This month’s desert plant is one that everyone living in the Arizona desert should be very familiar with, especially during the rainy spring we have had so far this year. It is the Creosote bush, also known as Chaparral, Greasewood and with the Latin name Larrea tridentate.

The reason I say that all of us Arizona desert dwellers should be familiar with this plant this rainy spring is because it is the Creosote that you smell when it rains here in the Sonoran Desert.

Creosote is one of the first desert plants to bloom in the spring season and is starting to bloom right now. You can identify it by it’s small half inch in diameter yellow flowers and seeds that look like little white fuzzy balls. The leaves are dark green with a waxy texture about a quarter inch long. The bush can grow up to eight feet tall but is usually 3 to 4 ft tall.

This is such an amazing plant that I don’t feel like I am experienced enough in my “blogging” career to give it its due respect, but I am going to try my best. The creosote bush is a survivor.  It is the longest living plant in the United States with a specimen found in California that has been dated to be over 13,000 years old.

Living this long as a desert plant should give you a hint that the medicinal benefits of this plant must be extraordinary. The native tribes of the southwest have used creosote to treat any illness. Putting a sprig of the herb in the drinking water was almost used the same way we use a multivitamin in our society today.  It can be used for any flu or virus that may be going around. It is antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, antiseptic and antiviral. It can be used as an excellent hair, nail and blood building tonic. It is also a liver stimulant which makes it an excellent companion with milk thistle for detox (in small doses. excess may be counterproductive). Creosote has a his(or her)story of native uses for colds, cough, parasites, arthritis, tumors, antiseptic and blood purifiers.

Now, using such an amazing medicinal plant sometimes comes with a price. Creosote’s price is it’s flavor. It has a very strong medicine taste. Herbalist Michael Moore calls the tea nearly undrinkable. He also says that if you like the taste you need professional counseling. I happen to like it, but I drink very week infusions of the tea so to me it just tastes like a desert rain. So, if you are taste sensitive I would suggest using a sweetener such as stevia or honey. This is an amazing plant to have in your medicine cabinet and I encourage anyone who is interested in botanical medicine to further research our friend the creosote bush.

Herbalist Trent Siever