Medicine plant of the Day

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Cleaned up around my elderberry today. In another week it’ll be in full bloom. I decided to let a friend harvest them and make bloom tincture. I still have 2qts from 2022, don’t need it.

My friend will use my blooms for tincture then harvest the berries from her elderberry for syrup. She promised me a jar of elderberry syrup with garlic cloves when she gets it made. Great cold medicine that tastes even better. ;)

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Peanut said:
@Bacpacker Tincture from the blooms are easy. The tiny berries are a pain to work with unless you're making syrup. I haven't noticed that one is better than the other. So I'll go with easy in this case.

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We processed the berries for wine by freezing the mature flower heads. Then waking the frozen heads in zip lock bags on the table. The berries drop off along with small stems that need picked out. Then ready to make wine. :thumbs:

Ben
 
Neb said:
We processed the berries for wine by freezing the mature flower heads. Then waking the frozen heads in zip lock bags on the table. The berries drop off along with small stems that need picked out. Then ready to make wine. :thumbs:

Ben
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That's how i was taught! Freeze them first! Berries have their uses, just not for me. My medicine books say that as an antiviral the berries have a slight edge over the blooms.

But I have a dozen antivirals, several that are much better than elder. I keep the bloom tincture around though, never know what new bug fauci is going to churn out. Elder tincture might be needed.
 
joel said:
Peanut what do you thin about this Article?
https://laidbackgardener.blog/2024/...ction-to-medicinal-plants-with-the-malvaceae/
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There aren’t a lot of medicinal mallows where I live so I don’t rely on it. That said mucilage is good medicine. If you have a lot of mallow, by all means use it.

There are a lot of plants locally with mucilage, sassafras, plantain, slippery elm, solomon’s seal and several species of yucca. One of the best is very common here… prickly pear. Oh, almost forgot the king in the south… Okra! Fry up a mess to eat or use the blooms or leaves as a poultice. (okra and cotton are mallows)

I see small wild mallows often, just not the ones used as medicine. So, I can’t tell you much about them. Personally I wouldn’t bother trying to grow it. Simply because other similar plants are common here.
 
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The next few pics are at a place that was logged last winter. The medicines are coming back. First, this road used to be a big patch of Self Heal aka prunella vulgaris under big oaks. I found 3 little plants growing on the bank to the right.

Next is Pleurisy Root aka Butterfly weed. Again, equipment drove over it for a month yet it still came up. Amazing how tough some wild plants are.

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I stopped at this spot a couple weeks ago. I was thrilled to see sweet leaf growing again where there had been logging. Just a few plants, maybe a dozen.

What I didn’t see was this… 100’s of plants growing within 50ft. Don’t know how I missed them. Guess I was focused solely on the little clump I found. They hadn't bloomed yet but i still should have seen them.

This weekend I’m going to do a rare thing… harvest almost all these plants. By next year the kudzu will have killed them anyway. I never take more than 20% of medicines growing at any one location. Time to make an exception...

This is just a few of whats growing there...

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Mullein that came up volunteer in my yard. Should have plenty of seed. Mullein puts up a central stalk, about 6ft tall. Sometimes the stalk will split into multiple stalks near the top.

The blooms are great for treating ear aches in small children. Just soak them in olive oil. But... a stalk doesn't bloom all at once, only a dozen or so blooms will open at a time. To make earache oil it's best to grow a dozen plants to harvest blooms from.

The leaves are great for healing broken bones and spine issues, The root is great for incontinence with new moms or the elderly.

A great plant to keep around...

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I did get some Oregon Grape this weekend. (Roots) are now dry. I will tincture one and keep the other for tea if needed. I'd like to get a little more to have on hand - maybe next trip. I was just taking from one spot. It's all over but I still don't like to take all from one spot. I stuck the leaves with the shortened roots in a pot and watered them well. They might not live, but it would be nice if they did. Figured I'd at least give them a shot.
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Best day I’ve had plant hunting in ages! Crossvine is a medicinal plant I use almost weekly. It’s an adaptogen, a class of plants every prepper should know. They offset or speed up healing from prolonged stress or effects from major injury. It also works on the adrenal glands keeping energy levels up.

