California Poppy

This week marked the transition into the next phase of the Medicine Club Yearly Round, our annual journey through medicine making and medicine taking. We have now moved into the taking of simple formulas. One plant medicine at a time.

Later on, as the winter progresses, we will work with plant alchemy, or the combining of simple formulas in order to create more complex, synergistic medicine compounds.

Also, the blog now changes from it's field guide-esque format into a journal of the effects of the various plant medicines we work with. As we come back into plant harvesting in the spring, then the blog will transform again into a more descriptive piece about the ecology of the plants in question.

Please note that each class will still contain a review on the ecology of the plants. It just seems redundant to go over this stuff again in the blog, when it is already cataloged on this site. California Poppy is an exception, because we made the medicine last year, before the blog came into being. I can say, however, with a strong sense of certainty that we will work with this plant again in the late spring and I will provide a detailed write up of all the ecological facts about this plant at that time.

I will add that the medicine was made from the whole plant; roots, leaves, flowers and all. It was made in a one to one ratio with brandy as the base. It was allowed to sit for 8 weeks until the plant material was strained off. At the time, I made two quarts of the medicine. It then sat for a year and a half until we worked with it last week.

California Poppy is a feel good plant. It is solar in nature, that is, it has a sunny disposition. It can make you a bit lethargic and many people report feeling "slow" the next day. It has a long history of use to calm anxiety. I find it hard to be worried about much when working with this plant.

It induces a "hang loose" sort of an attitude. I in low doses that it elevates the mood and that in high doses, it downright alters ones mood, inducing laughter and that happy feeling.

Here is what the class had to report after ingesting two droppers full of plant medicine in a glass of water. They were then asked to meditate or doodle, whichever was more conducive to silence and concentration for 15 minutes. We then journaled our experiences for the next ten minutes. Then I polled the class with the question, "How do you feel?" These were the responses:

"A queer feeling has come over me, as if I were an elf or a faerie."

"This feels delicious"

"Lower eyelids, swinging necks, cracking smiles to the miles."

"Lil' dizzy, lil' goofy"

"Happy."

"Sluggish."

"I'm not stoned, but my floatation devise seems to be."

"Ribbed for pleasure, studded for serotonergic responses."

"Like a honey bee on the moon"

To add to the overall jocularity of the evening, at one point I left the attic to use the restroom. While I was away, the whole class had switched seats and had hung up the new "Herbs Crow" sign that I had got for the space at Portland Saturday Market..

It was pretty hilarious to come back up and see all the different faces, sitting in different places. And Eric was wearing the old macrame Owl, which was just downright hilarious under the given circumstances.

I look forward to the medicine working season. It is a great was to work through the winter and it is a great way to deepen our connection with the plant's and their medicines.

See you all soon!

Burdock

This weeks plant was Burdock (Arctium lappa and Arctium minus).

Burdock is a plant of waste places, or at least that is what the field guides would tell you. I suggest redefining just what a "waste place" is and why we are lucky that medicines will grow there. Waste places are areas that the land has been disturbed or neglected. The plants that move into these places are usually advantageous and more often than not, invasive, in that they are able to outgrow the competing vegetation.

In some cases, these plants become ecological problems, as with the case of Scotts Broom and English Ivy. These plants are extremely quick to grow and re-seed and will often fill "waste places" to the point where other plants can not compete. These two plants also offer very little to the humans and animals that live around these waste places.

Burdock, on the other hand, is a plant of the "waste places", but it does not grow in such a way as to eliminate the competition, and it is a provider of food and medicine. So I welcome this worldly plant to the places it now grows.

Let's talk ecology. First thing to consider about Burdock is the burrs. These burrs are the inspiration behind Velcro. How cool is that? The burrs ability to stick to clothing, fur, and many other things has allowed the burdock to hitch-hike it's way around the planet, with species represented on every continent save Antarctica. That's some impressive distribution!

Burdock sinks a nice deep taproot into the soil to take in water and nutrients. It's this carrot like (often bigger) root that we use for food and medicine. It is best to use the plants of the first year's growth. These plants do not flower and are best gathered in the fall. The second year's growth is easier to find in the late fall, and so we worked with it. Plus, this way I was able to utilize the burrs in class as sticky teachers of their clinging ability.

The leaves are large, rhubarblike, widely ovate, on long petioles, a little woolly below and lighter in color below. The margins are scalloped. The flowers are purple to red-purple and look like the burrs, except that the hooked spines do not yet stick.

Burdock is a Biennial plant, which means that it takes two years for the life cycle of the plant to cycle around. In year one the root grows deep and strong while above ground, only a rosette of the fuzzy leaves will grow. During year two, the plant shoots up the central stalk with the alternate leaves that grow up from one to four feet tall to support clusters of the thistle looking flowers that by the end of the cycle turn into the burrs that hitch rides around the world!

So what's a worldly hitch-hiking wanderer of the wastes doing in our pharmacopoeia?

To be crass about it: Burdock helps you flush the crud from your system.

To quote Ellen Greenlaw: "Burdock is like a cleaning woman or a garbage collector: essential to modern life, but underpaid and undervalued. She's the old black rag-a-muffin of herbs."

To quote Alma Hutchens: "Herbalists all over the world use Burdock. Such an effective and ultimate blood purifying plant has well earned its unpretending authentic value...It works slowly, but steadily."

And a word from Michael Moore: "Burdock is a widely used blood purifier and alterative, stronger than sarsparilla but less energetic and with little of the intestinal effects of yellow dock."

