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huitzquilitl.

Headword: 
huitzquilitl.
Principal English Translation: 

an edible plant; also, a medicinal plant used for scabies, mange, or itch
Martín de la Cruz, Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis; manuscrito azteca de 1552; segun traducción latina de Juan Badiano; versión española con estudios comentarios por diversos autores (Mexico: Fondo de Cultural Económica; Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 1991), 19 [8v.].

Orthographic Variants: 
uitzquilitl
Alonso de Molina: 

uitzquilitl. cardo, yerua comestible.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 157v. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Attestations from sources in English: 

huitzquilitl (or uitzquilitl) = an edible plant that grows at the water's edge; thorny, stringy, fibrous, with blossoms; also called cuahuitzquilitl (or quahuitzquilitl), although this version grows on dry lands
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 136v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/136v?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 19 November 2025.

See an image that represents huitzquilitl in the Visual Lexicon of Aztec Hieroglyphs, ed. Stephanie Wood (Eugene, Ore.: Wired Humanities, 2020-present).

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

una planta medicinal para curar sarna
Martín de la Cruz, Libellus de medicinalibus indorum herbis; manuscrito azteca de 1552; segun traducción latina de Juan Badiano; versión española con estudios comentarios por diversos autores (Mexico: Fondo de Cultural Económica; Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, 1991), 19 [8v.].

themes: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Health, Sickness, Wellness, Medicine
Plants, Trees, Flora