Prunus persica
PARTS USED twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, pits
Peach season is highly anticipated all summer long. As people wait for the fruit to ripen, I go out and harvest the leaves for blending into teas.
A tree of the rose family, peach has beautiful light pink blossoms of five petals with many stamens. The trees can be hard to differentiate from other species by blossom alone, but when the long, curved, simple leaves sprout from the branches, it becomes easier to identify. The branches create a broad canopy for the fruit to ripen under. When peaches are ripe, they are orange, yellow, and red with a fuzz covering the soft, fleshy skin. A type of stone fruit, each peach has a hard, ridged pit at the center.
Feral peach trees can be found in the rich-soiled farming communities of the lower slopes. If you can’t find a wild-growing specimen, many farmers will let you go into the you-pick orchards during the spring and summer to let you gather peach leaves, or if you are lucky, blossoms. Gather the leaves after the tree has blossomed in the spring or summer, or collect the blooms and twigs in spring. The leaves and blossoms can be dried for tea blending, and the fruit can be harvested in late summer and used for its cooling medicine. There is medicine in the core of the fruit as well, so keep your pits and add those into a jar for tincturing.
Peach leaves, flowers, twigs, fruit, and pits are all very cooling and bitter, ideal in the overheated days of summer. The gentle, nourishing relief that peach leaf brings to the body makes it a useful remedy for those experiencing grief, sadness, or loss. It is a calming nervine that helps to release the tied-up tensions of the body brought on by disease or intense incidents such as death or divorce. A tincture can be made of the leaves and flowers in the spring, or try infusing honey with the blossoms to create a peach elixir.
The fruit and pit can also be incorporated into flavoring formulas to carry that sugary peachy sweetness. The moistening component comes out more with use of the fleshy parts, making the fruit useful for coughs and inflamed gastrointestinal tracts. The leaf can be crushed and used as a poultice for insect bites.
When taking leaves from branches, do not strip only one branch. Move throughout the tree to harvest, or better yet, spread your picking out through an entire orchard.
Anaphalis margaritacea
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
Smoking blends are increasingly popular alternatives to tobacco or cannabis—a new option without the head buzz. Pearly everlasting flowers increase the chances of its being a cough-free experience.
In late summer, the long-lasting pearly white blossoms of Anaphalis margaritacea can be seen dotting the mountainsides. A touch to the flower blossoms makes your senses go soft—they are silky and will remain pristine until late fall. Growing in rhizomatous clumps, pearly everlasting is hardly ever seen alone and will mostly be found in abundant stands. The leaves are thin, lance-shaped, and grow alternately along the stalk. Fine woolly hairs coat the stalk and undersides of the leaves, giving pearly everlasting a silvery green color.
Silky white patches of pearly everlasting can be found blooming through the mountains in late summer as the first few cold nights begin to set in. This is the ideal time to harvest. Gather the flowers by pinching just under each cluster. Leaves can be gathered as well.
The flowers of pearly everlasting look fresh when dried. They are beautiful when preserved in herbal flower arrangements. Try hanging a bouquet of blooming yarrow, wild beebalm, pearly everlasting, wild hyssop, and a few sprigs of farm-fresh lavender. Once dried, the bouquet makes a gorgeous gift that provides a soft floral fragrance and helps keep a home clear of unwanted energies.
The stalks, leaves, and flowers can be combined with artemisias and juniper branches and braided with sweet grass for a smudge bundle that burns well and smells delightful. Pearly everlasting flowers and leaves have been traditionally used in smoking blends by Native Americans. As an inhaled smoke, pearly everlasting has been used to assist with coughing fits and clearing the lungs.
As a tea or tincture the leaves and flowers can relieve coughs or asthma, through shrinking and soothing the inflamed mucous membranes. Infused oils of the plant are useful in healing salves for burns.
This is a member of the Asteraceae, which can cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals.
Pearly everlasting is a bountiful plant in the mountain states. Collection from one stand will provide plenty for drying, usually without looking like you made a dent in the stand.
Pedicularis species
lousewort, betony, elephant’s head
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
The body-relaxing effects of pedicularis can be enjoyed in herbal smoking blends.
Pedicularis species vary widely throughout the mountain west. The leaves of some, such as P. procera, P. sudetica subsp. scopulorum, and P. groenlandica, can look like a clumped bunch of fern fronds before the inflorescence shoots up. Leaves are elongated, have serrated margins, or are highly divided and feather-like.
Flowers come in a variety of colors from yellow to magenta. Each dense inflorescence has many tiny hook-shaped flowers. Some species have inflorescences which are tightly clustered, while P. racemosa has white flowers growing interspersed between leaves along a raceme.
Most species can be found in areas where there is plentiful rainfall or in riparian areas. Pedicularis groenlandica grows in marshes or rich riparian areas around 9000 feet. Other species can be found at high elevations throughout moist forests or wet meadows. Chew the leaf of almost any pedicularis and you’ll find a watermelon aftertaste, followed by its bitter principles, giving off a gentle, sweet relaxation to the body. Some species have more of the watermelon essence than others.
Gather the leaves from spring until fall and the flowers during late summer. Delicately handle the plants, clipping just the flowerheads or taking only a few leaves from each plant.
Pedicularis species are among the great muscle and mind-body relaxants. Plants have been described by many herbalists as creating an almost loopy sedative quality, encouraging a profound full-body relaxation response. Pedicularis offers a variety of different ways to achieve this. The dried flowers and leaves can be used in smoking blends to promote mental relaxation as well as an overall feeling of slight sedation. A tincture or teas are also useful forms for internal dosage.
An infused oil of pedicularis leaves and flowers applied topically can provide relief where there is a muscle spasm, tension, or stiffness. A liniment extraction works similarly.
Pedicularis is a hemiparasitic plant that grows from a host plant and can carry constituents of that plant. Be very cautious harvesting near plants that are toxic or have alkaloids that can be harmful if ingested. Look for another area to harvest if something like aconite or water hemlock is growing nearby.
Harvest with care and an eye toward leaving all but large stands untouched. Be especially conscious of the delicate wetland soils and other species growing nearby.
Pinus species
PARTS USED twigs, needles, resin, pollen
A cup of pine-needle tea is a warming medicinal tisane on a frigid winter’s eve, full of cold-fighting vitamin C.
Often we look at a conifer and automatically call it a pine, when in fact it may be a tree from an entirely different genus, such as fir (Abies), spruce (Picea), or Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga). The needles of many Pinus species are much longer than those of other conifers, making the tree branches look tufted. Pine needles come in bundled sets of two as in lodgepole pine (P. contorta), three as in ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa), or five as in limber pine (P. flexilis) and whitebark pine (P. albicaulis).
The male cones, technically catkins, are soft, shed pollen in the spring, and lengthen before falling off the tree. Female cones are woody and scaly, with pine nuts nestled in between the scales. The nuts are either covered by a hard protective shell, or flattened, with a wing for wind dispersal of the tiny nut. Some pines, such as the lodgepole, have female cones that remain tightly closed for years, opening only in the event of a forest fire. The heat of the fire will open up these so-called fire cones, releasing seeds to help reseed forests after a burn.
Pines are found in abundance throughout the mountain west. Ponderosas are the most widespread, occurring at lower elevations and in drier climates, including Nevada and Utah. Lodgepoles can be found throughout at higher elevations, while whitebark pines are found primarily in the northern Rockies, intertwined with limber pines. Whitebark pines grow at elevations close to 12,000 feet in some places.
Gather male cones in spring, when they are short, in tight clusters, and full of the powdery yellow pollen; touch the cone cluster, and if powder puffs off into the air, they are ready. Resin is easily gathered in the spring or fall, when it is dripping from wounds in the trees. Gather female cones, for their nuts, in the fall. Needles can be gathered year-round.
Clusters of male cones can be clipped with pruners. A glass jar works best to gather and store the sticky resin. Look for freshly trimmed branches, scarred trees, or cones that are oozing the clear resin. Needles can be gently tugged from the branches. Spread out your harvest between many trees. The younger trees, which will be easier to access, should be picked from the least, as they are trying to grow and mature.
Pinus species have needles that are high in vitamin C, which can be extracted fresh in vinegars and teas. Pine tastes lovely as an infusion or decoction, dried or fresh. It can help to expectorate coughs and can also be a mild diuretic. It can be used as a steaming herb, for inhaling—add in usnea for its demulcent, hydrating, antimicrobial assistance.
A fresh tincture or honey extraction can be made of the needles, twigs, and resin. This can be used to help move out stuck mucus in the lungs, helping to relieve coughs. The warmth of pine can encourage fevers.
The fresh needles and resins can be infused into oils for chest rubs or for an addition to massage oils. Pine helps increase circulation, providing a little warmth and help to expectorate crud from the lungs. The resin infused into oils can also be beneficial for healing chapped or dry skin. The resins of all conifers work extremely well on healing and drawing out splinters.
The pollen of pine is highly nutritious and can be extracted in alcohol or brewed as an infusion. Strain the tincture or brew through a fine strainer, such as a coffee filter or disposable tea bag.
Conifers should not be used if you are pregnant. Consult a healthcare practitioner.
Harvest only from trees that are not under stress from pine beetles. This invader has killed many pines in the mountain west and has also led to a lower production of cones in some species. Since pine nuts can be a substantial source of food for many bears, birds, and other critters, they are best left untouched in strained areas.
Matricaria discoidea
wild chamomile
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
Use pineapple weed as you would chamomile flowers, to promote sleep or calm an upset tummy.
Pineapple weed is a low-growing weed that’s easy to miss even when it’s right in front of you. But step on it, and it announces its presence. When crushed, the cone-shaped flowers disperse an aroma of fresh pineapple and sweet chamomile. Flowers, consisting of small tightly packed disc flowers, look like little green-yellow buttons. Pineapple weed lacks the white ray flowers of German chamomile (Matricaria recutita) and other species in the genus. Flat, feathery, sweet-smelling leaves are pinnately dissected and grow alternately along the flowering stalks. Many leafy flowering stalks arise from the root, making this stubby plant look full and bushy.
You can find pineapple weed just about anywhere throughout the mountain west, but it may not draw any attention to itself because it grows so small and close to the ground. Flowers are best harvested in the full heat of summer, as they are most aromatic at this time.
Use a small pair of scissors or your pincer fingers to gather the leaves and flowers of pineapple weed. There is no need to wash the plant matter if you harvest from a grassy spot; however, a bowl of water can be used to soak and rinse trimmings that are too sandy.
When the blues have a hold on you, a simple cup of pineapple weed tea may be all you need to release those dreary thoughts and relax. Add in some hawthorn berries, rose, and fir; this infusion is one of my favorites for healing the tender-hearted.
The teething child can benefit from the calming and pain-relieving qualities of pineapple weed, extracted in oil or glycerin and rubbed on the gums. Dip a washcloth into a tea made from the flowers, wring it out, and place the washcloth into a sealed bag for freezing. The cold, tea-soaked cloth is an excellent remedy for teething babes.
Tinctures and teas are an aid to digestion as well, because of their carminative and bitter constituents. They can also be used to get a good night’s sleep, helping to calm and sedate the body.
Pineapple weed is in the Asteraceae, and some people may have allergic reactions to this plant family. The longer you steep the tea, the more bitter it will taste.
Pineapple weed is abundant and happy in the west. Trimming leaves and flowers from the plant will not put a damper on its future, as it reproduces and spreads easily.