I like to use Burdock in combination with other plants. It works well with the herbal antibiotics and antivirals such as Oregon Grape, Lomatium, and Goldenseal. Think about it this way...while the warrior plants are on the front lines killing the bugs that ail you, Burdock is working quietly behind the scenes to clean up the mess. Burdock works on the lymph, sweat, and oil glands; helping you to expel that which the front liners are killing. Burdock also works on the Liver, lungs, kidneys, stomach, uterus(if ya got one) and joints.

Burdock leaves have been used effectively to cure gout, especially when combined with a tincture of the seeds.

The seeds are also diuretic and will help with the output of uric acid.

Burdock roots can be used as a wash to treat acne. Use the tincture as a tonic to keep the skin clean. Make a poultice of the fresh root to treat breakouts that have flared up just days before your hot date.

A bath of burdock root infusion will ease mussel and joint pains.

Cooking weekly with the root in stir fry and other ways roots are prepared will do wonders for your health. You can purchase these roots at New Seasons and Whole Foods...or you can dig em up yourself! They are relatively cheap and they are really good for you! Susan Weed says that a steady diet of Burdock will keep your virility potent and vigorous! Yee-Haw!

I end this blog with appreciation to the work of Susun S. Weed and I ask that you all go out and buy a copy of her book, Healing Wise. If you don't want to buy it, check it out of the library. She is hilarious, wise, wacky, and her book has been an amazing teacher and opener of the way into the wisdom of the green.

A Fungus Among Us

This week at the Medicine Club was a different week. We diverged away from the plant kingdom for a moment to delve into the world of fungus. I brought in one representative of a most interesting genus, the Psilocybe. This week we worked with Psilocybe azurescens

We will not be working with this medicine internally. Each person must walk that road on their own, I can not be a guide to that realm through this avenue. But I can point the way.

All of my initial information about this curious little mushroom comes from Paul Stamets book, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World, a landmark achievement for fungophiles everywhere. If you want to locate these mushrooms, I suggest you start there. I, too, wrote a book, entitled Columbiana!, in which I shamelessly reveal many of my secrets from my 20's. You can buy this book from me for 23 dollars if you are so inclined, or I suppose you can go to the Common Ground coffee shop on Hawthorne and look at the house copy they have there.

The fact of the matter is, I had to put in some leg work to meet these emissaries of the natural world and so should you. If things of this nature come too easily, they are not appreciated enough.

But we can start with the basic habitat. The azurescens are beach dwellers. They were not discovered until 1979 and the first place they were found is at the mouth of the epic river that drains all of our rainfall, springs, rivulets, and rivers out to the sea. From the mouth of the what the natives called Chenewa, these mushrooms sing their song of the mycelium connection.

Mycelium is facinating stuff. It is the organism of the mushroom. The above ground portion that most of us are familiar with is the fruiting body of the underground decomposing organism that is the mycelium, a vast network of interwoven tendrills. Under a microscope, it does not look too different from the interconnected pathways of nerves in the body or synapses in the brain.

Mushrooms, in general, play a very important role in any given ecosystem that we find them in. They are decomposers, breaking down dead and rotting material and transforming it into rich soils and substrates for new life. Some of them have a very interesting relationship with trees, in which the mycelium grows in a protective sheath around the rootlets of trees. The rootlets and the mycelium exchange nutrients with one another, making each one stronger than they would be on their own. Some trees need this relationship in order to grow. This relationship is called a mychorhizal relationship.

Mychorhizal relationships have been proven to be an integral aspect of the health of old growth forests. Restoration artists and tree planers have found that encouraging the proper mychorhizal relationships with newly planted trees by introducing mycelium into the planting process helps the new trees survive and establish themselves.

Paul Stamets is not just a psychonaut. He and his organization, Fungi Perfecti of Olympia, have been doing outstanding work on discovering mycelium that can transmute toxins, breakdown oils, and be a great aid in environmental cleanups of the superfund order. Mushrooms may just yet save the world, if we open our minds up to their abilities.

Back to our guest, the azurescens. The genus Psilocybe contains hundreds of species that all have a varying amount of the compounds psilocybin and psilocin. The more these compounds are present, the more these mushrooms affect the humans who work with them. The azurescens have a high content of both, making them the strongest mushroom by weight on the planet.

The Psilocybe mushrooms cause a change in consciousness. Plain and simple. This can be very useful for healing a sick mind. Sadness, depression, confusion, stress and related disorders can be alleviated by a change in perspective. These mushrooms will certainly aid in achieving this. Many healing practitioners who work with these mushrooms claim that the mushrooms "speak" to them and in these conversations provide valuable insights and information regarding the patient or themselves.

This was the modus operendi of the Mazatec healer, Maria Sabina. Sabina was "discovered" by R. Gordon Wasson in 1957, who traveled to the Oaxaca highlands to study folk usage of mushrooms. He wrote an article that appeared in Life magazine. This article went on to spark a great curiosity in the western world, which initiated a flood of wayward pilgrims to Maria's highland village, all seeking a new way to converse with the numinous.

Par for the course with the West, the sacrament was abused and things were taken for granted. Maria ended her career disappointed with the pilgrims and their looking for a shortcut to G-d. By the end of her days she said the "little ones" no longer spoke to her.

