Partridge Berry

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Peanut

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Partridgeberry aka Squaw/Woman’s vine aka Mitchella repens. It’s in the Rubiaceae plant family along with coffee and cleavers. Some think the word squaw is from the Algonquin name “ekaw” meaning “woman”, so woman’s vine.

I’ve been meaning to post about this little vine for a couple years, every prepper should know this one, especially women of child bearing years. This plant seems designed for women’s health issues. It helps and has strong influence on menstruation, infertility and pregnancy, even easing labor pains. It also helps kidney stones pass.

To quote Patricia K Howell “Partridge Berry is an important gynecological remedy in modern herbal practice. It is considered a reliable tonic to treat deficiency and weakness with symptoms such as infertility, lack of menses, menstrual pain and threatened miscarriage. It is also an effective remedy for reducing excessively heavy menstrual flow and relieving persistent vaginal discharge. During the final trimester of pregnancy, partridgeberry used as a uterine or labor tonic.”

To quote Thomas Easley “Partridgeberry was traditionally taken as tea by Native American women during pregnancy. It was used to ease difficulties of pregnancy in the later stages and to make childbirth fast and easy. Partridgeberry salve, applied after breastfeeding, works wonders to heal sore nipples. Partridgeberry tones the uterus which eases painful menstruation and regulates periods of irregularity.”

You can harvest partridgeberry any time of the year, either dry it for tea or make a standard 1:2 tincture. Use the vine and leaves, not the root.

Pay close attention to the first two photos. Partridgeberry hides under leaf litter on the forest floor near water. Partridgeberry covers the forest floor under all the leaves in the 2nd photo, acres of it.

The last 3 pics are partridgeberry in bloom. This was the only time I’ve seen it bloom. It blooms in winter, summer, when ever it wants! And the little blooms vanish overnight. The little berries are red and edible, birds love them but they have no flavor. I have no nutritional info.

Mitchella repens a 1 .jpg
Mitchella repens a 2 .jpg



More hiding...
Mitchella repens a 3 .jpg
Mitchella repens a 4 .jpg
Mitchella repens a 7 .jpg
Mitchella repens a 8 .jpg



In Bloom
Mitchella repens b 1 bloom.jpg
Mitchella repens b 2 bloom.jpg
Mitchella repens b 3 bloom.jpg
 
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Partridgeberry aka Squaw/Woman’s vine aka Mitchella
This plant is in one of my edible plant books, but I have not seen it in some time.
 
USDA Plants Database

@ifbbathena The usda has a huge plant data base. If you know the latin name of a plant do a regular internet search, in this case I enter:

Mitchella repens usda

Select the above link in your search and you'll get a page with this map of the US and Canada, key at the bottom. Green has reported the plant.

In the case of a state with the plant I can zoom in and see the actual counties that have reported the plant growing there and which counties haven't. It's not a complete list, I've found more than 50 species in my county that have never been reported.

Anyway, thought you might find this tool useful if not already aware of it.


partridgeberry usda.jpg
 
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