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Navajo Tea, Cota Thelesperma megapotamicumThe taste of the plant makes Cota one of our very best wild teas

Medicinal Use: A mild diuretic, useful in water retention and urethra irritations. Cota is mildly antiseptic to theurinary tract. Not a strong remedy, it can be useful because of its lovely taste. It makes a cooling summer icetea, with some Spearmint and piloncillo (Mexican cone sugar). Like Spearmint, it is a good tea forconvalescence, also useful for indigestion and mild fever.

For the inveterate tea drinker, Cota can be positively addicting; along with Poleo and Mormon Tea, it is one of

our three best native teas, a reddish beverage with distinctive aroma and flavor.widely used folk remedy forarthritis, kidney, and blood complaints. It is used with malva (Malva neglecta) as a skin wash for diaper rashand thrush. Among the Pueblo Indians its use is ancient; Cota twigs were even found with pottery shards inChaco Canyon and in medicine bundles at Mesa Verde.

Other Use: It makes a yellow, reddish-brown, orange, or blah beige dye, depending on the plant part andmordant used.

Preparation:

Bundles: use one bundle to a pot of boiling water; continue to boil until tea is at the desired color.Sweeten with honey, sugar, Stevia, or a preferred sweetener, although tea has a natural sweet flavor.Can make over a gallon of tea and the bundle may be re-used 3 times.

Ground Tea: A tablespoon can be used depending on the desired amount to make. The tea mixture canbe strained and let dry or inserted into tea ball. The ground tea is also ideal for use in a coffee makerwhile using a coffee filter.

Moore, M. (2003). Cota. In Moore, M. (Revised and Expanded Ed.). Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West (pp. 79-80)Santa Fe, NM: Museum of New Mexico Press.

Navajo Tea, Cota Thelesperma megapotamicumThe taste of the plant makes Cota one of our very best wild teas

Medicinal Use: A mild diuretic, useful in water retention and urethra irritations. Cota is mildly antiseptic to theurinary tract. Not a strong remedy, it can be useful because of its lovely taste. It makes a cooling summer icetea, with some Spearmint and piloncillo (Mexican cone sugar). Like Spearmint, it is a good tea forconvalescence, also useful for indigestion and mild fever.

For the inveterate tea drinker, Cota can be positively addicting; along with Poleo and Mormon Tea, it is one ofour three best native teas, a reddish beverage with distinctive aroma and flavor.widely used folk remedy forarthritis, kidney, and blood complaints. It is used with malva (Malva neglecta) as a skin wash for diaper rashand thrush. Among the Pueblo Indians its use is ancient; Cota twigs were even found with pottery shards inChaco Canyon and in medicine bundles at Mesa Verde.

Other Use: It makes a yellow, reddish-brown, orange, or blah beige dye, depending on the plant part and

mordant used.

Preparation:

Bundles: use one bundle to a pot of boiling water; continue to boil until tea is at the desired color.Sweeten with honey, sugar, Stevia, or a preferred sweetener, although tea has a natural sweet flavor.Can make over a gallon of tea and the bundle may be re-used 3 times.

Ground Tea: A tablespoon can be used depending on the desired amount to make. The tea mixture canbe strained and let dry or inserted into tea ball. The ground tea is also ideal for use in a coffee makerwhile using a coffee filter.

Moore, M. (2003). Cota. In Moore, M. (Revised and Expanded Ed.). Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West (pp. 79-80)Santa Fe, NM: Museum of New Mexico Press.