CLEAVERS: Spring Drink

By Geraldine Lavin

Genus & Species: Galium aparine

Family: Rubiaceae

Common Names: Cleavers, Bedstraw, Grip Grass

Tissue State: Atrophy

Organ Affinities: Nerves, Lymphatic, Kidneys, Genitourinary

Properties: Diuretic, Alterative, Anti-inflammatory, Tonic, Astringent

Taste: Sweet, Salty, Cool, Moist. Vanilla-like.

Parts Used: Aerial parts, during flowering, before going to seed. Fresh pressed juice.

Harvest: Cleavers should be harvested just as they begin to flower, and throughout their small flowering period. Once they begin to go to seed, they are no longer ideal for medicine making. The flowering period is about two weeks in late spring or early summer, depending on your location. Matthew Wood says to pick in flower “when it smells beautiful.” (personal communication, September 6, 2017)

Botanical Habit & Ethnobotanical Uses: Cleavers is a friendly little plant, familiar to many as a common “weed” of spring and early summer that has the property of velcro, so that one could snip a stem and stick it to their shirt as a makeshift corsage. This abundant plant creates small stands throughout North America and across Europe, making its home in fields, the edges of farms, vacant lots, and city sidewalks. [Read more…]

By Ruthie Hayes

Latin: Capsella bursa-pastoris

Family: Brassicaceae or Cruciferae (mustard family)

Folk names: witch’s pouches, poverty weed, blind weed, mother’s heart, shepherd’s sprout, casewort, pickpurse, pickpocket, St. James weed, St. James wort, beggar’s tick, blindweed, shepherd’s bag, shepherd’s scrip, shepherd’s pouch, rattle pouches, case weed, shovel weed, pepper-and-salt, sanguinary, lady’s purse, clappedepouch (Irish), hirtentaschelkraut (German), Patushya Sumka (Russian).

Energetics: warm/cool, dry

Properties: vulnerary, astringent, styptic, antihemorrhagic, anti-inflammatory, diuretic

Taste: pungent, salty, slightly diffusive

Parts used: entire plant, in seed

Degree: 2nd/3rd

Tissue state: depression, excitation

Key uses: stops bleeding & discharge, wound healing; urinary, reproductive

[Read more…]

Wood Betony: A Monograph

By Aidan Blank

This darling plant has kept me intrigued since I was first introduced to it growing in my teacher’s herb garden a decade ago. It was sometime afterwards that I was able to experience the tea, and I remember feeling a distinct expressive calm radiating from my center. Drinking it again as I write I sense why it was commonly employed as a reliable and comforting ‘proper’ tea substitute; “it has somewhat the taste of tea and all the good qualities of it, without the bad ones” – Maude Grieves.  It is very smooth, pungent, nutritive, slightly moistening, and astringing at the same time. It has a decidedly calming effect in general and on the stomach in particular. In stronger infusions I can sense a slight acridity in the back of my throat that I have come to associate with some of it’s more magical or mysterious actions. Wood Betony also appears to have the curious effect of increasing my dream recall; the dreams are more lucid and often include the appearance of a benevolent being or ally. William Salmon, writing in early 16^th century England, describes one of Wood Betony’s actions as “incarnative “.  I believe that this accurately and evocatively sums up the central movement of the plant. It is a superlative remedy for bringing one back into their body and becoming reacquainted with the older instinctual knowing residing in the solar plexus, or ‘gut’. I lived for a time with a boy, then 6 or 7 years old, who experienced frequent stomach cramping and general nausea. This often concurred with a debilitating headache that left him lying on the couch for long periods of time in a detached state. His energy felt hot (like many children), ungrounded, and stuck in his head. Tincture of Wood Betony quickly brought these fluctuations to a minimum and eventually they were undetectable. Best of all he seemed to love the tincture and touted it as his personal remedy, or maybe even a constitutional ally.  Wood Betony has served likewise for me when I have had need of it.

[Read more…]

FLEABANE

By Karen Bond

Genus and Species: Erigeron canadensis

Family: Aster (Asteraceae)

Common Name: Horseweed, Eastern Daisy Fleabane, Canadian fleabane, Fleabane daisy, colt’s                              tail, butter weed, fireweed, blood-stanch, cow’s tail, bitter weed

Energetics: Stimulant

Properties:  Antimicrobial, diuretic (Felter & Lloyd) and astringent

[Read more…]

Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia

Genus species:  Artemisia artemisiifolia

Family:  Asteraceae

Common names:  

A artemisiifolia:  Common ragweed, bastard wormwood, hogweed, Roman wormwood, bitterweed

A trifida:  Tall ambrosia, great ragweed, horseweed, wild hemp

Part used:  

Aerial parts

Energetics:  

Dry, warming

Taste:  

Bitter, pungent, slightly astringent

Actions:

Astringent, antiseptic, styptic, vulnerary, bitter [Read more…]