DRI Archaeologist writes field guide on native plants of southern Nevada
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Native Plants of Southern Nevada: an Ethnobotany is a new field-guide style book by Desert Research Institute Anthropologist David Rhode that describes the plant resources traditionally used by the region’s Native American cultures. The 200-page book, illustrated with 151 full-color photographs, was published by the University of Utah Press, and is available at major booksellers and online outlets.
The book provides habitat and environmental context for trees, large shrubs and vines, small shrubs and subshrubs, yuccas and agaves, cacti, herbaceous plants, grasses and grasslike plants, and bulbs. Information sources ranged from consultations with tribal members to decades old ethnographic notes and monographs in university archives and private collections. Sharp color photographs of the plants will assist readers in easily identifying them in the field.
Dr. Rhode, a research professor in DRI’s Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, said ethnobotany is the study of how people of a particular culture and region make of use of indigenous plants. This book, he said, grew out of concerns voiced by the Paiute and Shoshone peoples of the southern Great Basin-Mojave Desert region that their traditional knowledge of the use of plant resources was in danger of being lost.
“These societies shared a way of life based mainly on harvesting wild plants, following an annual cycle of moving and gathering the seasonally abundant resources. Because of this, they were familiar with and used the full range of plant communities, from the warm-desert Mojave to the cold-desert Great Basin,” noted Rhode. “They learned which plants and plant parts were useful for curing certain ailments, which produced colorful dyes, which would keep spirits away, and ‘which crops ripened when’ in a particular locality.”
Rhode was encouraged to begin the project by the Consolidated Group of Tribes and Organizations (CGTO), formed in the 1980s to interact with the U.S. Government on the Yucca Mountain Project in southern Nevada. CGTO representation included the Southern Paiute, Western Shoshone, Timbisha Shoshone, and Owens Valley Paiute tribes and organizations.
A nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada, DRI pursues a full-time program of basic and applied environmental research on a local, national, and international scale. Nearly 400 full- and part-time scientists, technicians, and support staff conduct some 150 research projects at DRI annually. More than 80 percent of DRI's annual $33 million operating budget consists of research grants and contracts obtained by its scientists. The balance is received from the state of Nevada for administrative costs.
