Gravel Root Hydrangea

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Peanut

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Gravel Root Hydrangea

“Seven bark is wonderful medicine for the kidneys and the gall bladder. It’ll kill stones in the kidneys and the gallbladder graveyard dead. I’ve used it for arthritis for years and someone told me that it has a vegetable cortisone in it. I guess that’s why it works so good.”

“They call it seven bark because your supposed to be able to peel seven layers of bark off it. I’ve never been able too and I tried real hard one time. There’s another type of hydrangea called nine bark that grows over on the mountain. It works about the same as seven bark.”
– Tommie Bass

“Hydrangea is an old Cherokee and Southern remedy that passed into widespread use in Western Herbalism. It grows along stream beds in the south, holding onto soil and not allowing it to be washed away-a signature demonstrating an affinity to the balance of water and solids.”

“Hydrangea acts efficiently on the urinary tract, especially to remove the tendency to the formation of gravel and stones, to dissolve them and hasten their passage. The late Tommie Bass had a formula for dissolving kidney stones in 24 hours. Hydrangea capsules hourly and 10 lemons in a gallon of water. Thomas Easley, of Andalusia AL, reports a case in which a kidney stone (watched on a medical imagining device) disappeared in 5 hours”
- Matthew Wood

I know Thomas personally and the story in more detail. It was a child in an emergency room facing surgery to remove a kidney stone too large to pass. He was monitored with an Ultra Sound machine. I’ve seen the print outs of the stone dissolving over time. Thomas now has a school on Well Spring mtn in NC, a great teacher, https://www.eclecticschoolofherbalmedicine.com/…

There are two species of hydrangea used in herbal medicine. Hydrangea arborescens – called smooth bark and 7 bark, Hydrangea quercifolia – called oakleaf, 7 bark and 9 bark. Both hydrangea’s are used as lawn ornamentals in the south and I also find both growing wild.

I’ve seen no difference between the two as medicine. That’s not to say some herbalist somewhere with vast experience using both plants haven’t noticed some subtle difference. If they have, they haven’t written about it. I’ve seen both plants work equally well within the last 6 months.

I always find hydrangea near moving water, streams & creeks, rarely more than 40yds away. I never see it in a bog or swamp, it likes well drained soil. In the deep south it doesn’t seem to like the southern slopes of hills even if near a stream.

These photo's are of Oakleaf Hydrangea...

Here is a link to another gravel root, Joe Pye Gravel Root Joe Pye

Hydranga oakleaf a  (8)a.JPG
Hydranga oakleaf a  (9)a.JPG
Hydranga oakleaf a  (11)a.JPG
Hydranga oakleaf a  (12)a.JPG
Hydranga oakleaf b  (3)a.jpg
 
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Will any smooth bark hydrangea, like Annabelle Hydrangea Bloom, Hydrangea arborescens, or does it have to be the wild smooth Hydrangea.
 
Will any smooth bark hydrangea, like Annabelle Hydrangea Bloom, Hydrangea arborescens, or does it have to be the wild smooth Hydrangea.

Just how many species grow where you live? Or, do you mean a variety of smooth bark, look up its latin name and you'll know if its a distinct species or a variety. I know nothing about all the domesticated varieties, there must be hundreds of them.

Both species of hydrangea I mentioned are common in the wild, so why not use a wild plant? Why would you want to dig up your yard?
 
I do not have the wild variety of ether plant, but I will see if I can find them or someone with cuttings.
 
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