Pinus species
pinyon
PARTS USED twigs, needles, resin
Resin of piñon not only smells divine but is also very regenerative and nourishing to the skin when infused in oil and used in skincare.
Two main species of piñon grow in the mountain west: Pinus edulis (two-needle piñon) and P. monophylla (single-leaf piñon). Both are short and bushy pine trees. They do not grow in dense forests because they need space to send enormously long roots horizontally and deep into the ground to gather enough water during times of drought. Pinus edulis has two needles in each fascicle (the cup that holds the needles together); P. monophylla is unique among pine species with only one needle per fascicle. Both species have rounded resinous pinecones that are stout, measuring 1–2½ inches in length and roughly 1 inch in diameter. Inside are brown, egg-shaped seeds and their golden nutmeat, known as pine nuts.
In the mountain west, piñon trees are primarily found in Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. Find two-needle piñon in Colorado, Utah, and parts of southern Wyoming, and single-leaf piñon in Nevada, Utah, and a small southern zone of Idaho. Piñons grow in the canyon lands or rocky dry soils along with junipers and ponderosa pines at 4000–9000 feet in elevation.
Gather resin in winter and needles all year long. Pull the needles gently off the branches bare-handed, but throw on some rubber gloves or disposable latex gloves if you want your hands to be functional after harvesting the cones. The delicious resin is intensely sticky.
For pine nuts, the best time is September through November. Timing matters immensely because the nuts are dispersed from the cones and quickly picked up or plucked out by birds. Gathering earlier in the season brings more abundance. One year could be a bumper crop, and the next you may not find many—or any—nuts in the cones. It is quite disappointing to crack open a pine nut seed and find it empty. It is easy to distinguish these rapscallions by the color of the shell: lightly colored shells are the fool’s gold, and the darker brown shells hold the coveted meat.
Piñon is warming and highly aromatic, making it suitable for a number of applications. It helps to release stuck mucus in the chest, providing circulation and a clearing cough. Infuse oils for chest rubs or make syrups and honeys for the cold season from the needles, twigs, and resin. An infusion can be made with the needles all year long, but it is extra pleasant in the spring made with the new growth.
The distilled essential oil and leftover hydrosol of piñon is one of my most favorite scents; it can be used in a host of applications, including spritzes for the hair, face, or underarms.
Resin can be extracted in alcohol, and I love infusing large resin chunks into oils, especially coconut oil, for making superb healing lip balms and face creams. Resin can even be used as is. I have put warmed resin on stubborn splinters that are becoming infected. The resin will help pull it out while its properties will help keep the spot clean and prevent further infection. Resin to a tree is the scab, keeping out invaders and pathogens, so be very cautious about how much you pick. Leave plenty behind to cover a tree’s wound.
In an excessive amount, conifer resin can be irritating to the kidneys for some. Not for use in pregnancy.
Prune trees, but do not go lopping off entire branches. A lot can be gathered from many trees in an area and collecting the resin that has fallen to the sandy ground.
Plantago species
psyllium
PARTS USED leaves, flowers, seeds
It’s a simple pleasure to make medicine from this easy-to-identify herb, whether it be a spit poultice, infused oil, or sun tea.
Ovate or lanceolate leaves of plantain grow in a dense basal rosette. Leaves have parallel veins that attach to thick stems. If you pull the leaves apart or break the stem, you will see that the veins are very stringy, like celery. Plantain hugs the ground, forming a mat of leaves around the leafless flowering spikes. The thin flowering spike hosts tiny white flowers that turn into brown seedpods. All plantagos can be used interchangeably.
Plantago seeds have been spread far and wide by the movement of people and other animals. The mucilaginous seeds easily plump up when wet and stick to fabrics, furs, feet, hooves, and wheels, which carry them long distances. Plantain can be found high up mountain trails past 10,000 feet, in the heat of the deserts, and low in the tropics. Find the best leaves in spring or early summer. Gather seeds in late summer.
Gather the choice young leaves by plucking them at the base of the thick petiole. As plantain ages, the leaves turn tougher and more bitter. Seeds can be gathered by clipping off the seeded stalk. Take the stalk and shake the seeds off, letting them fall into a bowl. Winnow the seeds, removing all the husks, and store them in an airtight container.
Plantain is my go-to herb for any skin ailments, ragged from injury, weepy, raw, or inflamed from an infection. Make an infusion for soaking, use a poultice, or apply a salve after a wound has begun to heal. A poultice can be made by chewing up the leaves and applying them to bug or spider bites, burns, boils, blisters, or wounds, which can be especially useful while in the backcountry. Plantain can also be used in a combination with strawberry leaves, yarrow, and cottonwood bark for a postpartum sitz bath.
As a tea, plantain is very nourishing to inner tissues, such as the digestive tract and genitourinary system. The demulcent properties are rehydrating and healing. Among the demulcent herbs, fresh is always best, but dried will do just fine. Plantain tincture can be used for internal tissues that are raw and inflamed; it provides cool and moistening relief to sore throats or gastrointestinal ailments like colitis and ulcers.
Infused fresh into oil and used alongside alumroot, rose, and uva-ursi, plantain provides strong relief from bug bites or stings. This combination reduces the swelling and redness and ditches the itch.
The seeds, also called psyllium, can be used similarly to chia seeds. Make a cold infusion of them for a super-mucilaginous drink or a gel that can be applied to wounds or infections. When used in small doses, as in 1 teaspoon per cup of water, seeds can be used as a laxative and an intestinal soother. When taken in larger quantities, as in 4 tablespoons per cup of water, plantain seeds can be an antidiarrheal aid.
Plantain seeds promote bowel movements, so do not take in conjunction with other laxatives. Consult with a physician if you are taking medications absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, as plantain can either slow or extend the absorption rate, due to its mucilaginous nature.
No worries. Plantains tend to proliferate where they grow; rarely is there a shortage of them.
Opuntia species
PARTS USED pads, flowers, fruit, flowerbuds
The slimy insides of a freshly cut pad make an excellent drawing poultice or sunburn reliever—once all spines have been removed.
Many Opuntia species exist throughout North America (about 200 species exist worldwide). Here in the Rockies and western deserts, they hybridize with each other making identification a little tricky sometimes. Their flat pads, known as nopales, and brightly colored fruits, called pears or tunas, are characteristic. Both the pads and fruits are covered in spines. The showy flowers vary from yellow to pink in color.
Find prickly pear in the desert lowlands and dry (usually south-facing) slopes of the west, in between mountain ranges, and among the sagebrush. Pads can be gathered most of the year, when there is plenty of moisture. During dry spells the pads shrivel up and are not succulent. The pears can be collected in late summer and fall.
Gather pads by clipping one free of the entire plant. The spines and glochids can then be burned off, cut out, or scrubbed away with water. Once the spines are removed, the skin can be left on or cut off before using. An easier way to harvest nopales is to leave them attached to the whole cactus while you slice into the middle of the pad, cutting the pad in half and folding it open. This way you can easily scrape out each side of the pad and get a good amount of the mucilaginous center. Once you have used this method, cut off the remaining mangled pad; otherwise, you leave the cactus vulnerable to invaders and open to infection. Cut the inner pad into thin pieces for drying. Dry in a dehydrator or oven on low heat.
Pears can be picked with a bare hand, but gloves or tongs make the experience easier and less glochid-filled. Glochids are tiny bristly spines with barbed tips, which make the pears feel very unpleasant to the touch. The cooling medicine of the pears can be used fresh for tincture or syrup, or frozen for future use. Flowers and buds can be gathered as well in the spring and early summer. Yes, they too have prickles to avoid. Flowers can be dried for blending into teas.
Make syrup from the fruits of prickly pear to create a beautiful scarlet-red remedy that can be cooling in the summer’s heat. Create a cooling elixir by adding the tinctured leaves of peach to the syrup (25% syrup to 75% tincture). This can bring relief from heat exhaustion.
The nopales of prickly pear can be cut open and their mucilaginous innards applied to burns or wounds while hiking in the desert. This assists in promoting healing, keeping the affected skin clean, and provides a cooling pain relief to the injury or sunburn. A pad can also be used as a hot drawing poultice to help heal inflamed and infected spider or insect bites. Slice open the cactus pad and place it in the oven or over a campfire to warm. This heated pad can also bring relief to boils.
Flowers can be dried and used for a slightly demulcent tea that can quench the thirst of the dry desert heat.
The spiny glochids (bristles) can get any- and everywhere if you are not mindful.
Do not take the whole cactus. They take many years to reach maturity. Leave some fruits behind for seed distribution, and if harvesting the flowers, do not take them all from one cactus. If you happen to take off a pad and are not planning on using it, place it back in the soil, and it will set roots.
Portulaca species
verdolagas
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
A demulcent herb that gets plucked and chucked from most garden beds. Don’t be that person. Put purslane to its good uses, all summer long.
Look low to the ground for a sprawling, flat-leafed, succulent green plant that has a smooth, thick, red stem, ovate leaves, and tiny yellow flowers that have five petals. The leaves rarely exceed an inch in length, and the plant itself doesn’t stand more than an inch or so tall. Seeds are small and black.
Purslane grows all over North America in disturbed soils, preferring a warm climate. The best place to find purslane is in a garden bed, and yet it probably was not included there intentionally. City parks tend to have rogue patches sprawling through the grass lawns. Farmers are now cultivating it and adding it to salad mixes. You can find this succulent plant thriving in the heat of the summer, withstanding both droughts and scorching sun.
Trim or snap off the trailing stems of the plant a few inches from where they emerge from the ground. The leaves, stems, flowers, and seeds are all edible and can be dried. To make cleaning easy, soak the purslane in a water bath to loosen up any soil that is clinging to the plant.
To dry, chop up the leaves, stems, and flowers, then use a dehydrator or your oven at its lowest temperature with the door cracked open.
Purslane is loaded with vitamins and minerals but is also super-rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which makes it totally worth adding into your diet while it is fresh in the summer. It can be very healing to people who have gut troubles. Try it brewed fresh into an infusion, and sweetened with honey. Create a vinegar infusion from fresh purslane to extract its high content of minerals.
Purslane is demulcent and slick when crushed. The fresh cooling juice can provide relief to sunburns and insect bites. An oil infusion can be made for salves or serums for itchy skin or bug bites, to lessen the inflammation and the need to scratch!
Purslane grows pretty abundantly, and overharvesting should not be an issue. Leave a few stems behind if you want to reseed the area.
Rubus idaeus
red raspberry, wild raspberry
PARTS USED roots, leaves, stems, flowers, fruit
An incredibly tasty, mineral-rich, apple cider vinegar tonic can be made from a fresh extraction of the leaves and berries.
Wild raspberries are smaller than their cultivated relative but more mouthwatering. Depending on the elevation and climate, raspberry bushes can be quite large, maxing out at about 8 feet, or be very dwarfed on high mountain cliffs, reaching only a foot in height. Raspberry has ovate leaves that are deeply veined and jagged around the edges. Leaves grow alternately up the spiny stems, displaying a compound formation with three to five leaflets. They are deep green, sometimes having a reddish tint around the edges. The undersides of the leaves are white with soft fuzz.
Flowers are small, delicate, and white with five tiny petals. The fruits are called berries, but in reality they are a cluster of a ton of minute drupelets, each drupelet containing an individual seed. When you chew a berry you will notice all the small seeds released onto your tongue. Each of these seeds came from an individual drupelet.
