Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Amote

AMOTE

[a-MO'-teh] or [a-MU-tee],  occasionally corrupted into [al-mo'-ta] — noun.

Meaning: Strawberry (plant or fruit)

Origin: Chinook amuti; Clatsop tl’amōte, “strawberry”.

Fragaria chiloensis, the ‘beach strawberry’ or ‘coastal strawberry’, is one of two species of wild strawberries that were hybridized to create the modern garden strawberry. The plant’s natural range is the Pacific Ocean coast, from Alaska to California, though migratory birds have dispersed the plant from the Pacific coast of North America to the mountains of Hawaii, Chile, and Argentina.

In addition to serving as a food source, the whole strawberry plant, including leaves and roots, can be used for purposes of cleansing the system, both a blood purifier and blood builder; the wild strawberry is a laxative, diuretic and astringent, and the leaves and berries are rich in iron as well as contain small amounts of magnesium, potassium and sodium.

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