may (usually) contain Latin or Greek terms (1) and each word if etymologically (2) broken down is a story in itself. As a somewhat appropriate example I present an example as given by Babbel Magazine (3). “The word avocado comes from Spanish aguacate (sometimes ahuacate), which in … Continue reading Allelopathy and Companion Planting.

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Porophyllum ruderale : A Medical Study

Porophyllum ruderale is used as both a culinary (1) and medicinal herb in its place of origin (2). It has unfortunately suffered from its association with the indigenous peoples of México and like many of these plants has been replaced by imported herbs due to this association (3). This is also noted by the author of the study we are now looking at who states … Continue reading Porophyllum ruderale : A Medical Study

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Aceitilla : Bidens pilosa

Genus epithet ‘Bidens’ (BY-dens) means ‘twice’ (bi) and ‘toothed’ (dens), a reference to the two bristles on the tip of the achene-seed (1) of some members of this genus. Species epithet ‘pilosa’ means ‘hairy’, describing the velvety foliage. Synonyms: Bidens abadiae DC; Bidens abadiae var. Sherff pilosoides ; Bidens arenaria Gand.; Bidens gully ME Jones; Bidens bimucronatus Turcz.; Bidens californica DC.; Bidens caracasana DC.; Bidens … Continue reading Aceitilla : Bidens pilosa

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