Blackberry can be confused with raspberry before its fruits start to turn deep purple. A key identifier is that raspberry fruits come off the stem slightly hollow, without the white, pithy receptacle. Blackberries will always come off with the receptacle still attached.
Raspberry bushes are found all over the west, in yards, in the woods, near the water, and on the craggy hillsides of the mountains. They grow in partial shade or sunny places.
Leaves are best gathered in the early summer as the plant is flowering. Wearing gloves can be helpful when gathering the leaves because of the prickly stems. Pinch the flowers and leaves from the stems or clip with pruners. The stem can also be clipped full of leaves and cut up along with or separated from the leaves.
Dry the leaves and flowers on a screen or loosely in paper bags. Once the leaves are dried you can easily crush them in your hand, or chop the leaves before drying. Stems and roots can also be used in medicine-making.
Berries are easiest to pick one by one. They ripen in mid- to late summer. Place them into a sturdy container that won’t smash the delicate fruit.
Raspberry has a long-standing use among women for its astringent and tonifying effect on the uterus. It can be used for menses that seem to be excessive, for increasing muscle tone during pregnancy, and for assisting in uterine healing after birth by reducing swelling and bleeding. Raspberry leaf can bring relief for women suffering from morning sickness.
Being rich in nutrients and minerals like manganese, it is usually a component to my nourishing brews along with cleavers, catnip, and stinging nettles. The stems, leaves, and root clippings are astringent and can be beneficial in relieving loose stools. The fresh or dried fruit made into a syrup or honey also can be used to treat diarrhea in children and adults. The fresh berries can be a wonderful aid in tinctures, not just for their scrumptious taste but for their ability to help fight viral infections.
Most herbalists are cautious using any herbs during the first trimester of pregnancy, and raspberry leaf is no exception, although it is revered and thought of as very safe during the second and third trimesters.
Make sure to spread out your leaf harvest between shrubs; do not strip any one plant of its foliage.
Trifolium pratense
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
The nourishing dense flowerheads of red clover are best picked just under the top leaves, so they too are part of the harvest.
Fields are dotted with the pinkish red, puffed flowerhead of red clover. The blooms consist of many small, tubular flowers that each hold a drop of sweet nectar. Leaves are soft and have three leaflets per stem, reminiscent of a shamrock, with each leaflet graced by a light chevron-shaped mark. The stem is hairy, and the leaves are arranged alternately along it.
The best place to find red clover is at the forest’s edge, or in a meadow that is free of heavy cattle-grazing and far from pesticide-laden farms. Because red clover readily absorbs minerals from the soil, stay clear of polluted soils and do not harvest near old tailing piles from mines. The blush-red blossoms are part of late spring’s overwhelming floral celebration and can be found through to the end of summer.
Pick a basketful of red clover blossoms and leaves on a sunny, dry day; this will help the blossoms dry mold-free. Use your hands to pluck flowerheads, or bring a pair of scissors. Go for vibrant red flowers, not the ones turning brown, and pick the greenest leaves.
Red clover is primarily used for its blood-purifying agents, helping with swollen lymphs, skin ailments, and removal of toxins through the liver. Infused oil can be used to treat skin conditions, but true relief will come only from treating yourself with red clover internally as well. It goes well with amaranth, alfalfa, rosehips, cota, dandelion leaves, mallow leaves, and pineapple weed for a deluxe nourishing brew. It is highly regarded for its high content of minerals and nutrients. A tea, infused honey, oxymel, or a few drops of tincture can be easing to those dry, lingering coughs that need assistance in moving up and out.
It is questionable whether you can use this herb in pregnancy due to its phytoestrogen content. Consult with a trained herbalist first.
Red clover is mostly known for being a weed, and a really hard one to eradicate, so don’t worry about taking the flowering tops. Just make sure you are gathering in a clean, nonsprayed area, and stay away from soils polluted with nitrates, heavy metals, or pesticides.
Ceanothus species
mountain lilac, New Jersey tea, buckbrush
PARTS USED roots, bark, twigs
Redroot combines well with a suite of other medicinal herbs, in formulas that support the lymphatic system.
Redroot has an alternative common name of mountain lilac for good reason. This small shrubby bush does have a faint resemblance to our ornamental lilacs. The five-petaled white flowers bloom on clustered panicles. Each petal has a spoon shape to it, curving upward. The thick and shiny leaves have three prominent midveins that go from the petiole to the top of the leaf. The bark is red and smooth, sometimes with thin spine-like projections from the stem that need to be minded.
The native species we have most commonly in the west are Ceanothus fendleri and C. velutinus, which is much more aromatic and has sticky leaves.
Redroot is found growing through rolling foothills of the mountain west and into the alpine forests. Harvest the root in fall or early spring. Be mindful of where you are gathering and whether there is enough for you to dig up roots. If not, twigs and bark are always an option. Bring a sturdy shovel and shears when you go out to harvest ceanothus.
This strong, woody root must be cut while fresh; if attempted once dried, you will cry with frustration. Use hefty loppers or clippers to chop the roots into pieces for drying or use immediately for tincturing fresh.
Redroot is a drying, stimulating herb that helps the flow of the lymph system. This is especially useful in illness and during recovery. It works best when combined with herbs that are also targeting your symptoms and combating the infection or virus. It can be used with osha and balsamroot for the onset of any inflammatory condition of the respiratory system. If there is a cough that is full of mucus, horehound can be a useful addition, helping to expectorate what is in the lungs. If it is a dry cough, try adding in mallow or plantain infusion. For a sore throat tincture or spray, combine redroot with Oregon grape, cottonwood buds, or alder.
Look to harvest redroot where the roots have already been disturbed, as they can be very difficult to obtain from the hard, rocky soil it prefers.
Rosa species
PARTS USED leaves, flowers, flowerbuds, hips
Rose is subtly familiar to our DNA. It gives us that nourishing connection, like the oxytocic flush you feel when you walk in the woods alone. Rose offers that to most people in a small little dose, like an aromatic sigh that makes us relax.
The fruits of wild rose are called rosehips; when ripe they are deep red, round, and plump. Thorny thickets are recognizable throughout the year, thanks to either the lingering red rosehips or the heavenly scented flowers. Flowers range in size and color but are always a shade between white and dark pink; they have five petals, five sepals, many stamens, and a deep yellow center. Leaves grow alternately along the stem as pinnately divided leaflets. Each leaf has one to four pairs of leaflets, with a single leaflet at the tip. All leaflets are ovate in shape and serrated.
Roses can be found in many areas of the mountain west, along waterways, on craggy mountainsides, or at the edges of willow, cottonwood, and conifer forests. Rosebuds and the flowers that follow can be gathered as soon as you see the pink petals swelling inside the green sepals. Rosehips can be gathered into the dark days of winter and are usually one of the only fruits remaining.
Bushes will have flowering roses and budding flowers at the same time. Rosebuds can be plucked and dried. Rose petals can be picked off individually by gently pinching all five petals from the calyx. Be sure to gather on a dry, sunny day, which will provide you with the most aromatic flowers. Rosehips can be munched on at any time (see caution). They are definitely best after the first few frosts. Frost helps to sweeten up the tangy flavor and soften the flesh.
Something is so comforting and familiar about the aromatics of rose. For most people, it relaxes the unneeded tension of the body, acting as an emotional stabilizer. It is the first remedy I reach for when someone needs the spark back, or could use an herb that feels like a mother’s embrace.
Rose has a cooling effect on an overworked liver or digestive tract. It can help soothe irritable bowel or leaky gut by astringing and healing the mucosa tissues; it combines well with mallow leaves or root.
Make a hot or cold infusion of rose petals or rosebuds, using a pinch of petals or three to five buds per cup of water. The hips are high in vitamin C and are a great addition to teas during cold season or to a nourishing brew of herbs that are mineral- and vitamin-rich, such as raspberry leaf, red clover, horsetail, and globemallow.
Rose petals, and the hips after they have been hit with a frost, are lovely infused into honey. This honey can sweeten tinctures or be dolloped into teas. An elixir, or tincture of rose petals or rosebuds steeped in brandy and honey or glycerin, is excellent for cheering up a dreary mood brought on by heartbreak or stress.
The petals of rose infused into oils like coconut or jojoba are perfect for facial creams and serums. To capture the fragrance and a lovely light pink color, infuse your oil multiple times with fresh or dried petals.
The very fine hairs attached to the seeds inside rosehips can irritate the throat or digestive tract, causing diarrhea in some cases. I find that when I carefully strain the rosehips out of infused honey or tea, I am not bothered. Alternatively, slice open the hips and scrape out the seeds and hairs before eating or preserving.
Harvest wisely through the seasons—taking all the roses leaves behind no hips.
Artemisia tridentata
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
Be sure not to mistake sagebrush for your culinary sages, which are Salvia species. Though both can be used in smudge bundles, they taste nothing alike.
Artemisia tridentata is a woody shrub that grows widely throughout the west, in varying sizes, depending on variety and the location. Higher altitudes allow for smaller plants reaching 2–4 feet, whereas the big sagebrush of Wyoming at lower elevations can be two or three times the size of those that dwell in the mountains of Colorado.
Artemisia tridentata derives its name from its trident-shaped leaves. They are a soft, silvery green and have three prongs at the tip of each. Leaves grow alternately in clusters along the woody branches. Twigs of young sagebrush are silvery and pubescent. As the plant ages the bark starts to shred away in long pieces. The rounded, yellow flowers grow in heads along a spike-like inflorescence that sticks up higher than the sagebrush bush itself.
Artemisia tridentata is one of the most iconic sagebrushes of the mountain west. Look for it all over the Rocky Mountains at varying elevations and in the desert lowlands. The powerful scent of sagebrush can be smelled all the way through winter as the tops poke through the snow. The best time to gather is throughout the summer, and especially when the rains are plentiful. Try to go out and gather after the rains have subsided for a few days. Harvest on a dry, sunny day when you can smell the fragrance of sagebrush.
Artemisia tridentata is a strong aromatic, bitter, and warming herb. A cold infusion makes a lighter sipping aid that can help to calm a sour stomach or stimulate digestion. A hot infusion is much more warming and can be of assistance when viruses creep in, revving up the fever, breaking up stuck mucus, and aiding in expectoration.
Picking fresh sagebrush or adding dried herb to a pot of simmering water can be hugely beneficial as an inhalant for bronchial or throat infections. The antimicrobial aromatics are diffused through the steam and inhaled into the places they need to be active. The stimulating aromatics of sagebrush also make it useful as an emmenagogue, which means it will help to bring on stagnant or late menses.
For topical use, sagebrush can be extracted in alcohol, apple cider vinegar, or oil. It can also be made into a hot poultice to be applied to the chest as a compress for bronchial relief, and to inflamed or painful joints. It is very effective in salves for fungal or bacterial infections, and for use in sprains and strains formulas.
Long-standing use of sagebrush is to pick it while in bud in order to bundle it up into a smudge stick. This can be combined with other aromatic herbs such as juniper, other artemisias, grindelia, sweet clover, and more. Smudging can help to clear the air, both physically of airborne pathogens and energetically.
The fresh or dried herb can also be added to the hot rocks of a sauna for increased sweating and stimulation to the mucous membranes.
Avoid in pregnancy.
There is a lot of sagebrush—seas of it, in fact—however, that doesn’t mean you have a license for clear-cutting. Artemisia tridentata takes a long time to reach the growth you are seeing. It’s a woody, long-living shrub, with some varieties having a lifespan that may exceed 150 years. Respect it as you would an elder.
