This little tree only grows in really special places were the is no frost danger. The trunk is elephant like, swelling with moisture and peeling its bark off. It is very similar to Myrrh gum....you can cut the tree and collect the resin, although we have yet to do that. You dont even hurt the tree, it just bleeds some of its amazing resivoir. The resin and to a lesser extent the twigs and leaves are a great white blood cell stimulant. They raise the wbc count an as such have great implications for all immune compromising diseases -- although since most cancer therapies are tested for efficacy by how many white blood cells they kill, this poses problems for people in hospital settings where they are doing the cheapest tests possible instread of actually testing for the effects of the chemo in the blood. If you are not in the hosptial under such setting, this, and myrrh are a great option.
The purple berries are a favortie treat of birds and they keep the production slowly happening slowly over a 4 months period to keep thier seed stratifiers near by.
I love this tree.
Neil and I sought it out on the slopes of the highway that runs out of Yuma (a total cess pool of a town) on the border of CA, we scrambled up the side of the cliff overlooking I-8 right past a border patrol stop and "sampled" some foliage. Not more than 15 mintues passed before we were being buzzed by a helicopter. The man at the controls flying low and tilting the craft so he could look down and report what he saw in his head set -- needless to say we got out of there asap. Anyone walking anywhere off a known road or trail is suspect mexican until proven innocent. Run!
We also found another stand of this precious tree in a basin inside Organ Pipe National Monument, the amazing park half closed due to teh fact that the narcotrafficante were running their hummers full speed across the border at night and destroying the ecosystem and land in order to deliver thier cargo -- we had to hike into this section due to the closures.
The park is names after this cactus that looks like organ pipes.
No comments:
Post a Comment