I’m pretty sure I first encountered the plant called mala mujer in the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson over 30 years ago. And I’m also pretty sure that I turned that encounter into an episode of Growing Native and I mispronounced the genus Cnidoscolus. “The C is silent,” my botanist/horticulturist friend Gene Joeseph gently told me. Where would I be without friends like that, right? Well anyway, here is a newer episode of Growing Native from another encounter with mala mujer, but in the Mule Mountains of Cochise County, Arizona. There are close to 100 species of Cnidoscolus found in North America, South America and the West Indies. They range from perennials to shrubs to trees and they’re so fascinating that some folks collect them. Kids collect the whole set! And listen, many of the species used to be in the genus Jatropha, which is really neat, because I saw Jatropha macrorhiza and Cnidoscolus angustidens growing side by in the Mule Mountains. Cool? Very!
The photos are mine
