Edible Desert Plants Page
This page provides an index to plants used for food by the native people of the Sonoran Desert. Note all cactus fruit is edible, but some does not taste good. The best tasting cactus fruit comes from the Saguaro, Prickly Pear, and Barrel cacti.
This index also includes some medicinal plants
Chiltepin peppers, spice and medicine
The uniquely fragrant chocolate flower
Creosote Bush, a Desert Survivor
Desert Tobacco, a pretty but poisonous desert plant
Desert Spoon (Sotol) a plant of many uses
Desert Willows provide emergency food and medicine
Devil’s Trumpet, another pretty but poisonous plant
Devil’s Claw provides food, fiber and medicine
Edible Desert Plants – Barrel Cactus Fruit
Indian Fig – a useful variety of Prickly Pear Cactus
Jojoba oil, good on the outside, bad on the inside
Joshua Trees of the Mohave Desert
Mesquite Trees Provide Food and a Pharmacy
Mormon Tea – a widely used medicinal plant
Mexican Cardon Cactus – the world’s largest cactus
Oak trees of the Sonoran Desert Region
Palo Verde Trees Will Turn the Desert Golden
Prickly Pear Cacti – many varieties, many uses
Sacred Datura – pretty, poisonous, and hallucinogenic
Saguaro Cactus Icon of the Sonoran Desert
Sowthistle – a new weed in my yard
Staghorn and Buckhorn Cholla Cactus
The Old Man and the Totem Pole
Tufted evening primrose – a winter bloomer
wryheat 