You may have come to meet the magic mushrooms as a recreational thrill seeker. I know my initial curiosity was not with pure healing intentions. I wanted to get high. That all changed after my initial encounters. As I got older, I matured and came to a place of great reverence for the medicine of the Psilocybe. It is not a genus to be trifled with. This is big medicine and it needs to be respected.

Why am I writing about the mushrooms? They asked me to. In my life, the Psilocybe have been great teachers revealing the wonder of the world when I have forgotten, revealing the nature of my sadness when my mind is ill, and revealing secrets of ecology, connections in the web of relations that were not evident to me until I looked at them with a different perspective. They have humbled me when I thought myself too great and boosted me up when I thought too little of myself. With their aid I have seen the timeless nature of existence and learned to navigate the river of time that we experience as "passing" with a greater ease and grace.

I feel that as denizens of the PNW, we are gifted to live among so many different species of Psilocybe. You don't even need to go to the beach. You can find many of them growing right here in Portland. They are an important part of this ecosystem, simply because they are here. Good luck, happy hunting, give thanks, and have respect.

We will be returning to the plant kingdom with the next Medicine Club.

I wish to close with a translation of one of Maria Sabina's songs that was taught to her by the mushrooms.

Because I can swim in the immense
Because I can swim in all forms
Because I am the launch woman
Because I am the sacred opossum
Because I am the Lord opossum

I am the woman Book that is beneath the water, says
I am the woman of the populous town, says
I am the shepherdess who is beneath the water, says
I am the woman who shepherds the immense, says
I am a shepherdess and I come with my shepherd, says

Because everything has its origin
And I come going from place to place from the origin...

Dandelion and Yellow Dock

This week we did two city plants from my own back yard, Dandelion and Rumex. Working with two plants at once is kind of interesting. You can be sure we won't be working like that again. I had this nagging feeling that Dandelion was irked at loosing the spot light and that Yellow Dock felt like the third wheel on a date with Dandelion and the Herbalist. I wanted to bring Dock in with Dandelion because I was not sure there was enough material on Rumex for an entire class. There is a super abundance of information about Dandelion.

There is good reason for this. Dandelion is a world famous healer that has been in service to the human race for thousands of years. I hope you all know what Dandelion looks like, but for those who do not...here we go. Dandelion is a hairless perennial growing from a stout taproot, up to two feet. Both root and stem bleed a milky sap when cut. Basal rosette of oblong to oblanceolate leaves, deeply lobed or toothed. Yellow flowers in solitary head on hollow, leafless stems. Found growing in lawns, parks, meadows, and disturbed areas all over the world. It's home is Greece, Arabia and Asia Minor. Dandelion was growing in the first cities of the world.

Dandelion's Latin name, Taraxacum officinale means official remedy for disorders It is great to know that a plant so common is so very useful. How useful? The spring greens are good salad, the later greens can be steamed like spinach. The flowers are the basis for a great wine. The root is a liver tonic and can also be roasted and ground into a wonderful tea that is bitter like coffee in taste.

Dandelion is the Liver's best ally. And if you are a liver of life, then please pause to consider the organ that is your liver. Do you like to eat meat? Do you like to eat rich foods? Do you like to drink wine, beer or spirits? Your liver is hard at work so you can be a liver of life.

Every minute of every day three pints of blood circulate through your liver. On one hand your liver filters away chemical condemnations, unneeded hormones, metabolic breakdown by-products, some infectious organisms, and ammonia from your blood. On the other hand the liver adds bile, lipoproteins, urea, cholesterols, phospholipids, and plasma proteins. The liver performs over 500 functions!!! So be good to your liver!

As a bitter tonic, Dandelion will help promote overall wellness. In addition to toning the liver, Dandelion root will also tone your spleen, stomach, pancreas, kidneys, skin, and your nervous, glandular, digestive, urinary, circulatory, immune and lymphatic systems. This is accomplished through Dandelions blend of earth mineral salts with high amounts of iron, manganese, phosphorus, protein, aluminum and carotenes...not to mention the moderate amounts of calcium, chromium, cobalt, magnesium, niacin, potassium, riboflavin, silicon, sodium, tin, zinc, and ascorbic acid.

As a trouble shooter, Dandelion is an ally in the fight against infections and fevers, not to mention mononucleosis, swollen lymph nodes and cancer. Dandelion will help eliminate free radicals and other trouble makers from the body.

Some other interesting facts: Dandelion is one of the five bitter herbs from the Old Testament's Book of Exodus. Dandelion Pollen is used by over 90 different insects. Dandelions seed heads have been known to travel 5 miles from their plant of departure.

No we move on to the Rumex. The plant we worked with is called Broad Leafed Dock or Rumex obtusifolius. This is a very common city plant of Portland and because it loves moist soil it grows prolifically throughout the PNW in lawns, fields, disturbed areas, trail heads, and just about anywhere else people have made an impact on the lands of the lower elevations.

Broad Leafed dock grows from a very deep taproot (sometimes five feet deep) and is yellow in color. The stem is upright two to four feet tall with broad, heart shaped green leaves that are heart shaped at the base. Flowers green, turning a rusty red color in the fall. This a plant of Eurasia and can be found growing throughout the northern hemisphere.

There are two main interest in knowing Broad leafed Dock. First off, the fresh leaves are a great remedy for Stinging Nettle and Dock will often be found growing near Stinging Nettle, which is convenient if you get stung. The leaves of Broad Leaf Dock will also help sooth the pain of bee stings, bug bites, and mosquito insertion bumps. if it stings, itches, or is irritated, odds are that the juice of the fresh Broad Leaf Dock will cure what ails you.

