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Yerba Santa
Eriodictyon trichocalyx and E. californicum
Yerba Santa is a perennial found in coastal sage scrub and chaparral, and is found all over the field station. It grows about 3 ft x 3 ft, but can grow up to 5 ft tall. The sticky, leathery leaves have some teeth along the edge and are bright green when young. Older leaves are dark green above, lighter below, 4-6" long and often discolored with patches of a black fungus. Creamy white bell-shaped flowers, less than half an inch long, appear in spring., and are held in loose groups at the ends of branches. The sepals are hairy.
Soon the hills of "Tovangar", as the Tongva called their world, will be green and filled with sweet, bitter, thick, and subtle scents. Food plants, medicine plants, sacred plants and basketry plants are everywhere, including Huherhetchut (Yerba Santa), one of the Tongva's most important medicinal plants.
The women would gather its sticky dark leaves and add sweet berries to make a cool refreshing drink. The bitter leaves, ameliorated by the berry juices, were made into a soothing tea for use both as refreshment and as a spring tonic. Toward summer, women gathered small quantities to dry and store for winter colds and coughs. During the hot summer months, leaves would be chewed as a thirst quencher. But the virtues of this plant were not limited to that of a mild tea. Huherhetchut was a prime medicinal for the Tongva. Everyone knew its power and both medicine people and the common folk gathered and used this wonderful plant. The leaves, both fresh or dried, were boiled into strong teas for coughs, sore throats, stomach aches, diarrhea, asthmatic problems, and as a blood purifier. A thick brew was boiled and used as an expectorant. Fevers and rheumatic pain were alleviated by a liniment made of leaves and stems. Fresh leaves were pounded into poultices for sores, swellings, insect bites, and even for poison oak rashes. Such poultices were applied to exhausted limbs and to fractured bones to reduce swelling. Bronchial spasms were soothed by smoking dried huherhetchut leaves. And branches of this aromatic evergreen shrub were hung in "sweat houses" for general purification. The heat and steam combined with the bitter-sweet odor of the "holy herb" to raise the spiritual values of a family sweat. No modern Tongva home botanic is complete without the sticky dark green and silvered leaves of huherhetchut.
Bees
There are many different species of bees on the BFS, some of them quite rare. Bees are related to wasps and ants and most feed their young on pollen and nectar. The common, non-native European honeybees have the most highly developed social structure of all the bees, but some of the natives live alone, or form smaller groupings without the caste system seen in honeybees. Three BFS bees are:
Leaf cutter bees (Family Megachilidae) look much like honeybees but the species in the LA basin are all dark-bodied. They are solitary and the females seek out small, natural tunnels in the ground to use as nests. They cut semi-circular pieces out of leaves and use them to line the tunnels. Roses are a favorite source of leaf cuttings for suburban bees, much to the annoyance of many gardeners. The bees stock the nest with pollen and honey and lay their eggs inside. Pollen sticks to the hairs on these bees and is carried back to the nest on the underside of the abdomen rather than in "pollen baskets" on the legs as in honeybees.
Metallic sweat bees (Family Halictidae) are stunningly beautiful. These small bees are only about 3/8" long, but are a bright, metallic green, and not very hairy. The males in one species have yellow abdomens with black rings as well. They are attracted to perspiration, hence the name. They are solitary and make underground nests, often in clay banks, but the nests are often so close together that several bees may use the same entrance tunnel.
Carpenter bees (Family Anthophoridae) are large bees, up to 1" in length. They are not related to bumble bees. Carpenter bees have no stripes and are all black or steely blue-black (although the males of one species are a warm brown). These bees bore into wood to make their nests: fence posts, logs, telephone poles are all fair game. One even made a nest in the cross-section of a redwood tree on display at the Figueroa St. office of the Automobile Club! Females put pollen and nectar at the far end of the tunnel, lay an egg, and seal it off with a wall of chewed wood pulp. They repeat this five or six time so there is a row of cells, with the most recent in front. Larvae emerge in about a week and eat the pollen and nectar. Adult bees emerge in about 6 weeks, the one closest to the entrance first. Females hibernate over the winter and start their own nests in the spring. Although the bees tend to "buzz" people, they are unlikely to sting. The one in the picture is chewing a hole in the penstemon to get to the nectar. These bees are a lot of fun to watch!