Hypericum species
Saint Joan’s wort
PARTS USED leaves, flowers, flowerbuds
The bright yellow flowers turn menstruums a brilliant and unexpected ruby.
Saint John’s wort, Hypericum species, have bright yellow flowers that consist of five petals and many long stamens bursting from the center. Leaves and flowers are covered in a sticky red resin, which will stain fingertips—or your mother’s white leather couch. If you pick a leaf and hold it up to the sun, you’ll see it is perforated with tiny little holes. Leaves grow opposite and are oblong in shape.
Hypericum perforatum is invasive in some states of the west, with advisory to not even plant the seeds in certain counties. We have a native species, H. scouleri, which is much more dainty and slim, unlike H. perforatum, which is more branched.
Find Hypericum perforatum growing around the Front Range of the Rockies and in lower elevation zones. The native species H. scouleri can be found in wet, riparian areas of the west or even drier meadows.
Gather when the plant is in full bloom or when the buds are just starting to open. This should be in midsummer, but varies between elevations. Pick off the leaves, flowers, and flowerbuds and use fresh for best extraction of medicinals.
Saint John’s wort is helpful with nerve injury or nerve pain, such as neuralgia, sciatica, and pains in the coccyx. Injuries with inflammation, convulsion, spasm, redness, heat, and shooting or sharp needle-like pains can be lessened by Saint John’s wort.
The infused oil is great for rubbing on bruises and trauma areas. It can help heal deep wounds from inside out. Use as a wash or liniment on a wound to encourage healing at the deepest layer. It is useful for skin conditions, burns, radiation burns, ulcers, skin tags, boils, and carbuncles. It can be beneficial for fibromyalgia, rheumatism, and paralysis.
The oil blends well in a salve along with cottonwood or aspen buds and species of Grindelia and Mertensia. This salve can be used for just about anything the skin needs healing from, like minor burns, sunburn, cuts, scrapes, and itchy or chapped skin. Include the oil as an ingredient to enhance a handmade sun block. The addition seems to extend the time you can be in the sun without burning.
Saint John’s wort blends well with other herbs to help lift the spirits or calm anxiety. Try blending for teas or tinctures with herbs such as hawthorn, pineapple weed, skullcap, or rose.
If you are taking any medications, it is best to consult with a healthcare practitioner, such as an herbalist or doctor, before using Saint John’s wort, as it can have drug interactions. Though rare, phytophotodermatitis can happen when Saint John’s wort is taken internally.
Harvest our native species with tender love and care. The invasive species can be clipped more readily. Still, no need to pull it from the ground unless you are asked to by a rancher.
Capsella bursa-pastoris
shepherd’s heart
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers, seedpods
A spicy and circulatory medicinal herb, shepherd’s purse is a weed that can spare an overharvest for its blood-stopping (styptic) properties.
Shepherd’s purse has distinct basal leaves that have jagged teeth on the margin that point outward and upward, not downward like the dandelion. Basal leaves are generally between 2 and 4 inches long and form a rosette around the thin flowering stalk. Some small-toothed leaves may be seen clasping the stalk alternately; these are lanceolate or oblong. Flowers are small with four white petals in an X-shaped pattern, clustered in loose racemes. The seedpod (silicle) is what gives shepherd’s purse its name: it resembles a heart-shaped pouch.
Shepherd’s purse is an invasive weed that can be found in full to partial sun, taking up space in disturbed soils. Find it in parks, along trails, or in abandoned lots. The basal rosette of leaves waits beneath the snow cover. Once the snow melts, shepherd’s purse can be spotted and gathered in late winter or early spring. The seeds of the next generation germinate in the cool nights of autumn, so fresh young green leaves can be found again each fall.
Harvest the leaves right away in the spring before the plant sends up a flowering stalk; this is when they are most tender and full. Shepherd’s purse will be in flower and seed by the first days of spring in lower elevations and will run its course by early summer when the days really begin to heat up. Gather the whole plant, stems, leaves, flowers, and seedpods.
Shepherd’s purse is an astringent, spicy, pungent-flavored herb of the mustard family. It has been used to stop bleeding in acute situations such as external cuts and scrapes, and in more serious conditions, such as hemorrhaging after giving birth. It also acts as a diuretic and can help with laxity in the kidneys or bladder.
Shepherd’s purse can be used to promote circulation in the body, when used internally as a tincture and externally in oil. It has anti-inflammatory properties that make it useful for arthritis or gout. The fresh poultice can be used to bring heat and circulation to an injury, for chronic pain, or for a deep chest cold.
Not for use during pregnancy, and should only be used postpartum once the placenta is out. Not recommended for people who have thyroid deficiency.
No worries. Shepherd’s purse is an invasive medicinal that will always cover ground in the mountain west.
Ulmus pumila
PARTS USED bark, leaves
The slippery infusion of Siberian elm is hydrating from the inside out.
Siberian elm is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 60 feet tall. It has lofty branches that make the crown of the tree rounded, providing much shade. The leaves are toothed around the margins, and pointed at the tip, giving them an elliptical shape. They grow 1–2 inches long and are arranged alternately along the grayish silver branches. The branches can have a sort of zig and zag to them where each leafbud forms. The bark of the mature trees is furrowed and dark gray in color. Small purple flowers appear before the leaves in clusters along the stem. The fruits are rounded and smooth with wings (samaras).
The bark of Siberian elm can be stripped from the branches, or use the smashing-branch technique. When you smash the branch with something hard like a hammer or a rock, the bark easily peels off from the core of the branch. Use this outer bark in your infusions, or dry for future use. The leaves can also be gathered and used for tea or oil infusions.
Siberian elm is one of our superb demulcent trees of the west. Like its much-reputed relative slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) its bark can be peeled for an infusion of some seriously slick tea.
If constipation has a hold on you, making a Siberian elm tea or ingesting capsules filled with the powder of the bark can help with bowel movement. The demulcent properties coat the intestinal lining, aiding in moving out dry, hard stools. Drink about 1 teaspoon per cup of water at least 3 times a day. If it is diarrhea that is causing distress, a tripled dose of the bark can also be used to firm up stools and calm the inflammatory response in the bowel.
The mucilaginous properties of Siberian elm are also beneficial in any gastrointestinal complaints, such as ulcers, inflammation, or leaky gut, as it helps to lubricate and protect these membranes. For those who are sick or nauseous and having a hard time keeping substances down, a tea or porridge of Siberian elm can do the trick. For a porridge, use about a teaspoon of powdered or well-shredded bark per cup of broth. Easily absorbable, nourishing foods are excellent for convalescence.
Creating a poultice with the bark of Siberian elm can be cooling and very drawing. This can be used on boils, weeping wounds, burns, ulcers, or abscesses. Let the poultice crisp up and dry out.
When dryness is affecting you in any sort of way, a drink of Siberian elm tea will be one of your best plant allies. It can be very productive for dry, raspy coughs, or moistening nostrils made crispy from the arid winters.
Consult with a physician if you are taking medications absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, as Siberian elm can either slow or extend the absorption rate, due to its mucilaginous nature.
Siberian elms are a weedy tree of the west. They have come in as invaders and are generally not welcomed by ranchers and city officials. When working with trees, it’s always best to harvest by pruning the branches of the tree. However, if you are trying to manage the spread of the tree, whole young trees can be cut down and the bark completely utilized. They will spring right back up!
Scutellaria species
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
Skullcap soothes and calms the woes of the anxious mind.
A small, humble plant of the mint family, skullcap has opposite leaves and a square stem. The flowers are purple with a long neck that curls up into two lips. A white stripe is on the bottom lip of the flower. Our most common species regionally are marsh skullcap (Scutellaria galericulata) and Britton’s skullcap (S. brittonii), which both offer great medicine. The species most commonly used from the wild, S. lateriflora, is not common in the mountain west.
Gather skullcap only if you find it in utter abundance. It is a dainty, marsh-dwelling plant, or can be found in moist meadows of the mountains. Find it growing alongside mints and willows on creeksides. The exception to this is Britton’s skullcap, which tends to grow on drier rocky slopes.
Clip or pinch the top half of the plant, leaving behind plenty of foliage for the plant to survive. Never take the tops off all the skullcap growing in an area. Leave flowers behind to propagate.
Skullcap is one of my favorite herbs to calm a rush of anxiety, nervousness, or to take the edge off a moody day that has you all sorts of tangled and dismayed. Skullcap is cooling, bitter, and calming in the best ways. It helps stressed-out parents with their coping skills, bringing them down from the mayhem of the day. It may sound like magic, but it’s just a simple herb with a profound and delightful influence on the nervous system.
Mix with blue vervain (Verbena species), rose, and Abies species for a blend that can help nourish the person burning the flame at both ends, with no stop in sight. It is a cooling, nervine herb that can also be beneficial for menopausal hot flashes or night sweats. Think of skullcap for blending into formulas needed for sleep, where it can be useful in combination with hops or valerian.
Skullcap can be used as a tea, tincture, vinegar, or bath soak. Heck, I have even told the nonstop-stressed-out moms to throw it in with their French-pressed coffees.
Be super-careful with harvesting skullcap, as it can easily be pulled from the ground and should not be. Clip only the tops and tread with care around the habitat it dwells in.
Rhus trilobata
squawberry, lemonadeberry, three-leaf sumach
PARTS USED leaves, stems, fruit
The tart berries of skunkbush make a pink-lemonade drink that can soothe urinary tract infections.
Skunkbush is a lower-growing shrub, ranging from 1 to 8 feet in height. The foliage can look like miniature, shiny oak leaves; however, they differ greatly in that they are compound, with three leaflets, each leaflet having margins with rounded lobes. When rubbed, they emit a sweet skunky odor, hence the common name. Fall foliage color is a vivid red. Berries are technically drupes, containing only one seed each. They turn bright red when ripe and are coated with a super-sweet-and-sour oily resin.
Skunkbush can be found among cottonwoods, scrub oaks, and sagebrush in rocky soil. Berries start ripening in July; prime gathering is when the berries are bright red and glistening with the sticky resin. Gathering can continue on some bushes until the leaves are as red as the berries. Bushes that receive more water or shade tend to retain berries the longest.
Clip off the bunches of berries or grab handfuls from the bush. Their resin will coat your fingers. I can never hold back licking my fingers while collecting the drupes. The leaves and stems can be gathered and dried on a screen mesh. They can be cut into smaller pieces or saved whole.
Pick apart the clusters of resinous drupes and add about ½–1 cup of drupes per quart of lukewarm or cold water. Hot water can destroy the sweet-and-sour flavor of Rhus species. Let this infusion sit for 4–8 hours. Poured over ice, it is a great beverage for overheated summer days.
This tart skunkbush tea can be helpful in easing bladder infections or irritation to the ureters. If you have recurring bladder infections, try freezing your infusion in ice-cube trays. Pop them out once frozen and store in a freezer bag, making enough to last until the following fall.
The berries can be extracted in vinegars for oxymels or sipping shrubs. Make an infusion in oil or glycerin from fresh or powdered dried leaves and stems. This is said to be good for sores around and inside the mouth, nostrils, or genital area. It helps to slightly disinfect and cool the sore while shrinking it.
If you have a known allergy to poison ivy, mangos, or cashews, then you may want to avoid this plant, as it is in the same family, Anacardiaceae. Poison sumac has white berries, not red.
Skunkbush is pretty abundant where it grows, and harvesting the berries is not a threat, as the plant spreads by sending out underground runners.