Although I know where a few vines are located its rare where I live. I usually travel over 100miles and harvest what I need each year at a friend’s place. My thought was to save what’s local for when I can’t travel. But I’m always on the lookout for more vines.

Today I found a crossvine honey hole, dozens of vines in one location. I’ve looked for the past 15yrs, knew there had to be one. Best part, its on property belonging to and old friend I’ve known since childhood.

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Also, yellowroot is one of the most versatile medicinal plants in north america. A few years ago a land owner brought in a dozer, put in a culvert, new gate and fencing at this location. 1st pic. This wiped out all the yellowroot that used to grow there. It’s very sensitive to disturbance from man.

Today I saw that it was back! Along with another important plant, self heal. 2nd pic, both growing side by side.

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LadyLocust said:
Neither Yellowroot nor Crossvine grow in our area though it appears I could have crossvine as a potted plant. I would like to get some self-heal growing here or source it. It's one I've had my eye out for for a long time.
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This is from the usda website. It shows counties (in green) where Self Heal has been reported as growing in washington state. (and surrounding) bottom...

Here's the usda site...

https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=PRVUL2

It's one of those plants that traveled well. Where europeans went so did the plant. It even grows in alaska. I found it listed at EWU also. Might make a couple phone calls to track down who is in charge of this page or who posted the data...

Eastern Washington University
https://inside.ewu.edu/ewflora/category/prunella/

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Peanut said:
This is from the usda website. It shows counties (in green) where Self Heal has been reported as growing in washington state. (and surrounding) bottom...

Here's the usda site...

https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=PRVUL2

It's one of those plants that traveled well. Where europeans went so did the plant. It even grows in alaska. I found it listed at EWU also. Might make a couple phone calls to track down who is in charge of this page or who posted the data...

Eastern Washington University
https://inside.ewu.edu/ewflora/category/prunella/

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Yay! I appear to be in a green zone. I will definitely be on the hunt. Me thinks I need to get out on a few more walks instead of working ;) 😂
 
LadyLocust said:
Yay! I appear to be in a green zone. I will definitely be on the hunt. Me thinks I need to get out on a few more walks instead of working ;) 😂
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Though it does grow in dry locations it flourishes near water, gets bigger and taller. If i were looking i'd hunt near water first, creeks, rivers, lakes etc.
 
Peanut said:
Though it does grow in dry locations it flourishes near water, gets bigger and taller. If i were looking i'd hunt near water first, creeks, rivers, lakes etc.
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The river goes right along the back of the property. Might walk down there in the morning. 😊
 
Here in the south during the 1800's... small communities... churches doubled as community centers and as community medicine chests. I find lots of medicinal plants near really old churches.

Sometimes the churches are no longer there. But when i find un-natural concentrations of medicinal plants growing wild i usually find records of old meeting houses close by. :)
 
Peanut said:
Here in the south during the 1800's... small communities... churches doubled as community centers and as community medicine chests. I find lots of medicinal plants near really old churches.

Sometimes the churches are no longer there. But when i find un-natural concentrations of medicinal plants growing wild i usually find records of old meeting houses close by. :)
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It's pretty amazing how much older your history is than ours. There are some specific pockets of mid 1800's, but most of our history is from about 1870's forward. Most common is from about 1885-1905 as far as the development of towns. That's really not long as far as history goes. It took a while for the gold rush and the OR trail folks to multiply and spread out. I do love history and some of those old (for here) places but most of the school/church houses are now on private lands. (Plenty of exceptions I'm sure, but generally speaking) I will keep that in mind when we are out and about thought.
 
I've never found a lot of medicines inside modern city limits. Herbicides have been used for decades on lawns and killed most wild plants. A few are still there, like plantain. They are usually in locations i'd never harvest from, like gullies behind buildings or edges of parking lots. Who knows what kinds of chemicals have been dumped or washed there from pavement?
 
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