Contents
Acknowledgments
Desert Plants as Calories, Cures, and Characters
Winter
The Creosote Bush Is Our Drugstore
The Palms in Our Hands
Mescal Bacanora: Drinking Away the Centuries
Spring
Sandfood and Sand Papago: A Wild Kind of Mutualism
Mesquite as a Mirror, Mesquite as a Harbor
Organpipe Cactus: Bringing in the Rainfeast
Summer
Amaranth Greens: The Meat of the Poor People
Tepary Beans and Human Beings at Agriculture's Arid Limits
For the Birds: The Red-Hot Mother of Chiles
Fall
Devil's Claw: Designing Baskets, Designing Plants
Where Has All the Panic Gone?
Good to the Bitter End: Wild Desert Gourds
Bibliographic Essay
Index