Foraging in Flagstaff

I recently conducted an archaeological survey in Flagstaff. Being the hedgewitch that I am meant that I could not help but take this opportunity to record the beautiful plants I found along the way. Although the modern environment that encompasses Flagstaff is not exactly the same as it was in prehistoric times, I believe studying the modern flora can still provide clues to the resources that were available to people in the area in prehistoric times. Today Flagstaff sits within the Coconino National Forest, which contains Ponderosa Pine forest and Alpine Tundra biomes ranging between 7,000 ft and 12,663 ft. I was specfifically surveying on I-40, an east-west oriented highway that unites many in-use segments of the historical trans-continental highway Route 66 ("Come get your kicks"). This region has experienced many episodes of human-modified large scale infrastructure projects and therefore plants that prefer disturbed soils are the ones I mostly found. Wild, native weeds" can be found alongside modern cultivars whose seeds were tossed by motorists or blown into the area from local agricultural plots. In historic times, farmers and gold hunters from European countries moved into the area and likely experienced a similar ecological landscape as we have today. Of course, humans have been gathering and working with plant communities long before Europeans. Prehistoric Native populations have occupied this area as far back as at least 8000 years ago. Evidence can be found in the cliff dwellings and Pueblo structures of the Sinagua and Anasazi tribes. Native plant communities were the only source of medicine and a major source of food before agriculture or industrial farming practices. The knowledge of medicinal and edible plants is unfortunately not as widespread as it was in prehistoric, or even historical times. In case you wondered, the modern Native communities of the area include the Dine (sometimes refered to as Navajo), Hopi, Havasupai, Hualapai, and Kaibab-Paiute peoples (flagstaffarizona.org).

My personal mission is to preserve as much medicinal, edible, cultural, and spiritual knowledge as possible about each of the areas that I live in. I'm starting by identifying the plants that I come across on hikes and surveys. Some plants were so common that I just plain spaced taking photos of them. I'll try to update this post later to include them, or just make a later post on Wild Sunflowers and Thistle. Here's a few common plants that can be found in the Flagstaff area: