The Pecos Sunflower (Helianthus paradoxus) is as rare as it is beautiful and has served the people in many ways. Similar to other plants of this region, the seeds of this plant fed the Diné and Ndé both as a ground-up powder for making flour, and as seeds to be eaten whole as pure vegetable protein.
As well, a tea was made from multiple parts of the plant and had different medicinal properties. Tea made from the flowers was used for lung ailments, whereas tea made from the leaves was made to reduce fevers. Additionally, because of the high salinity growing environment that the plant requires to grow in, its leaves were also used as a diuretic and expectorant for coughs. This region is also populated by several species of snakes and insects that caused the Diné and Ndé to make a poultice to relieve the pain and swelling of these unwanted bites.
*It is very important to note that the Pecos Sunflower has very narrow habitat requirements and only grows in highly saline (salty) wetlands within deserts which were the exact conditions of the Bosque Redondo at the time of the internment of the Diné and Ndé. And still today, the same conditions exist. But because of threats of having the wetland drying up and because the groundwater is being depleted, the Pecos Sunflower was federally listed as a threatened species in 1999 and remains a protected plant today. There are only 7 areas in the United States and globally where the Pecos Sunflower exists. We are privileged to have one of its protected areas here in the Bosque Redondo. This makes the Pecos Sunflower extremely rare.
