Chula Vista’s new Sweetwater Park on San Diego Bay is a place where our natural environment is protected and celebrated. Visitors can enjoy long walking trails that wind among native plants.
In the Council Ring near the restrooms and parking lot, an easy circular path features many such plants, and two informative signs explain how these plants were an important part of Kumeyaay culture.
Ethnobotany is explained as the study of how different cultures use plants native to their environments. This includes plants that provide food, medicine, shelter, soaps, fibers, dyes, waxes and more. The Kumeyaay people, who have lived in the San Diego region for thousands of years, have a deep ethnobotanical knowledge and connection to their surrounding environment.
Visitors are invited to look for certain plants, such as Sugar Bush, California Buckwheat, Mulefat and Bladderpod. Did you know that tea made from Singlewhorl Burrobush has been used to control dandruff? Or that boiled root of Lanceleaf Liveforever has been used to treat asthma?
Pause at these signs during your visit to Sweetwater Park and learn more about the history of our region, and the native inhabitants the natural environment has supported.
Look for other signs around the park identifying plants, too!
…
To follow my blog, find the “Follow” box in this website’s sidebar. Or bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
(If you’re viewing this on a phone, open my website’s sidebar by tapping those three parallel lines at the top of the page.)
Cool San Diego Sights! 