Internally, the tap root is a good liver cleanser. It does contain tannins, however, and is a better systems flush than other liver cleansers. If you have constipation, the root may help you to loosen up and let go.

Combined with Dandelion, this dynamic duo will help your liver be all it can be. I would recommend this combo for a quarterly flush of the bodies vital systems or for post holiday season cleansing to help your body recover from all the eggnog, spirits, and yummies eaten from Thanksgiving until New Years Day.

Apparently the plant we worked with is native to North America and is the only native Rumex of the hundreds of Rumex species that currently live in North America.

I wish I had more to say about this Rumex, but I just don't. I look forward to taking the tincture later on in the year, so I can get to know this plant better.

This weeks class was a fun one. We had a special guest, a freelance writer, Sophia who came to be a part of the class and to write an article. It was a great class for her to come to, because, first off we were studying very accessible and common medicinal plants and second, it was a night packed with Medicine Club regulars who have that certain something in their sense of humor that only a jocular group of herbal enthusiasts can hold. I am excited to see what the article turns out like.

We also had a return of Ben to the Medicine Club, which is good, because he knows how to pronounce French and we needed that in order to understand Susun S. Weed's take on Dandelion from her book, Healing Wise. Marion and Lacy were brave enough to read Dandelion's diatribe from that book in their best French accents, but again, it's a good thing Ben was there to keep things straight.

We made root tinctures from both of the plants, having washed, scrubbed, and chopped the roots. Brandy was used as the base again. People took home the leaves of the Dandelion and the Dock, though some may have been composted.

We had to work double time on the drawings, and the field guide findings. This kind of rushing over the material is something I would like to avoid in the future, so please don't expect me to do two plants at once again for a while (unless they are very, very similar).

Good times with the city healers! Let's give it up one more time for Dandelion and Broad Leaf Dock, two very common and abundant plants that are just waiting in a yard near you to help your liver live life to its fullest!

We used some books that we have not given much time to in the past. I would like to mention these guides, because they are very useful for the study of the weedy healers.

A City Herbal by Maida Silverman, Lore, Legend, and Uses of Common Weeds, Ash Tree Publishing, Woodstock, NY, 1997

Wise Woman Herbal, Healing Wise, by Susun S. Weed, Ash Tree Publishing, Woodstock, NY, 1989

The Book of Herbal Wisdom, Using Plants as Medicines by Matthew Wood, North Atlantic Books, Berkely California, 1997

Check these three titles out!!!! They are very informative as go in depth into some very key healing plants.

Thank you all,
There is no Medicine Club next week, for I will be teaching Animal Tracking.

photo credit to Sophia (first action shot of Medicine Club in progress)

Oregon Grape

This weeks plant was Oregon Grape, Mahonia aquifolia, M. nervosa, M. repens,

M. aquifolia is the state flower of Oregon. It is a leafy bush of a plant growing two to six feet in height and covered with wavy, prickly, pinnate leaves. The leaflets are shiny, dark green above and a dull green below growing in an opposite pattern with a single terminal leaflet. The number of leaflets per leaf will vary from 5 to 7 to 9. The compound leaves are alternate growing from long, thin petioles branching out from tough brown woody stems. Sometimes a few of the leaves will turn a brilliant red. Scratch the surface of the woody stems and the inner yellow bark is revealed. Touch your tongue to this and taste the berberine. The roots grow rhizominously into underground runners, often times with more than one above ground “plant” emerging from the same root system. In march and april, as spring unfurls and the weather in these parts becomes dreamy again, Oregon Grape blooms into clusters of bright yellow, fragrant flowers. After the bees have their way with the flowers, they mature into round, blue-purple clusters of “grapes”. Really they are berries and if you eat a few you will find them to be sour and bitter at the same time. They make a great summer body paint and will stain your skin until you jump into the nearest river to wash it all off.

M. nervosa is very much like the above save that it is the short variety (but not the shortest). Its leaves are longer as well, consisting of 13 to 19 leaflets. Its roots also grow laterally, just under the surface of the soil. There is great joy to be found in the delicate tugging and pulling it takes to unearth one of these roots without breaking the runner too soon.

M. repens is the smallest of the three. It is often found creeping along the ground and it prefers the dryer habitats of the east side of Mt Hood and similar environs. It often has elaborate underground rhizome roots running all around each other. Tug at one and find it connected to a vast underground network of woody roots and tender rootlets.

You will find Oregon Grape growing in one or more of its forms throughout Oregon, Washington, B.C., Idaho, Montana, Nevada, California and it even has species that grow in the desert SW and south into Mexico. The plant can be locally very abundant and can be a significant undergrowth species in old growth as well as second growth forests of Doug fir and Hemlock. It grows on both sides of Mt Hood, but not in the alpine.

Mahonia truly carries the essence of old Oregon. It is a dependable plant, easily accessible, hard working, modest, beautiful and fragrant without being showy or flashy. This plant can get things done. Plain and simple, honest and forthright, Oregon Grape is a plant that can be called on to heal a variety of illnesses.

The roots, lower stems and leaves are all medicinal. I feel this plant is an extremely important plant to know, especially if you find yourself living in its bioregion.

