BAILEY
Desmanthus
Standard Encyclopedia of Horticulture; Vol 2 (1914) R635.9
DESMANTHUS (name refers to flowers being in bundles). Synonymous with Acuan. Leguminosae. About 10 herbs or shrubs in subtropical North America and 1 in the tropics of the Old World, a few of the American species reaching well north in the U.S., probably not regularly cultivated, but now and then transferred to the garden for the effect of their bipinnate leaves and small greenish white flowers, in axillary peduncled heads or spikes. The genus is one of the Mimosa tribe, and the flowers are not papilionaceous: petals 5, distinct or very nearly so; calyx bell-shaped, 5-toothed; stamens 5 or 10, distinct, usually exserted: pod flat, narrow, straight or curved, several-seeded. D. illinoensis, MacM. (Mimosa illinoensis, Michx. Acuan illinoensis, Kuntze), occurs in prairies and river borders from Indiana west and south: 1-5 ft. nearly glabrous, perennial erect herb: leaflets. 20-30 pairs, obtusish. D. leptolobus, Torr. & Grey, occurs on prairies from Kansas to Texas: leaflets. mostly fewer and acute, and peduncles much shorter (1 inch or less long).
EVERETT
Desmanthus
The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture. rSB317.58
DESMANTHUS (Des-man'thus): Chiefly natives of tropical and subtropical America, but with some in North America, the thirty species of Desmanthus belong in the section of the pea family, LEGUMINOSAE, that includes the sensitive plant (Mimosa), the silk tree (Albizia), and Acacia. Accordingly, the flowers are not pea-like, but are in fuzzy heads or spikes, a characteristic accounted for in the name which comes from the Greek 'desme', a bundle, and 'anthos', a flower, and alludes to the heads of bloom. Of minor garden importance, the members of this genus are herbaceous, perennials and shrubs with twice-pinnate, mimosa-like foliage. The tiny white or greenish flowers, clustered in tight heads, have five-lobed calyxes, five petals, and five or ten usually much-protruding stamens. A hardy herbaceous perennial, D. ILLINOENSIS, is 3 to 6 feet tall and has conspicuously angled, hairless, or minutely hairy stems. Its leaves, 2 to 4 inches long, have six to twelve pairs of major divisions, each divided into twenty or thirty pairs of oblong leaflets up to 1/5 inch long and often hairy along their margins. The flower stalks, up to 1 1/4 inches long, terminate in solitary small heads of bloom, succeeded by short, strongly curved pods up to 1 inch long, in dense, nearly spherical heads. A succession of flowers is produced through the summer. This species ranges in the wild from Ohio to Colorado, Florida, Texas, and New Mexico. Very similar, but with more rigid seed pods up to 2 3/4 inches long, D. leptolobus is indigenous from Missouri to Kansas and Texas. GARDEN USES AND CULTIVATION: These plants have little to recommend them except for inclusion in collections of native plants and for occasional use in naturalistic plantings. They grow without difficulty in ordinary garden soil, moist or dry, in sunny places, and are raised from seed.
FOSTER; DUKE
Desmanthus illinoensis
Peterson's Field Guides: Eastern/Central Medicinal Plants. Houghton Mifflin, 581.634 F757f
STIFF-STEMMED LEGUMES WITH 15 OR MORE LEAFLETS. PRAIRIE MIMOSA (Leaves, Seeds) Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) MacM. Pea Family. Smooth-stemmed, erect perennial; 1-4 ft. Leaves twice-divided, leaflets 20-30, tiny. Flowers greenish white, in globlar heads; June-August. Pods curved, in loose globular heads. Where Found: Prairies, fields. Ohio to Alabama; Texas, Colorado to North Dakota. USES: Pawnees used leaf tea as a wash for itching. A single report states that a Paiute Indian placed 5 seeds in the eye at night (washed out in morning) for chronic conjunctivitis. The leaves are reportedly high in protein. [Note: Item accompanied by INACCURATE sketch of plant. The pinnae of the compound leaf are shown as alternating instead of opposite.]
HARRINGTON HD
Manual of the Flora of Colorado.
