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Seeking to bring oneself into harmony with nature is a prerequisite to
Renaissance Personhood. However, this does not mean viewing human beings as intruders in nature, but as an
integral part of nature. Only the management of natural resources by persons who have legitimate authority of them
through ownership is consonant with human freedom and dignity. Imposing one's will concerning the environment on
other persons through tyrannical laws is unacceptable. Each person, as an individual, has direct responsibility
for stewardship of the environment in which he lives.
The information on these pages is taken from my book in preparation entitled Harvesting the Sonoran
Desert. It includes both the scientific names and common names and information on the uses of the plants. The
native names of some of the plants are given after the name of each native language. These plants are either
native to the Sonoran Desert, or are cultivated there. The Sonoran Desert covers parts of California, Arizona,
Sonora, and Baja California. This material is © 2001 by Pat Goltz.
The information on these pages is intended for enjoyment, and any information about the use of herbs medicinally
is applied at the risk of the reader. It is not our intention to represent that any of the information is useful to
treat or cure any medical condition, and we urge any person with a medical condition to consult with a qualified
practitioner.
This is a compendium of information from many sources, including personal experience.
Please note that in the list of names, any word that has a combination of characters such as
this: "v*", it signifies that the preceding letter has an inverse circumflex, such as is used in Czech. As soon as
I figure out how to use these letters together with some of the accents used in other languages, I'll do
it.
Of interest is the fact that all cactus fruit of native Sonoran Desert species is edible, though some is
insipid. Please do NOT use the flesh of a rare cactus except in dire emergency, or otherwise destroy a rare
cactus. If you eat the fruit, please plant at least some of the seeds. In some cases, it is illegal to destroy
a particular species of cactus.
The links on the right are essays about animals, mostly of the Sonoran Desert. These are my own adventures.
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Barrel Cactus