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)
No comments:
Post a Comment