5 Native Desert Plants & Their Witchcraft Correspondences 🌵🌸
• Chuparosa (Justicia californica)
- Native to Arizona but found in Southern California, New Mexico, and northern areas of Mexico.
- Flowers & petals are edible raw or cooked, dried or fresh.
- Similar to hibiscus, makes wonderful summer teas.
- Hummingbirds adore the flowers and the nectar is chewable like a gum.
- Great in tinctures, scrubs, and teas.
Correspondence: Air, Beauty, Love, Positive Energy, New Beginnings, Boosting Self Esteem, Romance, Sexual Energy.
• Brittle Bush (Encelia farinosa)
-Native to Arizona but found in New Mexico, Southern Califonia, Texas, and parts of Mexico.
- Not to be confused with the desert wildflower, desert marigolds, which unlike the brittle bush, does not have a orange button center and is poisonous to some herd animals like sheep.
- Stems, flowers, and leaves are edible. Dried, fresh, cooked, raw.
- The dried flowers make a soothing tea for stomach pains.
- Dried brittle bush leaves can also be brewed to make a medicinal tea. It’s great for mouth sores or those tight chest coughs. It taste slightly bitter and has a numbing effect.
- Local folklore says the leaf tea is great for arthritis flare-ups in the cold months.
- Don’t drink this tea before bed though as it can have caffeine-like effect in some people.
- Flower resins and nectar from this plant are chewable and chewed by locals like a candy or gum.
- Great in tinctures, decoctions, infusions, salves, scrubs, masks, and teas.
Correspondences: Earth, Sun, Healing, Cleansing, Banishes away sickness, Good Luck, and Protection, Friendship, Empathy.
• Desert Lavender a.k.a. Bee Sage (Hyptis emoryi)
- Native to Arizona but found in Southern Califonia, New Mexico, and Mexico.
- This is the supernatural plant, the bee’s knee here. Native American tribes like Akimel O’Odham, who’s beautiful people made what is now called Phoenix, AZ their home, saw this as a pure and holy plant that cleanse all evils away from the one’s spirit.
- Everything on this plant is useable. Leaves, flowers, stems, branches, roots. Can be dried, brewed, cooked, or eaten raw.
-Great in tinctures, decoctions, infusions, salves, scrubs, masks, and teas.
-In some Native Amercan practises it’s used to make smudge wands, but to those who are not native and wish to use it they may dry and use a smoke cleansing ritual instead.
- Traditionally used by Native Americans to cleanse the body of diseases and stop internal bleeding or heavy menstruation.
Correspondences: Spirits, Earth, Purity, Cleansing, Healing, Protection, Banishing, Warding, Psychic energies & abilities.
• Ephedra a.k.a. Mormon Tea Plant (Ephedra fasciculata)
- Found growing wild or in landscaping areas in Arizona, Califonia, New Mexico, some areas of Texas, and northern Mexico.
- Historically used as an alternative to coffee
- The plant’s twigs are edible when brewed into a tea, tasty and mildly stimulating.
- Contains small amounts of ephedrine so great for hay fever, hacking coughs, or as a sinus decongestant.
- Like local honey, drinking teas with this plant is said to help aid allergy sufferers in the springtime blooms.
- Great in tinctures and teas.
Correspondences: Air, Earth, Healing, Protection, Cleansing, Positive Energy, Energy Boosting, Purity, Friendship, Happiness, Alertness, Focusing (Studying).
• Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans)
- Found often in landscaping because of it’s hardiness to the arid climates, can be seen wild though in Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Califonia, and Southern Texas.
- The leaves, flowers, and twigs can be brewed into powerful teas aiding digestion and gastrointestinal issues
- great for hangovers (drink a small cup of tea in the morning, trust me.)
- Contain anti-viral properties so it’s super awesome to combat sickness.
- Great in tinctures, decoctions, and teas.
Correspondences: Earth, Resilience, Strength, Healing, Banishment, Cleansing, Cursing, Retaliation, Dominance.
*note that this is all based on my own craft and years of herbal experience
