Grindelia cuneifolia, Nutt. Composite Family.
Bushy; two to four feet high; smooth. Leaves.—Cuneate-spatulate to linear-oblong; leathery; three or four inches long. Flower-heads.—Solitary; terminating the branches; yellow; composed of disk- and ray-flowers. Rays.—One inch long. Involucre.—Hemispherical; of numerous scales, with spreading tips. Buds.—Covered with a milky gum. Syn.—Grindelia robusta, var. angustifolia, Gray. Hab.—From Santa Barbara northward.
The Grindelias are especially characteristic of the region west of the Mississippi River, and are all known as "gum-plant," or "resin-weed," owing to the balsamic exudation which is found mostly upon the flower-heads. We have several species, all of which are rather difficult of determination.
Before the occupation of California by the whites, the value of these plants was known to the Indians, who used them in pulmonary troubles, and as a wash in cases of oak-poisoning or other skin-diseases. They are now made into a drug by our own people, who use them in the same manner as the aborigines.
By the middle of August our salt marshes are gay with the bright yellow flowers.
[GUM-PLANT—Grindelia cuneifolia.]
![[GUM-PLANT—Grindelia cuneifolia.]](#3624944100741987669_f060.png.id-3628508697846069226.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Every year men are sent out to gather the plant. Only about five or six inches of the tops of the branches are cut, as the resin is found mostly there in the form of a white gum. Tons of these shoots are shipped East annually, to be returned to us later in the form of the medicine called "grindelia."
Grindelia hirsutula, Hook. and Arn., is a pretty species, flowering in early summer upon hill-slopes. This may be known by its reddish stems and more slender and fewer ray-flowers.