Gutierrezia species
escoba de la vibora, snakebroom
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
Simmer freshly bundled snakeweed in a big pot of water, and pour it into your bath before soaking your achy muscles.
Snakeweed is a small yellow-flowering plant that blooms in late summer and through fall. It grows in clumps, with many branched stems, and looks like fluffs of gold. These fluffs contain many small citrus-piney-scented flowers. As a member of the Asteraceae, it has both ray and disc flowers, about three to eight per bunch at the top of each stem. The leaves are slender and grow alternately along the stems. Snakeweed can look similar to two genera—Ericameria and Chrysothamnus—that are commonly known as rabbitbrush. Snakeweed is much smaller, however, and both rabbitbrush genera lack ray flowers.
Late summer and early fall is a yellow time of year for the flowering plants. In parts of the southwestern Rockies, fields are covered by a variety of glowing golden herbs such as snakeweed, rabbitbrush, and gumweed (Grindelia species).
I take clippers and grab half of the cluster of stems and clip a few inches up from the ground. While still fresh, I gather a small bundle in my hands, fold it back and forth, then tie it with string. These bundles can be used fresh, or lay them out on wire mesh for a few days to dry.
Snakeweed can be used as a bug repellent, especially good for no-see-ums. Liniment preparations extract the aromas that are repel bugs. Also oil infusions can be created for relieving bug bites.
Bundles can be used for bath soaks when sore achy muscles are slowing you down. A favorite in the apothecary is the Snakeweed Ski Soak, which is perfect for after the big snowstorms that leave the skiers and riders sore to the bone. It is a blend of salts and dried herb.
Snakeweed is not recommended to be taken internally, so do not consume. If you have an allergy to sunflower family plants, it is best to avoid it.
Do not rip the snakeweed from the ground. Bring clippers and snip at the base.
Maianthemum racemosum
PARTS USED roots
The root of Solomon’s plume can help the healing of connective tissues, bringing back some of the lost elasticity.
The two species of false Solomon’s seal we have in the western states are both called a variety of common names. All can be confusing to discuss because of the word “false” that tends to be in the common names of some Maianthemum species, such as false Solomon’s seal. For the sake of simplicity, I call this species Solomon’s plume (M. racemosum) and the smaller species starry Solomon’s seal (M. stellatum). Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum species) grows in the eastern United States, and many herbalists use all three of these plants interchangeably as medicine.
Solomon’s plume is the bigger of the western maianthemums. It can reach heights of a few feet and arcs over the bigger it gets. The leaves grow alternately along the stalk, which zig-zags at each leaf junction. Leaves are a deep bright green, long, and smooth in texture, with parallel veins.
The flowers grow out in multiple inflorescences at the tip of the plant, making it weigh down even further into an arch. Flowers are white and look like little starbursts. The immature fruits are greenish and red-speckled, maturing into solid red berries.
The roots are long and slender with little knuckles at each place where a plant has grown the previous year. They grow rhizomatously and have little rootlets growing alongside.
Find Solomon’s plume in the rich forests of the mountain west. It prefers to stay in the shade of the trees. The roots of Solomon’s plume can be gathered at the sign of first growth in spring, and in the fall after the berries have fallen. Harvesting the rhizomes of Solomon’s plume or the roots closer to the surface is more sustainable than taking the entire plant. Carefully dig around the base of a mature plant until you come upon one of its rhizomatous runners. If you are gentle, this will tend to lead to another small leafy sprout. Cut off the root between the sprout and the mother plant, taking this as your medicine. Then, leaving at least a few inches of root attached to the sprout, replant it. This allows you to harvest from one plant without taking too much life force, while simultaneously propagating another, which can help increase the population.
Where Solomon’s plume really shines is in helping to heal fascial injury or joint immobility. An example of this would be joint pain from lack of synovial fluid, which causes dry, inflamed joints, with a lot of friction—noisy joints. The root of Solomon’s plume seems to work by vitalizing the sinews and fascia, adding fluid, lubricating and moistening connective tissues. It can help strengthen loose ligaments and heal micro-tears that happen in tendons and ligaments, keeping them from becoming inflamed and dried out. The roots are good for broken bones and bruising and can help relax and loosen tight tissues.
The fresh roots are preferred for use in oil extractions for massage oils and salves, also for alcohol extractions for internal or external use.
It is a cooling, demulcent, and expectorant herb. This can be beneficial for coughs that need some hydrating and mucus moved out of them. It blends well in cough formulas with cherry bark and grindelia.
Solomon’s plume grows more spaced out and is a bigger plant than starry Solomon’s seal; therefore, harvest only when large areas have plenty growing. Replant the roots, as described earlier, for sustainable harvest.
Aralia species
wild sarsaparilla
PARTS USED roots
When too much smoke has been inhaled over a long or short period of time, spikenard can be beneficial in helping to clear the lungs of the heavy mucus.
The two spikenard species of the mountain west can be partly distinguished by size. Aralia nudicaulis is a much smaller and daintier shrub than the bushy outward growth of A. racemosa. The leaves of both species are compound leaflets with a broad, ovate shape. The leafless flowering stalk grows from the base of the plant, separate from the leaf stems. The inflorescence is composed of a rounded compound umbel, with each umbel hosting 20 to 50 small white blooms. Each flower has five reflexed petals with five stamens projecting outward. The berries ripen to a deep purple. The roots are long and cream-colored and have many thin rootlets attached.
Even though this plant grows minimally in the zone we cover in this book, it is worth mentioning. Aralia racemosa can be found growing in southern to southwestern Utah and can be found in parts of southern Colorado and the Front Range. In Arizona, New Mexico, and California you can find it much more frequently. Aralia nudicaulis can be found on the Front Range of the Rockies in Colorado and Wyoming, in northwestern Montana, northern Idaho and Washington, and up into Saskatchewan and Alberta. Aralia nudicaulis grows in wet, rocky drainages or areas where moisture is harbored in the high elevations. Gather the roots in the spring and fall.
Spikenard is a warming, drying, pungent, and oily root that I use most for lung conditions that are aggravated by dusty dirt or smoke. This can be beneficial for either smokers themselves, those affected by secondhand smoke, or victims in the vicinity of raging forest fires. Use the root for people who have begun to quit smoking as it acts as an expectorant and can help to rejuvenate the lung tissues.
It is also useful for the initial stages of a cold or respiratory virus. It infuses well into honeys and can be blended with herbs such as osha, grindelia, cherry bark, or elderberries and -flowers.
Spikenard can be administered internally as a tea or tincture. The root can be infused into oil for use as a chest rub. Try it along with yarrow, yerba mansa, and fir.
Spikenard is a rare plant to stumble upon in the wild. It is a relic species left over from the last ice age. Respect it as one of our elders. If you happen to find a large stand, take only a minimal amount and carry on.
Picea species
mountain spruce
PARTS USED twigs, needles, resin
Careful while walking under the poky branches of spruce—these tricksters seem to always steal my hat.
Spruces are tall evergreen trees, rising between 70 and 125 feet in height. Blue spruce (Picea pungens) and Engelmann spruce (P. engelmannii) grace the Rocky Mountains between 2000 and 12,000 feet. These species can be hard to tell apart, though there are a few distinguishing factors. Blue spruce will be seen growing slightly lower in elevation, while Engelmann’s can be found in higher forests. Both trees grow in a symmetrical triangular shape. Each species has branches that are loaded with short prickly needles, but Engelmann’s needles are much more flexible and not as sharp. Engelmann’s has smaller cones that don’t exceed 2 inches or so, while blue spruce has longer cones that will grow to at least 4 inches. The needles of both species have a blue-green or silver cast to them. Some say that Engelmann spruces have more of a camphor smell to the needles, while needles of blue spruce have a more pleasant lemony scent.
You will find spruces in mixed conifer forests at higher elevations. Engelmann’s is most common throughout the mountain west, while blue spruce is primarily in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The tips of spruces can be gathered in spring. Look for the brown covering at the ends of the branches. This covering is a casing around the young tip. Gather when these are plump and just beginning to blow off, but pick spruce tips with or without the brown casing—roll the tip between your fingers and let the casing carry off in the breeze. Tips are best gathered while the needles are tightly packed, but they are still good when the tip reaches an inch or so long.
Needles, twigs, and resins can be gathered any time of year. Find an old conifer forest full of spruces or look to neighborhood trees to easily gather plenty. Taste each tree as the flavors can vary, especially if you happen to be in a mixed forest of both Engelmann and blue spruces.
High in vitamin C along with a host of other vitamins and minerals, the spruce trees can be a veritable winter’s harvest. The fresh needles can be infused for tea to help ease chest colds, or a large pot of decocted fresh twigs and needles could be poured into a hot bath to ease aches and pains. Create a steam inhalation or just make your house smell good with a decoction of spruce simmering on the stove. Keep the pot at a low rumble to create steam to help increase humidity in a dry house during the winter months. Spruce is ideal for chest colds. Add some usnea lichen to the pot with the spruce twigs and inhale the vapors and steam for about 10 minutes, several times throughout the day.
Infused syrups, honeys, vinegars, and alcohols are preparations that can inspire you to blend spruce into other formulations. Having a multitude of pleasant-tasting extractions can be beneficial when combining herbs. Spruces, especially in the spring, have a sweet yet bitter citrus flavor that complements numerous herbal flavors, as well as stimulating the digestion.
For some, when used in an excessive amount, conifer resin can be irritating to kidneys. Do not use spruce in pregnancy.
Spruce tree branches grow slowly, and harvesting the tips slows the growth of the branch even more. Luckily spruces like to grow close together, making it easy to gather tips from many trees, merely pruning nature’s garden. Do be conscious of young trees, leaving them be and harvesting only from the older giants that can spare a light trim.
Maianthemum stellatum
PARTS USED roots
Living in a ski town, I see my fair share of injured friends. Starry Solomon’s seal is my go-to for helping repair their torn tendons and ligaments.
Starry Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum stellatum) is much smaller than Solomon’s plume (M. racemosum) and grows more prolifically throughout the shaded woodlands of the mountain west. It has slender, bright green leaves that grow alternately up the arched stem. The stem zigs and zags between each leaf and grows only to about 6 inches or more from the ground. The flowers are delicate white stars that sit on the end of the stem in a raceme. These white flowers will turn into berries that are at first green with red stripes, eventually turning a solid red.
The roots are creamy-colored rhizomes with tiny rootlets that hang off the sides. They are crooked and run in all sorts of directions. Knuckles form at each point where a shoot has grown in previous years.
Maianthemum stellatum can be found in dense stands under cottonwood, aspen, and scrub oak groves, or in coniferous forests. Find it settled close to a source of moisture, near creek beds in sheltered forests and damp canyons.
Harvest before the plant flowers in the spring or after the plant has begun to turn brown and dry to the ground in late summer or early fall. Dig up the little rhizomatous roots carefully, disturbing only a little bit from each large stand, then move to a new spot. Leave enough of each plant’s root behind so it can regrow.
Harvest this species similarly to Maianthemum racemosum. Carefully dig around the base of a mature plant, until you come upon one of its rhizomatous runners. If you are gentle, this will tend to lead to another small leafy sprout. Cut off a piece of the root from in between the sprout and the mother plant, taking this as your medicine. Then, leaving at least a few inches of root attached to the sprout, replant it. This allows you to harvest from one plant without taking too much life force, while simultaneously propagating another, which can help increase the population.
Wash the roots, cut them into small pieces for drying, or use fresh for tinctures and oils.
