Native American Ethnobotany

Used by the Navajo, Zuni, Ute, Acoma and Laguna peoples.

Used by the Abnaki, Algonquin, Chippewa, Cree, Iroquois and other peoples.

Monarda plants were used by many tribes for fever, headache, cough and pain; the Cherokee used bee balm as a poultice for colds and headaches.

Used by more than 20 peoples, including the Paiute, Shoshoni, Navajo, Zuni, Tewa, Hopi, Washo, Klamath and Okanagan-Colville.

Used by Native Americans for kidney problems, malaria, sore throat and menstrual cramps.

Used for fever and rheumatism, and to cause vomiting.

Used by Native Americans for fever and infections, and as a whole-plant tea for colds, sore throat and flu.

Used by the Cherokee, Iroquois, Delaware, Meskwaki and Pawnee.

Used by the Pima, Hopi, Micmac and Malecite.

Indigenous people in Canada showed it to a 16th-century expedition as a remedy for weakness from scurvy.

Used by the Navajo, Hopi, Zuni, Havasupai, Jemez, Tewa, Shoshoni and other peoples of the Southwest.

Wild tobacco smoked in pipes on the Columbia Plateau for at least 1,200 years.

Used by the Zuni for stomachaches and skin sores.

Native American peoples used echinacea to relieve toothache, calm coughs and increase saliva, using preparations rich in natural compounds called alkamides. This use carried over into Eclectic medicine, a branch of American medicine in the early 1900s that relied heavily on plants.

Technical detail: antitussive, sialagogue.

Seeds used by the Cherokee, Iroquois and Menominee for urinary problems and worms.

Used for digestive problems, wounds, skin and eye conditions, and cancer, and as a bitter tonic.

Drunk as a tea by the Tewa and Western Keres; its relative Navajo tea by the Navajo, Hopi and Apache.

Used by the Zuni, Navajo, Apache and Western Keres.

Many Native American tribes used crushed jewelweed to treat or prevent rashes from poison ivy and stinging nettle.

Used by the Thompson, Okanagan, Gitksan, Carrier, Blackfoot, Bella Coola, Kwakiutl and many other western peoples.

Used for centuries in the Peruvian Andes as a food and medicine to improve health, energy and fertility, and as an adaptogen for anemia and female hormone balance.

Used by the Navajo, Pima (O'odham) and Cocopa peoples.

Used by the Hopi, Apache, Acoma, Jemez, Isleta and Western Keres.

Used for many years by Hispanic and Native American peoples for colds, flu, chest infections and digestive upset.

Berries eaten by the Navajo, Hopi, Havasupai, Acoma and Pueblo peoples.

One of the most culturally important medicinal plants for the Q'eqchi' Maya of Guatemala, used to bathe sick children.

The Algonquin people have used white pine needle tea to strengthen the immune system.

Used by many tribes, including the Cherokee, Creek, Iroquois, Ojibwa and Potawatomi, for toothache, rheumatism, fevers, colds and coughs.

Used by the Zuni, Navajo, Jemez, Costanoan and Diegueño.

Used by the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Havasupai and Western Keres peoples.

Used by the Zuni, Navajo, Hopi, Okanagan-Colville and Teton Sioux.

Root tea used as a tonic and for bronchitis in Appalachia.

Used by the Blackfoot, Lakota, Dakota, Navajo, Cheyenne, Comanche, Acoma and Laguna peoples.

Used for centuries by Native Americans, including the Cherokee, for period problems, nerves, digestion and kidney problems.

Choctaw and Koasati use of the bark as a wash for heat rash and sores, and in a steam bath for swelling.

Used in traditional Mayan medicine for stomach and bowel pain.

Burned in smudging ceremonies.

Native Americans used storax, the tree's resin, to control coughs and dysentery.

Used by the Hopi, Navajo, Zuni, Apache and Western Keres peoples.

Bundled with other plants and burned for smudging, a cleansing ritual.

Recorded in Native American medicine for treating cancerous sores.

Used by the Cahuilla, Chumash, Pima, Shoshoni, Paiute, Kawaiisu, Costanoan, Isleta and other peoples of the Southwest and California.

Used by Indigenous peoples for centuries for various ailments, especially breathing problems.

Used by Native Americans for arthritis and other ailments.