Just wanted a thread to post unusual medicine plants or plants in unusual circumstances.
Around the corral, I find the darnedest things growing around corrals. There is usually left over feed spilled or hay seeds. Birds and little critters come to eat and poop all sorts of plant seeds they have eaten else where. The corral is a surprise each year.
First up is Self heal aka heal all aka Prunella vulgaris, a plant I use often. It’s an ancient woundwart from the steppes of russia and asia. Today I found it growing in the middle of a corral by a pile of cow manure. For years I thought this plant only grew near water. It turns out that it flourishes near water, but grows just about anywhere. Just shake or crush seed heads out on the ground. It’ll come up all by it’s self.
Next is White Vervain aka Verbena urticifolia, a cousin of Blue Vervain. Found it in the same corral. It has the same medicinal properties but is weaker than Blue v. Use of blue vervain goes all the way back to egyptian mythology. According to it Isis brought her brother husband Osiris back to life using blue vervain.
The Verbena’s are all similar in use, 4 or 5 species grow here. They also have another oddity, they have square stems like mints. There is an old sayin’ among plant people “All mints have square stems, but not all square stemmed plants are mints”. The verbena’s are the only plants locally that have square stems and are not mints.
Carolina buckthorn aka Frangula caroliniana. It’s a shrub and a nuisance, grows on fence lines, around fields and barns. Funny, it used to be grown commercially in the Carolina's. A powder was made from it for use in US hospitals. It was replaced by exlax, yep, buckthorn is an excellent laxative.
Around the corral, I find the darnedest things growing around corrals. There is usually left over feed spilled or hay seeds. Birds and little critters come to eat and poop all sorts of plant seeds they have eaten else where. The corral is a surprise each year.
First up is Self heal aka heal all aka Prunella vulgaris, a plant I use often. It’s an ancient woundwart from the steppes of russia and asia. Today I found it growing in the middle of a corral by a pile of cow manure. For years I thought this plant only grew near water. It turns out that it flourishes near water, but grows just about anywhere. Just shake or crush seed heads out on the ground. It’ll come up all by it’s self.
Next is White Vervain aka Verbena urticifolia, a cousin of Blue Vervain. Found it in the same corral. It has the same medicinal properties but is weaker than Blue v. Use of blue vervain goes all the way back to egyptian mythology. According to it Isis brought her brother husband Osiris back to life using blue vervain.
The Verbena’s are all similar in use, 4 or 5 species grow here. They also have another oddity, they have square stems like mints. There is an old sayin’ among plant people “All mints have square stems, but not all square stemmed plants are mints”. The verbena’s are the only plants locally that have square stems and are not mints.
Carolina buckthorn aka Frangula caroliniana. It’s a shrub and a nuisance, grows on fence lines, around fields and barns. Funny, it used to be grown commercially in the Carolina's. A powder was made from it for use in US hospitals. It was replaced by exlax, yep, buckthorn is an excellent laxative.