February23_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Vista Hermosa is located at the mouth of the El Rio Valley beside San Agustin and San Sebastian in the District of Etla, in the State of Oaxaca Mexico. The District of Etla is about a half hour drive north of the City of Oaxaca along Highway 190 in the Etla Valley. The two other sister villages of Vista Hermosa are San Agustin and San Sebastian.

Photos - L-R - Doing laundry outside in the back yard with a scrubber and galvanized buckets is a common site in Vista Hermosa.

Colorful Bouganvillea shrub at the roadside leading up to the local church that has a tall, pointed spire reaching up into the clear blue sky above Vista Hermosa at the top of the hill next to Mount Picacho.

Lush shrubbery beside the main cobblestone street - it is the irrigation canal that gives the villages a regular supply of water, making this area one of the most highly sought after real estate in the valley.

Photos - A donkey tied up on the hill side helps to keep the tall grass neatly trimmed (left), a Prickly Pear Cactus tree beside the Irrigation Canal (center), and an old adobe house in ruin beside the Canal (right frame).

Photos - L-R - Leaving Vista Hermosa village behind for a walk along the irrigation canal trail: Looking back to the west along the El Rio Valley.

Looking up at what looks like a small groove in the hillside: This is the cut in the hill where summer monsoon runoff water flows down the hill and into the Valley. Several of the more active runoff chutes have small cement bridges over the canal to prevent the rain erosion from damaging the canal.

Lovely, prickly weed called Argemone Mexicana (Prickly Poppy, Mexican Poppy). The seeds from the prickly poppy are used as a narcotic in several areas of Northern Mexico, and contain Isoquinolines. Protopine and Berberine are both alkaloids found in Argemone Mexicana. (Narcotic Plants by William Emboden Jr. - Published by The Macmillan Company New York 1972) Sanguinarine and dihydrosanguinarine are found in the seeds.

This species of poppy comes from Tropical America and is found in scattered distribution from Southern Mexico to Northern United States. A number of suspected cases of stock (cow and goat) cases have been noted in Australia and Mexico. Several tests have been conducted, using fowl (seeds), and cattle (mixed with wheat) About an ounce of seed produced symptoms of widespread edema within a week. In people, the alkaloids contained in the seeds were capable of producing dilation of the capillaries, leading to leakage of fluid. Experiments of alkaloids mixed into feed with cattle were inconclusive. (Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada by John M. Kingsbury - Published by Prentice Hall 1964

Click here for more photos of the Canal area at Vista Hermosa, Etla, Oaxaca Mexico for this day.