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overcoming indigestion and for acute inflammation of the liver and spleen (Kirk 1975:113;
Moerman 1998:144-146; Sweet 1976:19).

Rhamnus (Buckthorn) and Frangula (Buckthorn – previously included in Rhamnus)

The species of Rhamnus (buckthorn, coffeeberry, cascara) can be upright, small trees or
low, spreading shrubs with red or black berries. The red berries of R. crocea (buckthorn,
redberry) can be eaten raw or cooked. Rhamnus berries and bark have a laxative effect. R.
californica (coffeeberry) and R. purshiana (Cascara Sagrada) bark was boiled in water to make
a decoction used as a laxative and for a variety of other ailments. The bark also was soaked in
water to make a tonic that was drunk to improve the appetite or restore general health. The
bark was boiled with salt and applied to poison oak rashes. Rhamnus are found in a variety of
habitats, including coastal-sage scrub, chaparral, woodlands, forests, sagebrush-steppe, and
montane forests (Hedges and Beresford 1986:37; Hickman 1993:940-942; Kirk 1975:265-266;
Moerman 1986:470; Sweet 1976:19; Tilford 1997:26; Westrich 1989:31-32).

Frangula are shrubs to small trees with red, black or green berries occurring in a variety
of environments from dry rocky coastal areas to moist high elevation areas. Medicinal
properties include use of a decoction of the leaves as an antidote to poison particularly poison
oak, berries and inner bark as a laxative, crushed berries as a hemostat, decoction of bark used
to treat mania among other uses. Berries are considered edible as fresh, jellies and dried
among some groups and are considered poisonous by other groups (Moerman 1998:236-237;
Munz and Keck 1973:972-973).

DISCUSSION

Site CA-LAN-857, also known as the Rowher Flat No. 2, is located in the foothills of the
Castaic Mountains five miles northwest of Vasquez Rocks County Park, Los Angles County,
southern California. Local vegetation is characteristic of a foothill chaparral community and
includes chemise (Adenostoma fasciculatum), toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), California
buckthorn (Rhamnus californica), redberry buckthorn (Rhamnus crocea), scrub live oak
(Quercus dumosa), live oak (Quercus agrifolia), mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides), yucca
(Yucca whipplei), California flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum), hollyleaf cherry
(Prunus ilicifolia), ceanothus (Ceanothus sp.), manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.), woolly bluecurls
(Trichostema lanatum), buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), matilija poppy (Romneya
trichacalyx), chia (Salvia sp.), sycamore (Platanus racemosa), willow (Salix sp.), poison oak
(Toxicodendron diversilobum), and mule fat (Baccharis salicifolia) (Milburn 2009; Smith 1974).
The site encompasses twenty-six acres, and it is believed to have been associated with the
Native Californian Tataviam cultural group. Cupule pit rock art boulders, lithic flakes and cores,
gravers, projectile points, groundstone, and rock alignments and clusters have been found at
the site, as well as human skeletal remains associated with shell tube beads that date the site’s
occupation back to approximately 6000 to 2400 BC. Charcoal recovered from two of the heated
rock clusters thought to represent stone-lined earth ovens were submitted for identification.

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