What is chía?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
January 27, 2005
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The chía (Salvia columbariae Bentham) is a sage native to the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico. This winter blooming annual is adapted to the arid climate by living 'around' the driest time of the year. The seed germinates within days of a heavy rain growing through the cool wet winter. It has blue or white flowers in late winter and early spring and sets its small seeds by the time the desert dries out for the long hot summer. Generations of chía survive because the plants evade the extreme heat and drought.
The nutritious chía seeds are black and gray or white and appear under magnification like tiny beans. In Mexico, agua fresca (fresh or cool water) is made by soaking a teaspoon of the seeds in a glass of water and adding sugar and lemon juice. The Cahuilla of southern California have collected and used the seeds for centuries. The seeds, ground and soaked, were known as pinole, a food to keep a person satisfied and able to work long hours.
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Chia (Salvia columbariae Bentham)
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The reason chía seeds are so satisfying is because of a polysaccharide, a polymer of sugars that helps the seed to germinate. When the seeds are exposed to water, they exude viscous mucilage—the polysaccharide suspended in water. The mucilage keeps water around the seed so it does not dry out during germination. It also sticks the seed to the soil preventing it from washing away in a heavy desert rain.
This mucilage-exuding trait does not seem like something commercially exploitable, but it is. Even if a person has never been to the deserts of the Southwest, he or she is probably familiar with it. It may well be sitting in a window nearby. It is, of course, the famous Chia Pet®.
Lee Dittmann has posted photographs of chía taken at the Henry W. Coe State Park in California. To view the photographs, click on the link:
http://www.coestatepark.com/salvia_columbariae_coe.htm
Chia Pets® are a registered trademark of Joseph Enterprises.
(Compiled from: W3TROPICOS, Jim Solomon, Missouri Botanical Garden, 2005; "Introduction of Chia and Gum Tragacanth in the U.S.", H.S. Gentry, M. Mittleman, and P.R. McCrohan, Advances in New Crops, J. Janick and J.E. Simon, eds. Timber Press, Portland, published on the internet by the Horticulture and Landscape Architecture Department of Purdue University; "Salvia L.", Susan E. Meyer, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Utah; "Sages, Salvia sp.", Plant Fact Sheet, The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens, Palm Desert/Indian Wells, California, 2004 and "Just a Few of the Many Mexican Spices", Oaxaca Restaurants.)
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