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The following information was posted at
cachanilla and could be merged into this article in references were found for it:
The cachanilla is a
Mexican wild plant of fresh aroma, used by the aboriginal people to build
huts. The first Mestizo colonizers used this primitive method of construction together with sun-dried clay
adobe.
The bush is of grayish green and ash brown colors, with sharp leaves relatively small, from 2 to 3 centimeters (3/4 - 1 1/8 of inch) long and 6 milimeters (1/4 of inch) wide, which are covered by a sort of extremely thin white hairs, almost unperceivable at clear eye, but that give the impression of a silver green color. Its flowers are presented in an arrangement called corymbo, being on a pendulum axis that holds up several blossoms or flowers of very shiny violet or purple flowers. The blossoming happens from March through July.
This plant grows on arid lands, next to water canals, in ecosystems that present low rain registers. It is very common in the valley of
Mexicali,
Baja California,
Mexico, that is featured by its arid, hot and extremic weather, where the humidity of the
Pacific Ocean does not pass the barrier of mountains. It hardly adapts to any other type of weather.
Due to that, the name of the plant works as
demonym, applied to the inhabitants of the city of Mexicali, capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California, and its Valley. The autor Antonio Valdéz Herrera immortalized the demonym world wide in his
corrido "Puro Cachanilla" (Pure Cachanilla) performed by Cain Corpus in the 60's; therefore, it is also applied to all the citizens of the state of Baja California, including the municipalities of
Ensenada,
Tecate,
Tijuana, the port of
San Felipe and the rest of the state.