Journal of Ethnopharmacoiogy, 4 (1981) 117 - 120 0 Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in The Netherlands

Short Communication

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“Sugar bowls” (Clematis hirsutissima): a horse restorative of the Nez Perces

GEORGE ROBERT MORGAN*

Botanical Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. 02138 (U. S. A.)

(Received June 16, 1980; accepted July 1, 1980)

In 1847, Sir William Jackson Hooker published Charles Geyer’s related account of Clematis Douglasii Hook. (C. hirsutissima Pursh), a plant used by the Nez Perces Indians in Oregon territory (Nez Perces country was in present day northern Idaho, northeastern Oregon, and southeastern Washington) as a horse stimulant.

At a horse-racing of the Nez Perces Indians, I witnessed the application of this root. It happened that several horses were run nearly to death so that they fell down during the heat of the day. As soon as such an accident happened, an Indian put a piece of this root (the outer coat scraped off) into the nostrils of the animal: the effect was surprising, the creature sprang up under convulsions, was brought to the river and bathed, and I found several which had been so treated, afterwards grazing with the herd, apparently without having sustained any injury. (Hooker, 1847)

Charles Geyer (1809 - 1853), a German botanist, collected and observed the use of this plant while on a botanical expedition to the Upper Missouri, Rocky Mountains, and Oregon Territory in 1843 - 1844. His description is informative:

The Saptona [ Nez Perces] Indians use the root of this plant as a stimulant, when horses fall down during their excessive races. They hold a scraped end of the root into the nostrils of the fallen horse. The effect of this is instantaneous, it produces trembling; the animal springs up, and is led to the water to refresh its limbs. I have been told that it never failed, nor produced bad consequences. The scraped root leaves a burning sensation for half a day, if touched with the tongue (Geyer, 1846).

Sugar bowls is an erect perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae. It has clustered stems 2 - 7 dm high, unbranched, often densely villous; lowest leaves bract-like, upper leaves 2 - 5 pairs, pinnate, the ultimate divisions lanceolate to

*Present address: Geography Department, Chadron State College, Chadron,

Nebraska, 69337, U. S. A.

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linear, 2 mm or more in width, young leaves densely pubescent, when mature nearly glabrous; flowers solitary at stem ends, nodding, broadly cylindrical, glabrous and deep purple within, paler and densely hirsute without; achene- tails long, plumose (Erickson, 1943).

The geographic range of sugar bowls extends from northern New Mexico northwest through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Oregon. It also occurs in Utah, and the Columbian Plateau country of Oregon and Washington, and north into British Columbia. This species of western Clematis is commonly found on open grassland slopes; Arid Transi- tion Zone (Abrams, 1944).

In 1806, specimens of western Clematis were collected in Nez Perces country, on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. These specimens were described as C. hirsutissima by Frederick Pursh (Pursh, 1814). Pursh noted this new species as being quite similar to Anemone pulsatiEla “in several respects”. Furthermore, he considered allAnemones having caudated seeds as belonging to Clematis, or to a genus other than Anemone (Pursh, 1814). According to Erickson: “Pursh’s contemporaries were not willing to place the ‘Anemones with caudated seeds in the genus Clematis,’ but rather assumed that his C. hirsutissima was an Anemone. . .” (Erickson, 1942). During this contro- versy, David Douglas rediscovered the species in 1826 during his travels in North America, and Sir William Jackson Hooker named the plant C. Douglasii in 1829, in honor of Douglas (Hooker, 1840). C. Douglasii was the generally accepted name for this species until 1896, when Meehen discovered a dupli- cate collection of plants from the Lewis and Clark Expedition (Erickson, 1942). Today, C. hirsutissima takes precedence, C. Douglasii becomes the synonym.

In warfare, hunting, and horse racing, Western Indians employed a variety of horse stimulants, many of which we may never know. The follow- ing horse stimulants comprise a partial list. The Omaha and Ponca used Silphium lacinatum (Campanulaceae) as a horse tonic (Gilmore, 1919). The Omaha chewed corms of blazing star (Laciniariu scariosa L., Hill), and blew them into the nostrils of horses to make them run fast (Gilmore, 1919). It was recently learned that the Omaha made a horse snuff from the dried rhizomes of sweet flag (Acorus calumus, L.) (Grant, 1980). Also, the Yankton Sioux made an infusion of sweet flag for race horses to drink (Primeaux, 1979), as did the Oglala Sioux (Elk Boy, 1979). Meadow rue (Z’halictrum dasycarpum Fisch. and Lall.) mixed with white clay was rubbed on the nos- trils of Pawnee horses (Gilmore, 1919), and it was recently learned that the Omaha also used meadow rue as a horse snuff (Grant, 1980). The above- named plants were used to increase horse stamina in running. By contrast, C. hirsutissima was used by the Nez Perces as smelling salts for exhausted horses, it was used as a restorative medicine.

