Poke

Pokeweed, poke, pokeberry, inkberry - these are the names of Phytolacca americana. Its name tells of its native ancestry, as well as its use in making a red dye (Phyto = plant, lacca = like lac, a red dye made from insects). Early shoots of the plant cooked in several changes of water create poke salat, a Southern wild edible specialty. The conspicuous hot pink berries, appearing in the fall, can create a corresponding dye if prepared with sufficient acidity. The whole plant contains toxic compounds, but the bitter berries have old-time recipes associated with them, and I’ve also known old timers to eat a berry a day to protect against cancer. The root, also, is strong lymph-moving medicine when used topically (or internally, in very low doses).

Greater Celandine

Greater celandine (Chelidonium majus) could have been one of our early spring plants, as it’s one of the first to appear. At this late stage in spring, it’s fully turned flowers into seedpods and is getting ready to start a new generation for next year. This plant is a member of the poppy family, and its telltale sign of this is its brightly colored sap - egg-yolk yellow, to be specific. The most well-known use of this plant involves this yellow latex, which is applied topically to warts and skin growths; it has an escharotic (chemically removing dead or diseased tissue) effect.

Comfrey

Is Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) a cultivated plant or a wild one? It is a European import, and certainly acts like an uncontrollable, invasive plant in some ways, popping up on field edges, and resisting being cleaved in half by sprouting into two distinct plants when plowed. But there is also its immense usefulness. My permaculture-inclined friends “chop-and-drop” comfrey, creating nutrient-rich mulch for other garden plants. And, of course, the leaves and root are brewed into mucilaginous wound-healing concoctions for external or internal use. There are many tales of comfrey, in its exuberance, healing puncture wounds a little too quickly, causing the skin to heal over before the inner area is cleaned out. Comfrey is one of the medicinal plants which have been implicated recently in liver failure due to the presence of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Still, many herbalists continue to take and recommend it internally, feeling that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Wild Lettuce

Lactuca spp, the wild lettuce, spotted outside the clinic! This is a plant used primarily for sedation and pain relief in Western herbalism. The entire above-ground parts of the plant are harvested in peak summer and blended to extract every drop of bitter sap, then concentrated by evaporating out the liquid. The resulting extract, optionally preserved with alcohol, is sedative in small doses and pain-relieving in large doses, and even reportedly hallucinogenic/toxic in very large doses. Some people smoke the leaves for a stronger effect.

Juniper

Juniper berries are growing! Juniper (Juniperus spp.) “berries” are actually modified cones on the female plants. Multiple juniper species produce edible "berries,” but some species produce tastier ones than others, with Juniperus communis being the most commonly used. Juniper berry is a powerful diuretic. It is also a strong antimicrobial. These twin properties make it valuable in a formula for UTIs, perhaps combined with gentler herbs as taken alone over time it can be irritating to the kidneys and digestive tract. The berry is being studied for use in blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes, and also in reducing heart disease risk by interacting with cholesterol in the body. Due to its high antioxidant levels, it is sometimes seen as an ally in cancer cases as well.

Red Clover in bloom!

Have you seen this flower yet? We chatted about the red clover a few weeks ago before it was in bloom. Now the pink-purple-red blossom can be seen on fieldsides all over! The flower makes a mouth-moistening trail nibble or a hot day, and can be combined as stated earlier with the leaf for a nutrient-rich and hormone-balancing tea.

Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) is one medicinal herb that can still be found in drugstores today. It’s also the predominant understory shrub in many of the mountainous areas in our region. The inner bark is a topical astringent used in both acute and chronic skin conditions, from bruises to hemorrhoids to poison ivy and bug bites. Witch hazel blooms in the fall, a rarity among our regional forest dwellers.

Black Cherry

Black or Wild Cherry (Prunus serotina) is preparing its fruits on long racemes coming down from the stems. The edible fruit is sour, bitter, and sweet at the same time, with the sweetness coming out if the fruits are dried. The inner bark contains toxins and medicine, and during peak times it releases a strong and tantalizing odor when scratched-and-sniffed. Wild cherry bark is a cough syrup ingredient that can suppress an unproductive, spasmodic irritating cough, or alternately be used as an expectorant for those with heavy mucus; it also has some calming nervine properties which are also helpful when sick.

Milkweed

Milkweed (Asclepias spp.) is a wild plant that furnishes food and medicine but also toxins. The young shoots of Milkweed, when first coming up from the ground, can be eaten as an asparagus-like vegetable, and its flower buds can be tasted as a trail nibble. Later in the year, its cucumber-like fruits can be picked when small and pickled, and in the early winter one can come back to a withered milkweed and collect its stalk fibers to twine into a strong cordage. The namesake of this plant, the toxic white milky latex, has been used topically on warts and other growths. The roots of some species, such as Pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa), have been used as a medicine for such disparate conditions as edema and inflammation of the pleura.

St. John’s Wort

The finely perforated leaves of St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum) reveal themselves when held up to the sun for examination; this is a good way for beginners to identify the plant before its yellow flowers appear. This plant enjoyed a moment of fame in the 2000s when constituents found in the plant were deemed more useful than placebo in the treatment of depression. However, traditional use emphasizes other properties of the plant. Western herbalism teaches about St. John’s Wort as a topical medicine on areas that are injured, burned or inflamed. It is also taken internally and externally in cases or nerve pain.