Starry Solomon’s seal and Solomon’s plume can be used for the same applications and in the same manner. They are both my favorite herbs to use for increasing flow to the fascial layer. Use the roots in tinctured extractions or teas for people who have musculoskeletal injury, tears, or breaks.
Maianthemums have an action on the synovial fluids, helping to keep them more fluid and lubricated. It is called for when the joints or ligaments have a creaky feeling, such as cracking when you bend your knees or rotate your wrists. It helps old frozen injuries that need more stimulation to get things moving.
Oil extractions can be added to salves for those who, because they put themselves out there in the extreme environments of the mountains, tend to strain and sprain or bash and crash more easily.
The roots are also used to calm pelvic inflammations of the uterus, prostate, and ovaries.
Although stands of starry Solomon’s seal can be found in many places, walk these places with care, as they are host to large mycorrhizal communities and ecosystems. Replant the roots for sustainable harvest, as described earlier.
Urtica species
nettle
PARTS USED leaves, seeds, roots
It isn’t officially spring until I have gathered stinging nettle shoots with my bare hands, enjoying every sting.
Living up to its common name, stinging nettle can be identified simply by brushing up against it. The stinging hairs can be seen running up the stem and all over the leaves. Technically known as trichomes, the hollow stingers hold formic acid and histamine, among other substances, which produce a stinging burn upon contact with skin. The unpleasant feeling can last for hours and create small welts, depending on how sensitive you are. Urtica dioica is the most prevalent species of the mountain west.
So before you go grabbing a plant thinking it’s a mint, take a peek at the stem and underside of the leaf. If you see hairs, handle with care. Stinging nettle leaves are opposite each other and lanceolate, with serrations around the edges forming a pointed tip. Stems are square, thick, and can stand up to about 10 feet, though in lowland areas 3–5 feet is more usual. Flowers are little and hang in clumpy strands that dangle from the tops of the plant. Once they start turning to seed, the weight makes the plant bend over.
Stinging nettle likes to be near some moisture, shade, and disturbed soils. Look near creeks, rivers, or wet fields. Reddish tops of the stinging nettle emerge first in the spring. Gather stinging nettles throughout the spring and into summer, before they start to flower. Gather seeds in the fall.
Depending on your threshold for lingering stings or your agility level, you may or may not want to wear gloves. Wearing gloves and using pruners makes harvesting stinging nettles much more efficient and less painful. If you are in for the gamble, try pinching the stem of the plant with your thumb and index finger. The trick is to reach under the leaves from the bottom up, avoiding the opposite direction of the hairs.
A quick natural remedy to the stings, should any irritation result, is the juice from stinging nettle itself! Carefully roll up a stinging nettle leaf in the same direction that the hairs are growing. This way you can cautiously use your fingers without being stung. After it is rolled up, fold in half and chew it up, then spit the green poultice out on to the itchy area. Or simply roll, fold, and squeeze between your fingers to get some juice out, if the whole chewing thing is too much.
The reddish new shoots are the most nutritious and my favorite to dry for tea. Gather them when the plant is still young, snipping off 1–6 inches of the tender stalk. Snip the heavy, hanging seed strands in late summer and early fall and dry them.
I value stinging nettles for their deliciously nutritious use in the kitchen and as an all-around fabulous medicine. Rich in calcium, iron, magnesium, vitamins, and protein, it is a robust herb to have in the cabinet.
Make a fresh cup of tea with the reddish green tips in the spring. I eat the infused herb once I am done sipping. A blend of stinging nettle, raspberry, alfalfa, and rosehips is a very supportive tea during pregnancy. Stinging nettle leaves can help to move uric acid out of the system, relieving symptoms of gout and rheumatism. They also provide relief from allergies and asthma. Stinging nettle is nourishing to the blood, bones, joints, and skin. It can be helpful with restless leg syndrome due to the presence of essential minerals like magnesium.
Stinging nettle root has been reported to increase the growth of hair. I like to use the root and the leaves infused into jojoba oil for a lovely hair and beard oil. Blend in Douglas fir tips for their citrusy aroma. Add argan oil for its hair-replenishing benefits and rosemary essential oil, which has an affinity for treating damaged hair.
Infuse stinging nettle leaves or seeds into vinegars that can be used as a medicinal food. I love a spring blend of stinging nettle tips, chickweed, spruce tips, and wild onion bulbs. Add a dollop of honey and a little pepper to create a tasty oxymel. This can be used in culinary endeavors or for a medicinal sipping tonic.
Stinging nettle seeds are trophorestorative to the kidneys and adrenals. They can help people with chronic kidney issues.
Cystoliths begin to accumulate in the leaves after the plant starts to flower, and especially once they go to seed. This can be irritating to the kidneys or cause kidney stones to accumulate.
Gather only the tops of a stinging nettle plant once or twice a year. If digging the roots, make sure you are gathering from a large patch.
Rhus species
lemonadeberry, sumach
PARTS USED fruit
Gather up all the sumac berries you can find in late summer for a cooling, tart, pink-lemonade drink high in vitamin C.
Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) is far less common in the wild than its sibling, skunkbush (R. trilobata); it is more often found as a tree-like ornamental shrub in western towns, forming thickets with plants averaging 7–9 feet in height. Its berries and twigs have a waxy coating, whereas those of staghorn sumac (R. typhina), another close relative, are covered with velvet-like hairs.
The flowers of smooth sumac are green or cream-colored, packed tightly in a spire that turns into maroon, semiflat berries—technically drupes, as each has only a single seed. Leaves are pinnate with nine or more leaflets. Each leaflet is serrated around the margin. The scent of sumac also tends to be distinctive, giving off a slightly sweet rank odor when touched.
You’ll probably have better luck finding this plant around cities and neighborhoods. In the wild, look for it at lower elevations in the foothills. Gather the clusters in summer and fall when the berries are still sticky. As time goes on and rain showers rev up, the oils get washed away, leaving the fruit not as flavorful.
Clip off entire red spires loaded with berries. Clusters can be rinsed if they are cobwebby or full of debris, but this can decrease flavor, so it’s better to just pick away any unwanted bits. The fruits can be separated off the stem and dried.
Cold infused teas can be made with the fruit of both Rhus typhina and R. glabra. Break up a few of the fresh spires loaded with berries into a quart or half-gallon jar and cover with cold water. Work your fingers around the fruits to release the resinous medicinal coating. Let this infusion sit for 4–8 hours. Strain well, especially if you are using R. typhina, as it has fine hairs that can be irritating to the throat and digestive tract. This tart beverage can be helpful in easing bladder infections or irritation to the ureters. If you struggle with bladder infections, try freezing your infusion in ice-cube trays. Pop them out once frozen to store in a freezer bag, making enough to last until the following year.
The tea is a lovely cooling tonic for overheated summer days. Fruit can also be extracted in vinegars for oxymels or sipping shrubs.
If you have a known allergy to poison ivy, mangos, or cashews, then you may want to avoid this plant, as it is in the same family, Anacardiaceae. Poison sumac has white berries, not red.
Clipping off the clusters of berries does no harm to this plant. Smooth sumac propagates through its underground runners, which is why you rarely see just one shrub.
Melilotus species
melilot
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
The sweet and soft aromatics of Melilotus species are best harbored in a tincture, used as a clearing facial spritz, or infused into a massage oil.
Sweet clover arises to various heights; it can be puny or quite tall. Leaves are alternate, light green, oblong, and serrated around the margins, with a trifoliate formation. Tiny yellow flowers of Melilotus officinalis—or white on M. albus—grow in slender spikes. Sweet clover resembles alfalfa before it blooms, but alfalfa’s blossoms are usually purple and its leaves are serrated only halfway around the margin.
Sweet clover can be found in disturbed soils all over the mountain west. Some roads are lit up with the bright flowers for most of the summer. In drought, sweet clover can be one of the first inhabitants of a starved reservoir’s shoreline. The shoots can be gathered along with the young leaves in spring. The entire plant can be cut at the base of the stalk once it is in flower or gone to seed.
Sweet clover is best to gather in the morning, once the sun has come up and evaporated any dew from the plant. Harvest on dry, sunny days. Gathering plants after rains while they are damp can cause them to mold, especially if the sweet clover is bundled before drying. It is best to spread the herb out on a drying rack immediately after collecting, or process it fresh right away.
As a tincture, sweet clover can be used topically or internally for inflammation and brings slight pain relief for muscular injury. Think of sweet clover when you are formulating tinctures, as it carries soft vanilla, cooling, and bitter notes.
Sweet clover, sagebrush, yarrow, and Saint John’s wort infused into alcohol carries a beautiful fragrance. Combined with 1/3 distilled water or a hydrosol, it can be a wonderful smudging spritz or can be useful as a base for bug spray or a spritz-on deodorant.
For a massage oil I love a combination of yarrow, arnica, and sweet clover. It smells sweetly of a rainy day in the mountains and provides warming relief to an overworked body. It can release tension, clear trauma, move stagnant zones, and ease aches throughout the body. It smells heavenly and can be blended with many other herbs, like goldenrod, Solomon’s plume, cottonwood, violet, and hops for aches-and-pains salves or postinjury rubs.
I find an infused massage oil or spritz of sweet clover to work very well to help hold boundaries and clear space. It helps me not take on other people’s stuff, which is supportive while working with clients.
Be careful not to confuse Melilotus officinalis with golden banner (Thermopsis species), a toxic plant with yellow flowers. Golden banner has similar young leaves. The fungal metabolites of moldy sweet clover can act as a profound blood thinner and have been known to poison cattle. Never use moldy herb!
Take as much as you want. Sweet clover is another plant that has made its way onto the invasive weed list. Be mindful, however, that as a plant that fixes nitrogen in the soil, this “noxious weed” may actually be trying to heal the soil from which it is growing.
Anthoxanthum species
vanilla grass, holy grass, buffalo grass
PARTS USED blades
Braiding the blades of sweet grass on a late summer’s day can be a soothing activity for the non-fishing partner who is patiently waiting for dinner to be caught.
A perennial grass with the sweetest smelling scent of vanilla, sweet grass distinguishes itself in many ways. Leaves are flat, shiny underneath, and either lack hair or have fine hairs on the surface of the leaf. The leaves grow alternately along the smooth, hollow stem. Flowers grow in spikelets with petalless flowers that are tinged with purple from the stamens. The rhizomes of sweet grass are long and grow in colonies. Anthoxanthum odoratum is an introduced species, and A. hirtum is our native sweet grass.
Anthoxanthum hirtum is our most common species of sweet grass. Harvest the sweet-smelling blades of grass in late summer or early fall while the scent is most aromatic and the color is still vibrant. Find it growing in wetlands, riparian zones, and marshes where clean, clear waters flow.
Make a smudge braid to be burned. Use scissors or clippers to snip the blades of sweet grass at the base to create bundles. With about 20 blades in hand, tightly secure the cut ends by wrapping another blade of grass around the bundle. If you create a loop at the end, you can fasten it around your toe or to a stick in the ground. Braid the vanilla-scented grass. Get creative and fashion a grassy loop for hanging to dry. Conclude with using another blade of grass to tightly secure the end of the braid.
Sweet grass is most often seen braided for use as a smudge. The smoke of sweet grass brings in good spirits and improves the energy of a space, honoring Mother Earth and all her creations.
A tea, however, can be lovely in cold blends, to help alleviate coughs and sore throats. Infused oil of the dried or fresh blades gives off a sweet scent that can be good for massage oil blends.