The roots and lower stems are best gathered in the early fall, but can be collected from late summer to early winter. The leaves are best collected after they have hardened in May until the middle of the fall, after which point it is best to leave them alone.
The dried leaves of Oregon Grape are an effective antimicrobial. Steep them in hot water until the water is no longer hot and then strain the leaf material and warm the liquid back up. Soak affected part right in the bowl, or wet a clean cloth with the medicinal liquid and drape over affected area. This is great for wounds that just won’t heal, wounds that you don’t want to get infected, and wounds that have already gotten infected. I have also found that the dried leaf tea top be very effective for getting rid of acne.

For wounds and infections that are more persistent, the root must be enlisted to your healing service. A decoction (tea) in which the root material steeps in at first boiling water for 12 or so hours will be vastly more potent. Clean and scrub roots. Shave down to the inner bark or simply cut into small segments with pruners. Add hot water and let sit for the prescribed amount of time.

Internally the tea and tincture are very useful for stomach microbes. Eat some bad egg salad? Drink the water at too low an elevation? Push the envelope on the expiration date of your milk? Oregon Grape can help you. It may not speedily cure your dysentery or Giardia, but it will certainly slow it down and if you consistently ingest the teas that have been steeping for 24 to 72 hours (the longer, the stronger) you will rid yourself of those pesky little Giardia rascals. The tincture will not work for this purpose.

Oregon Grape is also a stimulant to liver metabolism and is an atimicrobial. This makes it a great ally for when you are sick with a cold. Most colds are caused by microbes that are messing with your internal chemistry. Oregon grape will help id you of the microbes while it flushes the liver (which is where the dead little buggers will go to be processed)

Oregon Grape is very effective for cold and flue season especially when combined with Devil’s Club, Yellow Dock, Burdock, Elderberry, and/or Rhishi mushroom.

For colds and flues, the tincture is very useful and that is why we have prepared it for the up and coming winter season.

This weeks class was attended by Chris, Marion, Eric, John, Lacy and myself. We identified the plant, learned the hard facts from the field guides, drew the plant with both sides of our brains, and then made a root tincture from brandy.

Thank you all for attending. See you next week!

Devil's Club

Our plant of the week was Devil's Club, (Oplopanax horridus).

There is but one Devil's Club and it is unmistakable in appearance. It's large spiky leaves resemble Maple, but once you touch the leaf of Devil's Club, there is no way to confuse the two. The stalk, or club, of the Devil's Club is two to over ten feet tall and covered in spikes for all but the last foot or so above the ground. The plant grows from creeping rhizomes that form dense stands just under the duff of the forest floor. From these runner roots grow thin rootlets that sink into the earth. There are no spikes on the roots. Devil's Club has an impressive flower bloom that is greenish white in color and arranged like spiral pinnacles. In the late summer, the berries form bright red pyramids of fruit good for birds and bears, but not humans.

Devil's club is a plant of old forests and if you find a patch of it growing, know that you are in a portion of the woods that have not been too disturbed by the intrusion of humans. Its range is from Coastal Alaska south to Oregon. It grows east throughout British Columbia and northern Washington on into Montana and Idaho. In all of these regions the forest needs to be a wet one, moist enough to host Western Red Cedar. However, the further north one goes, the more one will find Devil's Club growing out in the open.

I find that the plant is most exalted in the old growth forest of the west slope of the Cascade Mountains. It is here in the cathedral forest that light can filter through a healthy canopy and dance upon the large spiky fan leaves tops of the Devil's Club, providing impressions of shadow and illumination that do not soon leave the beholder.

The Medicine Club has adopted the gathering method written about by Tara at hobostripper.com. It is the cut, shave, and strip method of harvesting just the upright "clubs" and a few inches of the root. This placement of the cut eases the stress of harvesting from the stands of Devils Club. The medicine is still very potent and a years worth of personal research has shown that as a wellness formula, Devil's Club works fine when harvested like this.

Devil's Club is best harvested with gloves on. Bring a pair of clippers into the forest, as it will make your job easier on you and the plant. Cut a few inches of the root and then cut again about a foot or so above the ground. This "club" will be easy to transport out of the woods. Then take back to your prep area, shave off the spines and outer bark, revealing the succulent green inner bark. Strip this from the hard inner wood by girdling the club and cutting into strips one inch wide and three to five inches long. Cut and peel. Pile the strong smelling strips separate from the shaving area for tincture or to be dried for tea.

Devils Club is a medicine of many uses. Please read Michael Moore or do lots of online research in order to learn more about this wonderful plant. I will write about what I know about the plant. Devil's Club is an amazing restorer or depleted energy reserves. The Northwest Native peoples from Alaska to Oregon have called Devil's Club a panacea, and assert that it can cure most anything.

First and foremost Devil's Club is, to quote Michael Moore, "A safe and reliable expectorant and respiratory stimulant, increasing the mucus secretions to initiate fruitful coughing and soften up hardened bronchial mucus that can occur later in a chest cold."

I have found that in times of life where I am spreading myself thin, when I have taken on too many projects or have stayed up too late engaged in wine fueled love making once again and my vital essence is well drained, under these conditions and many more I have found that the Devil's Club will come to the rescue and help restore my energy levels. Granted, I have to do my part and rest up a bit and take things easy.

Feeling a little sick, but not yet fully knocked out? Take some Devil's Club. Feeling the winter time blues? Take some Devil's Club (and a little California Poppy). Feeling sluggish? Low energy? Take some Devil's Club.

There has been a long history of Devil's Club for Adult Onset Diabetes. I have yet to work directly with this disease state so I would recommend more research if you are looking to treat you or someone else's diabetes with Devil's Club.

