QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRAND 



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Convolvulaceae. The latter identification is most 

 likely. Probably the raiz de Michoacdn, known as 

 pusqua and tacuache, is an Ipomoea closely related 

 to the jalap of commerce. However, we found no 

 use of such a purgative in Quiroga. A number of 

 wild plants are quite poisonous, and some of these 

 are utilized for insecticides and raticides; e. g., 

 the juice of a Senecio known as clarincillo, which 

 sometimes poisons cattle, is mixed with brown 

 sugar to produce an ant killer. 



Other uses of wild plants are for dyes, oils, 

 tannins, fibers, ornament, ink, and mucilage. At 

 present commercial dyes and pigments have re- 

 placed most of the native coloring matters, but 

 some of them are still used to a slight extent. 

 Among the better known dye plants are tiripo or 

 lovevine (Cuscuta tinctoria Mart.), mistletoe 

 {Psittacanthus and other genera), indigo (Indigo- 

 Jera), much (Jacobinia spicigera (Schiecht.) Bailey), 

 palo azul iGarrya), and conguera (Phytolacca). 

 Most of these produce blue to purple colors. The 

 much is especially important since it not only pro- 

 duces a good blue to purple dye, but a solution is 

 used to whiten clothes, and infusions of the leaf 

 are used as a remedy for dysentery, fevers, gonor- 

 rhea, etc. Formerly oQs were obtained from chia 

 (Salvia), pumpkin seeds (Cucurbita), and chicaloh 

 or prickly poppy (Argemone mexicana L. and 

 related species). By the nineteenth century oils 

 from chia and pumpkin seed were very little 

 used, but castor-bean oil (Ricinus communis L.) 

 from cultivated and escaped plants was produced 

 commercially from December to April for use in 

 illuminatLag churches. Chicalote oil continued to 

 be produced in important quantities, primarily for 

 the makers of bateas, e. g., in 1883 Quiroga pro- 

 duced 80 arrobas (about 320 gallons) of chicalote 

 oil — almost entirely from wild plants which spring 

 up in abandoned or fallowed fields. At present 

 chicalote oil is made only by individual batea 

 workers in El Calvario to use in filling special 

 orders for old-style bateas. The principal vege- 

 table tannin used in Quiroga is cascalote from the 

 tierra caliente, but second in importance is timben 

 or raicilla de Tzintzuntzan (Calliandra anomala 

 (Kunth) Macbr.), which is gathered on the slopes 

 near Tzintzuntzan and elsewhere in the region. 

 The timben roots are sold at $2 an arroba, and the 

 tannin is obtained from the root cortex. Many 

 other vegetable substances have been used for 

 tannin (such as oak galls. Acacia bark, oak bark. 



etc.), but they are unimportant at present. 

 Some of the tannin sources and mistletoe formerly 

 were used in the manufacture of ink, but all ink 

 is now purchased from the outside. The wUd 

 fibers are used for some five or six purposes. Due 

 to the large export business in chairs, bateas, 

 pottery, and other items requiring packing, there 

 is a considerable demand for packing material. 

 In lieu of paper, sawdust, and excelsior, the packers 

 in Quiroga use a variety of grasses, tabardillo 

 (Piqueria trinervia) from imcultivated fields, heno 

 or tdcari (Tillandsia usneoides L.) gathered on 

 oaks and firs, aceitilla (Bidens), barba de chivo 

 (Clematis dioica L.), and other soft or pliable 

 plants. Cattails or tulillo (Typha spp.) and tule 

 or chuspata (Cyperus laevigatus L. and other 

 species) are used in large quantities for the weav- 

 ing of chair bottoms, but practically all tule used 

 in the chair industry is brought in from the 

 marshes of Tecacho and Chucandiro to the north. 

 The cattails are also used in decorations for 

 Corpus Christi and other festivals. The local 

 bulrush, tule or patzimu (Scirpus calijornicus 

 Britt.), is the principal species used in making of 

 petates or mats. However, since Santa Fe owns 

 most of the lake front near Quiroga, it is the people 

 of Santa Fe who harvest the patzimu periodically 

 and who make the petates. The people of Quiroga 

 buy most of their mats from Santa Fe and Tzint- 

 zuntzan salesmen who come to the Quiroga plaza. 

 Two or three persons in Quiroga make baskets 

 and weave hats, but the material is chiefly palm 

 leaves and fibers brought from the tierra caUente. 

 Occasionally a person in Quiroga or one of the 

 ranchos will elaborate fiber (jpitn, nequen, ixtle) 

 from local maguey leaves, to make cordage and 

 bagging, but practically all of the fiber is imported 

 in processed form (cords, ropes, bags, mats, etc.) 

 from the states to the north and east. Brooms 

 and brushes are made from the roots of zurumuta 

 or zacaton (Epicampes macroura Benth.) and some 

 other grasses, and from the stems and foliage of 

 cardtacua (Baccharis conferta H. B. K., B. hetero- 

 phylla H. B. K., and B. ramulosa (D. C.) Gray) 

 which is known also as escobilla and jara. There 

 is use of yucca fiber for a variety of purposes. 

 Bulbs of a number of orchids are used for mucUage 

 (this was the former source of the adhesive used 

 in making feather mosaics), medicine, and orna- 

 ment. Although many wild plants of the area 

 have lovely flowers, the only ones that are com- 



