Eremocarpus setigerus (Hook.) Benth. Euphorbiaceae (Spurge Family) Native Turkey Mullein Dove Weed

                                            October Photo

Plant Characteristics: Low, broad, gray, heavy-scented annual, 3-20 cm. high with alternate, entire, 3 nerved leaves, ovate to suborbicular, 1-5 cm. long, on petioles as long, stellate-pubescent and with stinging longer hairs; staminate fls. pedicelled; calyx ca. 2 mm. long; caps. 4 mm. long; seed dark, +/- variegated, 3-4 mm. long; pistillate fls. 1-3 in lower axils, without a calyx or corolla; pistil pubescent; ovary with 4 or 5 small glands at base.

Habitat:  Common in dry open places, mostly below 2500 ft.; Coastal Sage Scrub, V. Grassland, Oak Wd.; cismontane especially away from immediate coast, occasional at desert edges; to Wash.  May-Oct.

Name:  Greek, eremos, solitary, and karpos, fr.  Setigerus, bearing bristles, referring to the hairy stems, sepals, ovaries and style.  (Dale 107).

General:  Very common in the study area.    Most growth occurs during the dry season.  Photographed specimens from Santa Heights and the area west of the Delhi Ditch. (my comments).       California Indians used the heavy-scented herbage to stupefy fish in small streams in order that they might be caught by hand.  This is where the Spanish name Yerba del Pescado came from.  Turkeys and turtle doves seek the seeds. (Dale 107).       Hairs on the surface of the leaves lead to the production of hairballs in the stomachs of grazing animals which causes discomfort and cessation of feeding.  (Robbins et al. 282.)  Medicinal uses of the plant include fevers, chills, internal pain and asthma. (Bauer 158).       The herbage toxic to livestock, especially in hay.  (Hickman, Ed. 573).       The fresh plant vinegar makes an excellent counterirritant for chest and inter-costal muscle soreness caused by physical exertion or heavy coughing.  It helps the pain of dry-membrane pneumonitis and pleurisy, as well as mild emphysema and the "smog lungs" that some children and adults get from the humid air pollution in some of the Southwest.  The fresh plant tincture applied to the forehead and scalp can help some sick headaches and hangovers.  The Pomo and Kawaiitsu of California used it as a well-strained tea (don't swallow those itchy hairs) for stress palpitations, hot and cold shaking chills from viral fevers, and for bleeding diarrhea.  A tea of the dried plant added to bath water will stimulate sweating in early, dry fevers, especially in children.  Drinking the tea for chills seems to work better when it is boiled as a decoction, evaporating off some of the volatile oils and leaving the nonevaporative muscle-relaxant constituents in the tea. (Moore, Medicinal Plants of the Desert and Canyon West 125).      As the leaves contain a narcotic poison, Indians used the foliage to poison their arrow points.  (Sweet 44).      One species in the genus.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 409).       

Text Ref:  Collins 52; Hickman Ed. 573; Munz, Calif. Flora 162; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 409; Roberts 22.

Photo Ref:  July 3 83 # 11,12; June 1 86 # 17.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  July 1983.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 91.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 12/18/04.      

                                    June Photo                                                                                  June Photo