The stands of sweet grass may be affected by overdevelopment and agriculture in parts of the mountain west, leaving it with few places to inhabit clean waters. Become a caretaker and spokesperson for the wild plants and watersheds in your region!
Osmorhiza occidentalis
sweet cicely
PARTS USED roots, leaves, seeds
All parts of sweet root are full of a fennel-like flavor and can be added to formulas for their carminative aromatics.
Sweet root has mountain-hardy, lush green foliage. Leaves are compound in threes, pointed, and serrated. Some can be found along the stem, but many arise from the base of the plant. Older plants have many flowering stems, sometimes reaching 4 feet tall; younger plants may have only a few flowering stems and grow smaller, with more basal leaves.
Flowers are yellow, sometimes greenish, and hardly noticeable compared to the sizeable seedpod each becomes. Seeds are long, slender, smooth, dark green crescents that are dorsally flattened. Roots have a gray or brown surface and a light creamy-colored interior; they grow in what seems like a tangled intertwined mess of rhizomes and roots. The scent of the roots, as you might have guessed from the common name, is noticeably fragrant and sweet.
Sweet root dwells in higher forests, especially in mountainous terrain. It likes damp clean mountain soil and shade. It is an early-blooming flower, and the seeds ripen in early summer. Pick an umbel full of green seeds. I find these lose a lot of flavor later in the season and after they have been dried, so they are best enjoyed while fresh and early in the season.
Roots of older plants are more aromatic and can be smelled just as the root is uncovered. Leaves and flowers can be gathered as well. The scent will stay in your house for days after sweet root has been processed.
In a tincture, the root of sweet root offers an interesting fennel flavor with a tingle. It has been said to be beneficial for treating external and internal fungal infections.
The fresh seeds, leaves, and root can be used in making a spicy vinegar sipping tonic, traditionally called Fire Cider. To make your own, use the root or seeds very sparingly until you understand how much flavor they can impart.
Sweet root leaves can be used fresh or dried for an incredible flavoring, if you are one who likes a fennel flavor. The seeds are a carminative and can be used in formulas for upset stomach, and for some it can help to stimulate bowel movements.
This plant is in the Apiaceae, meaning it can have deadly lookalikes. Water hemlock (Cicuta species) roots are odorless, but poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) roots can have a sweet celery-like scent. Sweet root has very aromatic seeds, leaves, and roots. Always make sure you are 100% certain about the seeds you are consuming. The smallest amount of seed from the wrong plant could be fatal.
Since this plant spreads through its root system, it’s not a threat to gather seeds. But be conscious of your surroundings. Take the whole plant only if sweet root is saturating the forest floor, and when harvesting the root, gather only from large stands. Rhizomes seem to transplant well. After harvesting, plant a few rootlets around the forest floor before you head home.
Dipsacus fullonum
PARTS USED roots
Teasel is an excellent remedy to have in the medicine cabinet for helping to ease joint inflammations and musculoskeletal woes.
Teasel is more noticable after it has died back and is left standing from the previous year. The tall brown afterlife of teasel looks like a gathering of dried microphone-shaped flowerheads, which used to host a bunch of tiny light purple flowers. It is an invasive monocarpic perennial, meaning that after growing as a basal rosette for one or many seasons, the purple flowerheads bloom once, then the entire plant dies back. Below ground, the growth is a spindly taproot with numerous tendrils.
Teasel can be seen lining roadways, irrigation ditches, and highways across the west. Find harvesting places that are well away from the industrialized world. Gather the root before the flowering stalk shoots up, which can be in the spring or fall. After the plant has flowered, the root becomes less medicinal.
A somewhat bitter-tasting plant, teasel has cooling and drying energetics. It can be used as an alterative in supporting the liver and also as a digestive aid.
Teasel can help ease aches and pains from inflammatory issues in joints and muscles. It has been used to help mend tears in connective tissues. Blending it with Maianthemum species, mullein root, and alder can help with structural alignment and the fluidity of connective tissue. It has been used to help those who have autoimmune responses or Lyme disease to cope with the various conditions that affect the musculoskeletal system.
This plant is a very tenacious, weedy species found throughout the west. It can handle heavy harvesting of the root.
Usnea species
old man’s beard
PARTS USED all
I gather usnea as I move through conifer forests in the winter on my splitboard, collecting the lichen and filling all empty spaces of my backpack with it while I hike up the skin track.
Ever look at a tree and see a green stringy mass of fluff dangling from it? That could very well be a species of usnea, otherwise known as old man’s beard. The tendrils of this lichen shoot out in all sorts of directions from the adhered part that meets the bark of the tree. The main identifying factor for usnea is the inner white thread you reveal when you ever so gently tug on either side of a single green strand or tendril—the green breaks apart and the white thread is beneath. If it does not have this thread, then do not use the lichen you found as medicine.
Usnea is one medicinal that can be gathered all year long and during snow or rain, as long as you let it dry out after. My favorite way to gather is in the middle of winter. While heading to the top of a mountain, I can stop along the way and pick the little green fluffs of lichen lying on top of the snow.
Find usnea in conifer forests, growing on the trees. It may appear that the usnea is killing the tree in a parasitic way, but in fact it is helping the tree extend its life, by bringing in more oxygen. Usnea is a lichen that acts as the lungs of the forest. It is found at higher elevations where moisture hovers over the mountains.
Usnea has become a go-to herb for sinus and lung infections here in the dry mountainous region I dwell in. It is often combined with other herbs, such as osha, balsamroot, yerba mansa, spikenard, or redroot, to help ease respiratory infections. I often combine it in herbal steams for its antimicrobial and mucilaginous ways. Even though mucilage is not generally noted to release in a steam, it is still beneficial for the bronchioles. This is a remedy I have used effectively for years—is it the education of telling people to go home and steam their lungs and sinuses, or is it the true power of usnea? We like to give people who come into our shop dead conifer twigs loaded with usnea to take home and inhale in a pot of steam, and they come back feeling like the gunk has moved out of their lungs. Sometimes creating rituals and taking time for yourself can be more important than the actual herbs you are using.
Infused oil of usnea is great for wound-healing salves. Try combining it with cottonwood buds and Oregon grape for an outstanding ointment.
Do not rip usnea from the trees. It is alive and well, offering its gifts to the forest. There is always more than enough usnea on the ground. You can easily make an usnea ball in a short period of walking through the woods. Make sure to look for the white thread for correct identification.
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi
kinnikinnick, bearberry, creeping manzanita
PARTS USED leaves
A creeping evergreen shrub that sprawls across forest floors, uva-ursi creates a peaceful place to sit and harvest beneath a canopy of trees.
Uva-ursi is an evergreen shrub that has a woody stem and deep green, thick, and waxy-feeling leaves. The flowers are little white nodding, urn-shaped bells that have a touch of pink around each tip. They fruit into red mealy berries that can be nibbled in late summer.
You find the trailing mats of uva-ursi on the forest floor under the conifers and aspens. It springs forth vine-like shoots that are covered in oblong leaves that grow alternately along the stem. Find it after the snow melts, and right up until the snow starts to cover the ground again. It can be harvested at any point of the year and used for its medicine. Clip pieces of the trailing stems and either allow the leaves to dry on the stem or pick them off to dry fully before storing in a glass jar. Fresh leaves are best for tincturing.
Where uva-ursi works really well is infections and inflammations of the urinary tract. It can also help relieve kidney and bladder infections. Its strong antimicrobial and astringent properties make it work fairly quickly. These same properties make uva-ursi leaves a great addition when creating a sitz bath blend for postpartum healing or even hemorrhoids.
The tea can also be used as a wash for skin infections or wounds. Uva-ursi can be extracted into oil for bug-bite-soothing ointments or serums. It combines well with rose, plantain, and alumroot.
Smoking blends often contain uva-ursi; it is a common ingredient in Native American blends. I find it works well only in a pipe; otherwise, the herb needs to be finely ground so it can bind with herbs in rolled herbal smokes.
Prolonged use, longer than 3–7 days, can cause stomachaches and be overly drying. Uva-ursi can be used in moderation and in small doses during pregnancy, but not for longer than 3 days.
Uva-ursi is a primary groundcover in many areas of the forested west. It needs only to be clipped—never take the whole plant. Prune off only the long runners.
Valeriana species
tobacco root
PARTS USED roots, stems, leaves, flowers
Stimulant or sedative? However you intend to use it, when you find a meadow of valerian, take a moment to lie down and drink in the scent of fairy dreams.
The star-shaped flowers of valerian are a pleasure to behold and intoxicating to smell. In the Rocky Mountain states we have several different species of valerian; plants vary in size but otherwise have a very similar appearance. Valerian has basal leaves that are slender and spade-shaped at first, turning into lobed leaves as they mature. Valeriana acutiloba and V. arizonica are the smaller species. Medium-sized plants that grow in our region are V. dioica, V. occidentalis, and V. sitchensis. Valeriana edulis is our largest species and has the biggest root, but it can sometimes provide medicine weaker than the medium- or small-sized roots. Go on, smell—the more strongly aromatic the roots, the better. Their unique smell is quite stinky to some, but it has a sweetness that can make it alluring.
Valerian is a mountain-dwelling plant that can be found in moist, rich lands such as alpine meadows, forests, and creeksides. The smaller species of valerian have little roots but provide a lot of foliage, which is better to harvest and utilize. The roots of the larger species can be harvested, and the whole plant can be used in extractions. The fresh plant material makes the strongest extractions, but the dried root and plant parts can also be used. The smell will stay strong for years in valerian root that has been dried and preserved well.
Valerian root has long been a traditional remedy for sleep. It has the ability to really knock you out for getting those Zs. Oddly enough, it can have the opposite effect on some people, giving them energy and keeping them restlessly awake. This seems to be most common in folks whose constitution runs on the warmer side. Try this herb by itself for the first time, to know how it makes you feel.
All parts of valerian can be a relaxing addition to menstrual-cramp formulas. It works as an antispasmodic to the muscles, is calming, and helps quell the pain a bit. The antispasmodic properties can be helpful, when taken in small doses, to calm coughing fits or intestinal cramping. In the musculoskeletal system, valerian can be used to ease backaches or tensing, seizing muscles.
A tea of fresh or dried flowers has a pleasant floral flavor and relaxes the most anxious of beings. The aerial portions of the plant seem to have as strong a sedative and relaxing effect as the root; however, they seem to come with less of the stimulating side effect that valerian has on some people.
For some people, valerian acts as a stimulant as opposed to a sedative. It seems to affect about 25% of people this way, so it is always best to use this with caution. Try the tincture or tea at some point when you are neither sleepy nor stimulated and see how it affects you before you commit to making this a regimen for sleep. Relying on valerian for long periods of time as a sleep aid has been shown to induce depression or lower energy in some people. Some experience a “hangover” or are groggy upon waking after taking too much or for too long a period of time. Not for use in pregnancy.
Be very mindful of this dear plant, as well as where you step when harvesting. It often grows in habitats with other sensitive species. Take roots only from places where a large quantity of valerian is growing.
Veronica species
American speedwell
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
One of my favorite creekside ingredients to add into nourishing face serums.
Veronica is a creeping, matted plant that grows along and at the edges of creeks and rivers. Leaves are opposite, lanceolate, and serrated or entire around the margins. They are widest at the base, where they hug the stem closely. In early spring, young leaves have a reddish tint. Also, the rounded stem may be red, especially at branched junctions. Flowers grow on axillary racemes and are pale purple to blue, with four petals. Due to its opposite leaves, sometimes angular stems, and irregular-looking flowers, veronica can at first glance be confused for a member of the mint family.