I have found that Devil's Club will decrease one's desire for sugars. I have heard that Native Americans of the region would drink Devil's Club tea on a fast because they said it reduced hunger and the need for food. I have found that my appetite decreases when I am using Devil's Club as a tonic for wellness.

Devil's Club has been likened to Ginseng. Both plants are more than capable of restoring the bodies energy systems. Michael Moore puts it best when he says Devils Clubs "main value is in modifying extremes of metabolic stress and adding a little reserve to offset the persons internal cost of living."

This weeks class was great. The Devil's Club workings are the funniest sessions of the Medicine Club. Something about the plant is just down right giggly, especially for those inclined to sexy humor, what with all the shaving and stripping and rendering smooth of the staff or club and the piling of the lovely smelling strips.

I'm not going to get too into it. It's just something that you'll have to attend in person next fall.

The class drew the images in both the spirit form and the analog of how it is. We talked a lot about old growth forests, strippers, and the devil in the ecological and geographical history of the West.

Thank you to everyone for being a part of this weeks class.

See you next time,

D

Sitka Valerian

This weeks plant was Sitka Valerian (Valeriana sitchensis).  I took this picture while gathering. However unglamorous it appears, this is how the plant looks at harvest time.  

We also looked at V. officionalis, V. dioica, and V. capitata.  As a genus, Valerian is a cosmopolitan plant growing in many different habitats around the northern hemisphere.

Sitka Valerian is a plant of high mountain meadows at or below tree line.  It prefers moist meadows and clearings between Mountain Hemlock and Subalpine Fir, sometimes found growing well away from trees in the open alpine regions like Paradise Park.

I collected this batch from the timberline trail of Mt. Hood.  This time of year, after the first frost, you can smell the tell tale odor of Sitka Valerian wafting on the breeze for about twenty yards before the patches of the plant are encountered. Often, it's the smell more than anything else that helps you to find the plant.

Sitka Valerian has upright stems tow or so feet tall with one or two sets of opposite leaves along the stem, each group well separated from the next.  During the flowering times, the stem is crowned by white to pale pink umbel flower heads that look similar to mustard and carrot family flowers.

When flowering is complete, the stem deteriorates, leaving the basal leaves to photosynthesis for the remainder of the season.

The roots of Sitka Valerian are hardy, almost woody, yet succulent and smelly too.  The plant sets a main rhizome which branches off into many translucent rootlets.  It grows in clusters and is often found in the company of lupine, green corn lilly, bistort, and other lovers of the high mountain meadows.

Let's take a moment to consider the yearly round of Sitka Valerian, who is often found growing at 6000 feet on the west side of the Cascade Mountains.  By late march there is often 15 or more feet of snow on top of the ground where the plant grows.  The loamy soil that hosts the roots is frozen, often to the depth of two to three feet below the surface.  In late May, when the valley's are feeling the sun and people are sporting tank tops, the snow begins to melt.  The meltdown is not usually complete until mid June, at which point the alpine meadows are soggy with the remains of the previous winter.  The soil up there does not hold water very well, so the roots must use this time to wake up from the winter's frost and drink deep of the most water abundant time of year.  By July the heat is on.  The sun's UV rays are stronger in the alpine than they are in the valleys.  The soil begins to dry up and all of Valerians energy goes into flowering.  By August, it is hot and dusty in the alpine.  Rain is scarce and if it comes, it usually drains away within hours.  First frost usually comes by the end of september and come October, the snow begins to fall again.

Sitka Valerian is a tough plant.  It is for this reason that I prefer to harvest it over all the other Valerians. I believe that a little of that mountain hardiness transfers over to the plant, and that the medicine of Sitka Valerian is stronger than out garden variety of V. officionalis.

All of the Valerians are a sedative and an antispasmodic.  In my humble opinion V. sitchensis the most potent.  The medicine of Valerian puts you to sleep.  If you have ever had a night with the wheels of your mind spinning round and round as you lay awake in bed thinking about everything from your mother's health to tomorrows responsibility, to your car and whether or not you locked the passenger side door, to a thousand other things that move jingle around your brain like change in your pocket.  It is for nights like this that Valerian is very useful.

I have also had good success putting children down to sleep with Valerian, especially little children who refuse to go to bed because it's that time of life in which they test their parents at every corner as a child's will is developed.  A word of warning, the taste is really hard to conceal.  My kids soon caught on to the tell tale taste of the medicine, even when I hid it in honey and I was only able to pull this trick on them a few times.  It was, however, very effective every time and I owe my success at "the bedtime wars" to Valerian.

If you are an adult, Valerian will calm you down enough to go to sleep.  During times of my life that the wheels of mind would not slow down, I have found this plant to be a great ally. Insomnia can really suck the life out of a person.  Valerian will help put an end to it.

But Valerian can become a little habit forming.  So, if you find yourself returning to it's medicine again and again, perhaps you should meditate and get to the root of your monkey mind problem.  What's really on your mind and what can you do about it? You may need to develop a meditation practice to calm your mind from the inside out.

This weeks class was really chill.  It was just me, Jon, and Erik.  I am very sensitive to the medicine of Valerian.  The process of gathering it puts me in a very dreamy state.  Then being in the Medicine club room, picking apart the roots, drawing the plant, and inhaling that funky smell, all gave me a buzz that is unlike any other.

The three of us drew the plant and made out spirit images of the plant.  We talked about Valerian and dream time as well.