The Teton Sioux were also known to have used C. hirsutissima as a horse medicine. When chased by the enemy, they gave tired horses a snuff from the dried and powdered root (Ewers, 1955). The Sioux may have used C. hirsutissima var. Scottii Port; this plant is found in the southern Black Hills,

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well within Sioux territory. But they may have obtained C. hirsutksima by trade with the Nez Perces. Eugene Barrett, a forester on the Rosebud Reser- vation, was told of a Nez Perces, who stayed with the Brule Sioux at Rosebud in south central South Dakota. He was a horse medecine man, who helped the Sioux break wild horses (Ewers, 1955).

The Flathead Indians of western Montana, an eastern neighbor of the Nez Perces, used C. hirsutissima as an itch medicine. The entire plant was boiled, and infected areas were rubbed with the boiled plant (Hart, 1980). According to a note on a herbarium label found by Erickson, the dried and powdered leaves were used as a snuff by Northwest Indians (Erickson, 1943). In 1925, L. F. Henderson noted on a herbarium sheet of C. hirsutissima the following information: “Used as snuff and med. [medicine] by Indians.” Now in the Gray Herbarium, Henderson collected this specimen (No. 5451) in northeastern Oregon (Grant County, near Austin, Oregon), within 100 miles of Nez Perces country. The Indians of Montana reportedly used the plant as a remedy for headaches (Blankinship, 1905). Early settlers, as well as Indians, were said to use the plant for a headache cure - it was called “headache weed” (Forest Service, 1937). The leaves of the plant are said to taste like strychnine (Piper, 1906). Possibly, Indians used the plant leaves as a stimulant. Interestingly, the smelling salts of modem medicine are used to stimulate and restore cases of headache, as well as cases of faintness and nausea.

Harold St. John stated that “the tissues of this plant seem to contain a very powerful drug” (St. John, 1937). C. hirsutissima, a plant reportedly affecting the central nervous system, appears to be a plant worthy of bio- chemical investigation.

References

Abrams, L., Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States, Vol. 2, Stanford University Press, California, 1944.

Blankinship, S. W., Native economic plants of Montana. Montana Agricultural College Experiment Station Bulletin, No 56, Bozeman, Montana, 1905.

Elk Boy, I., Personal communication. Chadron, Nebraska, June, 1979. Erickson, R. O., The type of Clematis hirsutissima. Madrono, 6 (1942) 259 - 260. Erickson, R. O., Taxonomy of Clematis section Viorna. Annals of the Missouri Botanical

Garden, 20 (1943) 1 - 60. Ewers, J. C., The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture, United States Government Printing

Office, Washington, 1955. Forest Service, Range Plant Handbook, United States Government Printing Office,

Washington, 1937. Geyer, C. A., Notes on the vegetation and general character of the Missouri and Oregon

Territories, made during a botanical journey from the State of Missouri, across the south-pass of the Rocky Mountains, to the Pacific, during the years 1843 and 1844. London Journal of Botany, 5 (1846) 301 - 302.

Gilmore, M. R., Uses of plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region. Bureau of Ethnology, 33rd Annual Report, 1919.

Grant, A., Personal communication. Macy, Nebraska, March 1980.

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Hart, J. A., The ethnobotany of the Flathead Indians of Western Montana. Submitted for publication.

Hooker, Sir William Jackson, Flora Borealis-Americana, Vol. 1, Henry G. Bohn, London, 1840.

Hooker, Sir William Jackson, Catalogue of Mr. Geyer’s Collection of Plants Gathered in the Upper Missouri’‘’ the Oregon Territory, and the Intervening Portion of the Rocky Mountains, Vol. 6, 1847, pp. 65 - 66.

Piper, C. V., Flora of the State of Washington. Contributions from the United States National Museum, 11 (1906).

Primeaux, A., Personal communication. Marty, South Dakota, August 1979. Pursh, F., Flora America Septentrinalis, Vol. 2, White, Cochrane and Co., London, 1814. St. John, H., Flora of Southeastern Washington and of Adjacent Idaho, Student’s Book

Corporation, Pullman, Washington, 1937.