Medicinal Monday - White Sand Verbena

Abronia elliptica is a lovely fragrant flower found in the high desert of the American Southwest. It is easily identified by its large snowball-like flower head and mass of green leaves. Native American communities found several traditional medicinal uses for this beautiful desert flower. 

Photo Credit: James St. John - Bootleggers Canyon, Utah

About White Sand Verbena

Abronia elliptica is quite common and can be found in the high desert in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The flowers are made up of round clusters of small white trumpet-shaped flowers that are tinged with pink. White Sand Verbena spreads by rhizomes and sends up shoots of new plants from these underground roots. Stems sprawl on the sand and then grow erect. The stems are hairy and the wavey oblong shaped leaves are quite thick and have hair on their undersides. The black or brown fruit of the flower is egg-shaped and the seed inside is winged. The flowers open in the evening and close in the morning, a characteristic of the Nyctaginaceae family nicknamed four o'clock.

Photo Credit: James St. John - Bootleggers Canyon, Utah

Medicinal Uses

The Indigenous people of the Southwest use this plant traditionally as a wash for sores and insect bites and to treat stomachaches. The Navajo made a poultice of the flowers to treat boils. The Kayenta Navajo used it to treat insect bites and took it to cause sweating as a general panacea. The Ramah Navajo made a lotion for sores or a sore mouth and would bathe sweating feet in the lotion. The Zuni ate the fresh flowers to treat stomachaches and the Hopi placed the flowers on the top of a child's head to help them sleep. The Ute used the roots and flowers to treat stomach trouble. The Keres, Acoma, and Laguna ate the ground roots mixed with cornmeal to gain weight.

Did You Know...

Antoine L. Jussieu named this genus in 1789. He found this flower growing near the Green River in Sweetwater Wyoming.

The genus name Abro is Greek for delicate or pretty and refers to the flowers.

Another name for this flower is snowball and prairie snowball.

This flower is sometimes mistaken as Abronia fragrans. The difference between the two is the shape of the fruit. The shape of the fruit of the A. fragrans is arrowhead-shaped and the shape of the fruit of A. elliptic is heart-shaped.

Sweet sand verbena is grown in gardens to attract butterflies.