Valerian has always had a profound affect on my dreams.  I have found them to be more vivid, lucid, and strange when I take the medicine.  This is not true for everyone.  Some people report very unsettling, bizarre, and disturbing dreams after taking Valerian.

There are certain metabolisms that will not fit well with Valerian.  It can be a stimulant to some and can also make for a rough awakening the next morning complete with grogginess and an unwillingness to face the day. 

Back to the medicine at hand...we cleaned the roots and removed a half-pint jar of mountain soil that is now on display at the Medicine Club room.  The clean roots were broken by hand and put into a half pint jar and a tincture was made using brandy.

Jon, Eric and myself finished off the class with a discussion of the search for Soma.  I related my unsuccessful attempts at a northwest blend of plants that involved Sitka Valerian.  I have found that the medicine of this plant to be so potent that its effects over-ride the medicines of the other plants such as Bleeding Heart and Morning Glory.  The Medicine Club will be investigating this and other phenomena of plant alchemy during the late fall and winter.

Thank you all,

see you next week.

Bleeding Heart

This weeks plant was Bleeding Heart (Dicentra formosa).

Bleeding heart can be found growing in moist forests, ravines, and stream banks at low to middle elevations. The plant is found from Southwest BC to Santa Cruz and along the Sierra Nevada crest from Fresno County northwards. Bleeding heart can be found growing sporadically in Alberta, Idaho and Montana in the wetter areas of the Rocky Mountains.

Bleeding heart grows from long succulent rhizomes that run just under the surface of the forest floor. Bleeding heart has long stemmed leaves, basal, that are very much divided into the ultimate segments which are narrowly oblong. Parsley like in appearance the leaves are also described as being fern like or feathery. Light green in color. Heart shaped inflated beautiful flower. Pinkish-purple to pale pink in color. Flowers grow in clusters of 5 to 15 atop stem. The fruits of the bleeding heart are pod-like capsules containing several black shining seeds with a small white, oil-rich appendage that is attractive to ants, which disperse the seeds.

The roots are gathered in the late summer and early fall, until the leaves have all turned. Gather the leaves in the summer, just after the seed pods are ripe. Sow the seeds as you gather the leaves to help in regrowth.

From our working with the field guides we found that:

Crushed plant tea makes a good hair rinse that makes the hair grow.

A tincture of the root is an anti-anxiety medicine and a bit of a narcotic. The isoquinoline alkaloids present in the plant are the same alkaloids we find in opiates.

American Indian groups chewed the raw roots to alleviate toothache.

The entire plant can be used in a poultice as a topical analgesic. The pain dulling action of the fresh plant can be sped up by applying a hot, moist towel with a little bit of tincture underneath.

As a tonic, Bleeding Heart increase appetite, stimulates liver function, and helps anabolic functions.

Tonics are substances to strengthen and prevent disease especially chronic disease.

Bleeding Heart tonic was at one time used as a tonic for syphilis. It was also used for impaired kidney function and mild tendency for edema.

Not for use during pregnancy. May induce a false positive for tests for opiates.

This weeks session was a good one. I really enjoy working with this plant, as I have found its uses as a wilderness first aid and an in town aid to dealing with the stresses of life to be beyond value.

I gathered this crop of roots from the yard of Chris Runyard. The ease of cultivating Bleeding Heart is another endearing quality of the plant. If placed in the proper aspect to the sun and in a decent quality soil, those creeping rhizomes will spread and you will find that after a few years, quite a patch has been formed.

I was able to stroll over to Chris's house an hour before session, gather up the plant, roots, leaves and all and then still have time to get some pizza before start time. Already my stress levels were reduced...and I did not need to drive anywhere.

I first started to experiment with Bleeding Heart back in 2001. Post 9-11 reality was becoming quite surreal and I had a one month old daughter at the time who refused to sleep through the night and a wife who refused to get up at 3:30 am. I would wake up, take some of the tincture, and take the most mellow, dreamy walks with my daughter as the chilly November nights saw the dog star Sirius rising to chase the heels of Orion.

I would hold my blanket wrapped daughter in my arms and sink into a mellow mood as I walked around the quiet streets of our neighborhood. She would always fall back asleep and then, I , quite relaxed, would fall asleep shortly thereafter.

When we get to the medicine taking portion of the yearly round of the Medicine Club, I will detail further experiments I have conducted with the plant. I have been very impressed with the various applications of Bleeding Heart for relaxing, healing, and calming the metaphorical heart.

Back to this weeks class...

We had Jon, Jes, Mikaela, Eva, Amitai, Chris, Marion, Gretchen, and Yael all in attendance. We went through he process of getting to know Bleeding Heart through our senses of touch, sight, and smell. A few people even chewed on the root to taste it.

We then poured through the field guides to identify the Bleeding Heart. Please note that Poison Hemlock shares a similar leaf shape!!! This could cause a deadly mix up if you were to confuse the early season leaves. Later on in the growth cycle, the two plants become quite distinguishable.

After a tea break, we did the two drawings of the plant. We drew both the leaves and the roots. I showed the class a picture of Jude Siegal, my teacher who taught me the spirit drawing method. We then went about the process of doing a spirit drawing for Bleeding Heart.

After the drawing sessions, the roots were removed from the leaf stems and taken downstairs to be washed. The clean roots were taken back upstairs and chopped up. The chopped roots were placed into a mason jar and some fine brandy was poured over the roots until the jar was full.

This concoction will now sit for the next six to twelve weeks as the medicine makes. After that time the plant material will be strained out and we will have a tincture of Bleeding Heart.

