''Abronia fragrans'', the sweet sand-verbena, snowball sand-verbena, prairie snowball or fragrant verbena,USDA PLANTS profile: ''Abronia Fragrans''
Retrieved March 05, 2010Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plants Database
Retrieved March 05, 2010 is a species of sand verbena.

Description

''Abronia fragrans'', sweet sand-verbena, is an herbaceous perennial with an upright or sprawling growth habit, reaching 8–40 inches (about 20–102 cm). It grows from a taproot with sticky, hairy stems growing from 7.1 inches to 3.3 feet (18–100 cm) long. The flowers consist of 4 to 5 petaloid sepals and sepaloid bracts with a tubular corolla borne in clusters of 25 to 80 at the ends of stems. The blossoms are usually white but may be green-, lavender-, or pink-tinged. The sticky leaves are simple and opposite, up to long and wide, and elliptical or linear. The fruits are egg-shaped

achenes An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not open ...

about long, lustrous, and black or brown. The achene is enclosed within a leathery top-shaped calyx baseKansas Wildflowers and Grasses
Retrieved 2010-03-07 which may or may not be winged.Flora of North America Vol. 4 Page 62, 63, 64
Retrieved March 06, 2010 The flowers of this plant open in the evening and close again in the morning, a habit which gives the Nyctaginaceae family its common name of ''four o' clocks''. The blossoms are a pure white throughout most of its range, but in southern areas they sometimes have a slight blush of lavender-pink. The flowering recurs irregularly from June until late fall.

Taxonomy

There is dispute as to the classification of ''Abronia fragrans'', with some recognizing ''Abronia elliptica'' as a separate species (Kartesz, Weber) and others believing that the two are the same plant (Welsh). The separation of the two species is based on variances of several characteristics including the shape of the fruit, the hairiness of various parts of the plants, and rhizomatous spreading.Southwest Colorado Wildflowers
Retrieved March 06, 2010 This species was collected by

Thomas Nuttall Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 September 1859) was an English botanist and zoologist who lived and worked in America from 1808 until 1841. Nuttall was born in the village of Long Preston, near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

in 1834 near the Platte River and was named by him in Hookers 1853 description. The species name, ''fragrans'', means 'fragrant' and refers to the sweet smell of the blossoms, while the genus name is from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

"abros" meaning delicate.Arches National Park Flower Guide
Retrieved March 05, 2010

Distribution and habitat

The native range of sweet sand-verbena extends from Northern

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

to western

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

north through the

Rocky Mountain The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

and western plains regions of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and south to Chihuahua,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Sweet sand-verbena occurs in prairies,

plain In geography, a plain, commonly known as flatland, is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and ...

s, and

savannas A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient li ...

where it can be found growing in loose, dry, sandy soils.

Cultivation

Sweet sand-verbena is grown in gardens for its attractive blossoms and fragrance, and to attract

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

. In garden settings it is not as exacting of soil requirements as it is in the wild.

Uses

The Indigenous peoples of the Southwest use the plant as a wash for sores and insect bites, to treat stomachache, and as an appetite booster. Among the Navajo, it is used medicinally for boils and taken internally when a spider was swallowed. The Kayenta

Navajo The Navajo or Diné are an Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Diné populations are Arizona (140,263) and New Mexico (1 ...

use it as a cathartic, for insect bites, as a sudorific, as an emetic, for stomach cramps, and as a general panacea. The Ramah Navajo use it as a lotion for sores or sore mouth and to bathe perspiring feet. The Keres mix ground roots of the plant with corn flour, and eat to gain weight.Swank, George R. 1932 The Ethnobotany of the Acoma and Laguna Indians. University of New Mexico, M.A. Thesis (p. 24) They also use this mixture to keep from becoming greedy, and they make ceremonial necklaces from the plant. The

Ute Ute or UTE may refer to: * Ute people, a Native American people of the Great Basin * Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah * Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah * Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern ...

use as a roots and flowers for stomach and bowel troubles, whereas the Zuni use the fresh flowers alone for stomachaches.Camazine, Scott and Robert A. Bye 1980 A Study Of The Medical Ethnobotany Of The Zuni Indians of New Mexico. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2:365–388 (p. 377) The AcomaCastetter, Edward F. 1935 Ethnobiological Studies in the American Southwest I. Uncultivated Native Plants Used as Sources of Food. University of New Mexico Bulletin 4(1):1–44 (p. 39) and the Laguna mix the ground roots with cornmeal and eat the mixture as food.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2821956 fragrans Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of the Southwestern United States Flora of Arizona Flora of Chihuahua (state) Flora of Colorado Flora of New Mexico Flora of Texas Flora of Oklahoma Flora of the Rocky Mountains Plants described in 1853 Plants used in Native American cuisine Plants used in traditional Native American medicine Butterfly food plants Garden plants of North America