Proboscidea parviflora

(Wooton) Wooton & Standl.

Double claw

Martyniaceae Edible: Seeds 2,014 iNaturalist observations

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Summary

Proboscidea parviflora is a species of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae known by the common names doubleclaw and red devil's-claw. It is native to the desert southwest of the United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in sandy, dry, and disturbed habitat and blooms during the hot summer. This is an annual herb growing from a taproot and producing sprawling, spreading stems. The leaves have rounded, oval, or roughly triangular blades up to 15 centimetres (6 in) long which have smooth edges or faint lobes or teeth. The inflorescence is an array of several showy bell-shaped flowers with five lobes flaring several centimeters wide. The flower is white to pink or purple, sometimes with mottling or lines of spots in the throat, and often a purple blotch on the upper lip. A yellow nectar guide extends along the lower lip. The fruit is a large seed pod many centimeters long, a cylindrical body tapering into a very long, thin, curving tail. As the fruit dries the tail cracks open and splits into two hooked, claw-like halves. The young fruits and seeds were used for food and the dark-colored hardened dry fruits were used in basketry by local Native Americans.

Description

An annual herb. It grows 1 m tall. The flowers are purple. The fruit are 15 cm long by 5 cm wide. It has a logn beak that splits into a curved claw.

Edible Uses

The young seeds are eaten fresh, the young tender fruit can be cooked and eaten, and the seeds may yield an edible oil.

Traditional Uses

The young seeds are eaten fresh. The young tender fruit can be cooked and eaten. The seeds may yield an edible oil.

This uses section is brief — help expand it

Distribution

It is a tropical plant.

Where It Grows

Mexico, North America, USA,

Also Known As

Devil’s claw, Una de gato

References (9)

Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 19:602. 1915
Facciola, S., 1998, Cornucopia 2: a Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications, p 148
Felger, R.S., Ancient Crops for the Twenty first century, in Rickie, G.A., (ed), 1979, New Agricultural Crops, AAAS Selected Symposium 38. Westview Press, Colarado. p 9
Hermandez Bermejo, J.E., and Leon, J. (Eds.), 1994, Neglected Crops. 1492 from a different perspective. FAO Plant Production and Protection Series No 26. FAO, Rome. p 12
Kermath, B. M., et al, 2014, Food Plants in the Americas: A survey of the domesticated, cultivated and wild plants used for Human food in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. On line draft. p 702

Show all 9 references

Kiple, K.F. & Ornelas, K.C., (eds), 2000, The Cambridge World History of Food. CUP p 1874
Moerman, D. F., 2010, Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. p 436
World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Yetman, D., 2002, The Guarijios of the Sierra Madre: Hidden People of Northwestern Mexico. University of New Mexico Press. p 209