Thank you to all in attendance, I look forward to the next session!

False Solomon's Seal

This week's plant was False Solomon's Seal (Smilacena racemosa).

False Solomon's seal is a perennial plant that can be found growing in moist forest openings and clearings from North Carolina to the Oregon Coast north through to Alaska and south beyond the Bay Area of California. In the mountain west, on the east side of the Cascade Mountains it is found above the Ponderosa belt in all higher, moist mountains from 5,000 to 10,000 feet. West of the Cascade Crest, the plant is widespread at low to sub-alpine elevations.

False Solomon's seal has ovate, clasping leaves that grow from a central stalk in an alternating pattern. The plant grows from creeping rhizomes that can form substantial clumps. The white six sided flower is very fragrant and looks like the magical seal of Solomon, though this is not how the plant got its name. The term 'false' is in relation to its east coast cousin that looks similar in root, leaf and stalk appearance.

The other name for this plant is Solomon's plume, a name I will use for the rest of this blog. I cant bare to call a plant false.

We investigated the medicinal properties of the root.

Medicinally, the plant is an astringent and an anti-inflammatory. An astringent is an agent that causes tissue to contract. As an anti-inflammatory, Solomon's plume has a long history of use as a treatment for sore throats. It also has a soothing, relaxing, and sedative effect on the lungs and bronchial tubes.

A poultice of the root has been used to treat boils, bruises, and poison oak.

Solomon's plume root can be chewed and swallowed for upset stomachs, ulcers, and constipation.

First Nations peoples of both coasts used a root tea for rheumatism and chronic back pain. The plant was also known as a blood purifier.

The root can be chewed for gum irritation.

This week's plant was gathered by myself off of the skyline trail in the northern portion of Forest Park.

This week's gathering saw many new faces at the Medicine Club. I was really excited to be facilitating the club again and it was cool to see that my flier efforts had paid off and that there were new folks interested in herbalism and the Medicine Club.

Things went pretty smoothly at first and then got downright sticky by the end.

We went through the process of meeting Solomon's plume by investigating all of its parts from the creeping rhizomes to the wilting berries. We found its name by identifying the plant from the field guides. We investigated the Hooker's fairy bells and Twisted Stalk in order to know Solomon's seal's look alike plants.

We drew the plant from both sides of our brains, fostering an analytical and intuitive recognition of the look of Solomon's plume. We then took a break and washed the roots for medicine making.

The group took turns chopping and dicing the roots until we had some nice piles of root to put in the pot. The group then watched with excited eyes as the honey was poured into the pot.

Earlier in the week, I had decided to finally make the cough syrup from Michael Moore's book, Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West. It's a fairly straight forward recipe that calls for one part Solomon's plume and four parts honey.

Earlier in the day, I had bought a hotplate from for the Medicine Club. That night was the first time I had used it. I guess it gets quite a bit hotter than I had given it credit for.

I plugged in the unit and turned it up to high with the pot filled with honey and root on top of the hotplate. I then turned my back on it and started to talk more about the various attributes of Solomon's plume that can be found on the web.

Eric was the first to comment upon the bubbling mess on the horizon as he pointed out that the pot was about to overflow.

To the class's credit, we were all very quick about moving the pot to safety. A decent amount of honey boiled over the top of the pot, some of it dripped on the shelf and then some more poured down the wall. What a sweet sticky mess clean up was!

Everyone seemed in good humor about the incident. Next time, I 'm putting the pot in the middle of class and am keeping a better eye on things. Seat of the pants medicine making requires the utmost attention of the practitioners!

On the upside, I was so concerned for the well-being of the medicine syrup that I gave it plenty of time to simmer that night and the next day, I simmered it some more so that we would haver no water in the honey...it can lead to fermentation.

The mixture was strained at the end of Thursday and looks great. Sore throats be warned!

Thank you to those in attendance!!!: Jon, jess, Mikaela, Eva, Chris, Megan, Eric, and Andrew. You folks make the Medicine Club possible.

Welcome to the blog of the Medicine Club. The intent of this blog is to document the week by week progress of the club as we explore medicine making and the practice of herbalism.

The Medicine Club was in session for a year before this blog was created. The intent of the blog is to formalize the workings of the Medicine Club and make our findings and our studies open to the non-attending public.

Throughout the seasons of growth and harvest, we work with a new plant every week making medicine, understanding the folklore, and unearthing interesting information regarding the plants of the week. As part of the study process, we utilize two ways of drawing the plants we work with, one an intuitive drawing and the other an analytical realistic drawing. Throughout the dormant season we work with plant medicine testing and tasting.

Here what members of the club have had to say so far:

"A good way to start learning about herbs that is laid back and not too intense".—Chaz

"This class changed my perspective through references to mythology and the practice of spirit drawings. Dave brought information out of the ground and into my imagination.”—Sandra

"I like plants and I want to learn about their healing properties. Healing work with plants…that sounds kind of fun"—Sarah

"I value learning from someone who can add to my store of knowledge and I am interested in natural medicine. Using local plants for healing is such a gift. This is a resource that I want to learn more about"—Max

"Groovy...I like the people"—Marian.

"I want to get a deeper relationship with our native plants and I would like to understand the medicinal properties"—Logan

“As a native Portlander, I am a statistical anomaly and I feel like I need to have a stronger root with this land by understanding the local floral and medicines.—Melissa

“Dave teaches an adequate/marginal class”—Chris “Happy Fish” Runyard