QK150.H3 (1954)
5. Desmanthus Willd. BUNDLE FLOWER. Perennial herbaceous or somewhat shrubby plants, no spines or prickles present; leaves bipinnate with numerous, entire leaflets and usually with small stipules; flowers regular, perfect or lower staminate, sessile in peduncled heads or spikes, greenish or whitish; calyx 5-lobed; petals 5, alike, distinct or slightly united at very base; stamens 5 or 10, distinct or nearly so; fruit elongated, straight or curved, several-seeded, dehiscent. [1.] Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) MacM., Metasperm. Minn. 388, 1892. Acuan illinoensis (Michx.) Kuntze --- Stems erect or ascending, glabrous or nearly so; leaves with 14-30 pairs of pinnae; leaflets 2.5-4mm long, many, linear or linear-oblong, glabrous or ciliate; stipules setaceous, to 4 or 8 mm long; calyx campanulate, about 1mm long with very short lobes; petals about 2mm long; stamens 5; fruit in compact heads, each about 1.5-2.5 cm long and about 4-6mm wide, strongly falcate and slightly spirally twisted. --- Banks, roadsides and plains. Ohio to South Dakota, south to Florida and New Mexico. Our records from eastern Colorado at 3500-4000 feet.
MCKENNA, TERENCE
'Sacred Plants as Guides: New Dimensions of the Soul'
Speaking resentation: 2-MAR-91 at Claremont Jung Society
Desmanthus illinoensis 'Illinois Bundle Weed' discovered to be DMT-bearing a year ago, by phytochemists in the midwest speculative allusion made to 'medicine bundles', apparently on the basis of word assocaition. Suggests illinois bundle weed was unknown to Native American medicine. 'Bundleweed', midwest US newly discovered to be DMT-containing: 6% [sic] of dry weight is N,N-dimethyltryptamine highest concentration ever found in any plant. CORRECTION: Wilshire Ebell Theater 1-June-91, Terence replied to questions that Desmanthus illinoensis has only 0.6% (possibly up to 0.8%) DMT by dry weight.
MOERMAN, DANIEL E
Desmanthus illinoensis
'Research Reports in Ethnobotany: Medicinal Plants of Native America vol.1&2'; University of Michigan of Anthropology, Technical Reports #19; QK99.N7 M64 (1986)
Desmanthus Illinoensis, Fabaceae: PAIUTE EYE MEDICINE. Five seeds placed in eye at night to cure trachoma; washed out in morning. PAWNEE DERMATOLOGICAL AID. Acuan illinoensis. Spider Bean. Decoction of leaves used as a wash to cure the itch.
RYDBERG
Flora of Colorado.
QK150.R98 (1906)
ACUAN: Valves of pod not separating from the continuous margin, not prickly; stems erect, unarmed. [1.] Acuan illinoensis (Michx.) Kuntze. (Desmanthus brachylobus Benth.) In rich bottom lands from Ind. and S.D. to Fla., Tex., and Colo. --Sterling
Thompson, A. C., Nicollier, G. F. and Pope, D. F.
Indolealkylamines of Desmanthus illinoensis and their growth inhibition activity.
J. Agriculture and Food Chemistry 35:361-365 (1987)
Paper referred to by Terence McKenna. Citation provided by Dennis J. McKenna (24-Dec-91 22:34:12pst) 'This is in response to your e-mail message about Desmanthus illinoiensis...'
TIDESTROM & KITTELL
Flora of Arizona and New Mexico.
QK147.T5 (1941)
Desmanthus illinoensis (Michx.) MacM. Metasperm. Minn. 388. 1892; Mimosa illinoensis Michx. Fl Bor. Amer. 2:254. 1803; Acacia brachyloba Willd. Sp. Pl. 4:1701. 1806; Plant glabrous or puberulent with ascending stems 0.3 to 1 meter long; leaflets about 15 pairs, linear, glabrous or ciliate; pods curved, capitate. Larrea and Grass belts. Minnesota and South Dakota, southward to Florida, Texas and New Mexico. In fields about St. Thomas, Nevada, where it was probably introduced.
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