Find Veronica americana, our more common species, growing alongside streams, bogs, or ponds, often with willowherb and wild mint as companions. Harvest only from clean waters, gathering the young tips, leaves, and flowers in spring or early summer. All species of Veronica have similar properties and can be used interchangeably.
Gather the young leaves from the aerial part of the plant. The stem and flowers can also be used. The plant can be cut into pieces and laid to dry on a screen.
Veronica has an affinity for helping skin disorders such as acne or eczema. Just the juice of the veronica plant can be used on itchy or eczema-like skin conditions. It is one of the wild herbs I use in my infused oil facial serum. Living in the high mountains, we need extra special ingredients to treat our skin, which is affected so much by our weather. We have to think about the intensity of the sun, wind, and dryness, and the fact that we dehydrate quicker than those at lower elevations. I blend elderflower, willowherb, veronica, and violets into jojoba-and-rosehip-seed oil for a luxurious facial serum that is scented with bergamot and rosewood. This light oil can be used to treat the face morning and night.
Veronica has been used historically in teas and tinctures as a tonic for the kidneys and for respiratory infections. It is high in vitamin C and can be brewed into a tea for a throat gargle or to expectorate coughs.
Leave this plant to do its job as a bank stabilizer and water purifier. Take only little aerial portions from the top of the plant.
Verbena species
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
When you feel like a candle burning at both ends, take a seat and blend yourself a cup of tea, adding a small amount of vervain as a dried herb, tincture, or infused honey.
Blue vervain is the name applied to the common taller species of the mountain states, Verbena hastata, V. stricta, and V. macdougalii. These perennial plants have square stems and could easily be mistaken for mints, but they lack any smell, and a taste would provide you with a bitter pucker. Rubbing the lance-shaped leaves gives you a sense of its rough hairiness. The leaves grow opposite or in a whorled fashion around the equally hairy stalk. Flowers are more of a purple-magenta than blue and grow in a slender spike atop the plant. which grows to 3–5 feet tall.
The smaller species, prostrate vervain (Verbena bracteata), grows low to the ground as a sprawling, branched mat. It is also a hairy plant with bluish purple flowers that peek out of the long, leaf-like bracts that form the dense flower spikes. The leaves are opposite and deeply clefted.
Gather vervain in late summer when the bluish violet flowers are starting to bloom. The tall vervains can be cut from midstalk, harboring the leaves and choice flowers that never blossom all at once. The roots of the taller species of vervain I do not use; others have spoken of it being nauseating. Dry the stalks by hanging or laying on a drying rack, then garble the leaves and flowers from the central stem, which can be discarded.
The sprawling shorter vervains, such as Verbena bracteata, can be gathered as whole plants, using the roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. Since these are hairy, low-growing plants, it is best to give them a rinse before drying. All species could use a good rinse, as the hairs trap all sorts of debris, like cobwebs, plant matter, and dirt.
When agitation is setting in from nervous exhaustion, restlessness, or sickness, vervain can be useful as a relaxant, sedative bitter-nervine that is also an antispasmodic, diaphoretic, and diuretic. This means it can help settle a nervous or upset stomach, while encouraging a sweat and the release of fluids to assist a fever, all while it is promoting deep relaxation, which can be great for the onset of any virus or cold.
Taken as a relaxing nervine, it can soothe frayed nerves in the overworked parent or college student. For those who feel like they are burning the candle at both ends, vervain can help dampen out one of the ends to provide rest and repair.
The tea or tincture can be taken at nighttime to help assist with falling asleep while soothing the overactive mind. A calming combination would be vervain, skullcap, and flowering valerian tops.
The hairs of Verbena bracteata are intense—strain teas well using a fine tea bag or coffee strainer. This is a plant that has been used as an emetic, to induce vomiting. Smaller doses are advised, or smaller portions for formulating.
Taking just the flowering tops and leaves will not harm the life of this plant.
Viola species
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
The demulcent leaves and flowers of violets make lovely teas in the arid west.
The common name is a bit misleading. Not only do these plants come in violet but also yellow (Viola nuttallii and V. orbiculata), white (V. canadensis), and blue (V. adunca). A plant that always seems to hug the soil it grows in, violet is found blooming from spring through summer. Flowers look complex: two matching petals arrange themselves on either side, another matched set radiates upward, and the fifth and largest petal points down. The fifth petal displays the most beauty, varying in its color and shape from the other four and having deep-colored stripes that radiate from the center. The thick leaves of violets are usually heart- or teardrop-shaped, and their distinctive veins give them an almost leathery appearance. The leaves have a mild wintergreen fragrance when crushed or chewed.
Shade-loving plants, violets are found on forest floors in the springtime. This is the best time to gather, while they are in flower and hosting tender leaves. In mountain valleys, summertime is best for gathering; you can find them in places ranging from sunny meadows to aspen groves.
It is best to use a pair of scissors or small pruners to gather leaves and flowers. Sometimes pinching the leaves can result in uprooting the entire plant. Some species are more elusive than others, so respect them all and gather only a few flowers and leaves from each plant.
Violet leaf and flower tea can be drunk daily for its demulcent properties that can greatly benefit those who are constitutionally dry and hold a bit of heat. The herb is cooling and moistening, which can be useful to expectorate a dry cough. Violet can be made into syrups or infused into honey to be used for sore throats or coughs due to dryness. The tincture or tea can be beneficial for lymphatic stagnation, where there is swelling of lymph nodes or spleen.
Used topically, the herb’s demulcent properties can be soothing in formulas for dry skin or sensitive, sore, and raw areas. It can be useful on swollen glands and with lymphatic congestion. Violet-infused oil is another favorite ingredient to include in face serum, massage oils, or breast oils.
Violets are not very abundant in the mountain west. They grow in small groupings and could easily be overharvested. Please keep the whole plant in the ground. Harvest only a few flowers and leaves from each plant.
Asparagus officinalis
PARTS USED roots
The nourishing demulcent root of wild asparagus gives sweet relief to wheezy lungs.
It is best to scope out asparagus territory in the fall, when the plant looks nothing like the spring shoots. Look for the yellowed, branched plant, standing tall when all the other plants have died back. This perennial plant’s woody stalk will be poking through snow, providing you with a perfect marker to the spot you should revisit once the snow melts in early spring. Shoots look just like their cultivated counterpart, although they may be a lot skinnier or sometimes giant. The tips are dark green when young, before the plant branches out and forms small green flowers. Inedible red berries are produced by the mature female asparagus plant, making the many-branched green asparagus look like an ornate Christmas tree.
Asparagus needs water to thrive, so start by looking there. It also doesn’t grow well above 7000 feet. Find tall, overgrown asparagus in midsummer when out fishing, or spot it growing in irrigated fields and ditches. The roots can be dug in spring or in the fall, when the plant has turned to brown, leaving its marking skeleton of branches.
Dig around a cluster of asparagus, loosening the soil, so the roots are easier to pull up. Wash well, as asparagus grows in damp and muddy soils. Chop up the root to dry for storage or use fresh in a tincture.
The root of the Asian species, Asparagus racemosus, called shatavari, has a long-standing use in Ayurvedic medicine as a reproductive tonic. I have used our locally common species, A. officinalis, for similar purposes, and have found it promotes cervical and arousal fluid production. This can be hugely helpful for vaginal dryness or tenderness.
Traditionally it has been used by southwest herbalists as a nutritive diuretic and in quantity as a gentle laxative. As with many demulcents, asparagus can be useful for respiratory conditions where there is wheezing present and the lungs seem to need to be moistened a bit.
Where asparagus is found at lower elevations, it is usually abundant around waterways, making harvesting roots no problem. Do respect the fact that you do not need to dig up the entire plant but can take just a portion of its roots and leave the rest behind.
Carum species
Persian cumin
PARTS USED leaves, flowers, seeds
The carminative seeds of wild caraway can begin to ease a disturbed stomach that needs help dispelling trapped gas.
Caraway is usually a biennial plant, putting out basal leaves the first year and flowering in the second—and sometimes a third—year. Leaves of caraway look like a mix of carrot and yarrow; they are arranged alternately up the flowering stalk. The stalks grow 1–3 feet tall, putting forth white or pinkish flowers arranged as a flat-topped umbel. Stalks can be green, straw-colored, or purple-tinged; they stand tall from a small taproot that can be up to ½ inch thick. The seeds of wild caraway, technically achenes, are highly aromatic, crescent-shaped, slender, and brown, with linear ridges that are lighter in color.
Wild caraway can be found near water, in woods or open fields, at elevations up to 9000 feet. A spot where pastures are nearby is often a good area to look. Collect leaves and taproots in late spring and early summer. Gather flowers in summer, when present. Seeds are ready by late summer or early fall.
Collect the drying achenes directly from the stalk of wild caraway. Gathering can be easy in large areas; cut the stalk just under the umbel, or use your fingers to take achenes off the tops. Let the seeded umbels dry out for a few days in paper bags.
The fresh achenes can be tinctured. The leaves and flowers can be dried for use in teas. Roots can be chopped, dried, and stored for future use in decoctions.
Chew the seeds of caraway after meals for indigestion, bloating, or to dispel gas. Fresh leaves and seeds can be tinctured for use in carminative or bitter formulations. Try adding the dried or fresh seeds to vinegar for Fire Folkin’ Cider.
Dried flowers, leaves, and seeds can be used for making infusions, and the root can be used for decoctions. An infused oil of wild caraway can harbor fragrance and be used topically for skin conditions. An infused honey would also make a lovely addition to teas or remedies. All parts of wild caraway are useful when trying to calm a sour stomach.
As with all members of the carrot family, it is important to be 100% accurate with your identification before harvesting. Both poison hemlock and water hemlock are deadly lookalikes to wild caraway. Always check your seed shape!
Wild caraway is a weedy plant that can handle harvesting of the leaves and seeds.
Prunus species
PARTS USED bark, twigs, stems, flowers, fruit
Honey infused with fresh wild cherries is the best-tasting medicinal cough syrup.
Quite a few wild cherry species grace the mountain west. Trees of chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) are most abundant along rivers and highways and in subalpine forests. In late spring, identifying can be easy. Look for shrubby trees with long, white, clustered racemes of flowers that hang from the sides of the branches. Find a good group of trees in flower and return to this prime spot to harvest cherries later in the summer.
Thin-trunked trees grow from a few feet to 10 feet tall; they tend to be hardier in the foothills and smaller and more shrub-like the higher in elevation they grow. Leaves are shiny green with a lighter hue on the underside; they are oval with little jagged edges and are arranged alternately along the stem. Bark ranges from gray to reddish brown, with horizontal lighter-colored air pores called lenticels. Fruit is a drupe, a berry with only one seed—the nut or pit, in the case of wild cherries. Berries ripen to an almost black color late in the summer.
Wild cherry trees grow near streams, along ditches, in canyons, and in conifer forests. Gather the flowers in spring when they are highly aromatic. Beat the birds to the fruits when they are about a quarter inch in size and darkened to black, in late summer or early fall.
In order to use for teas and tinctures, twigs can be clipped into smaller pieces, bark can be peeled from larger branches, and flowering racemes can be plucked off the tree. Use pruners to trim twigs along with the flower spikes, and dry the flowers while they are on the twig. Lay them over a mesh screen or cloth sheet that gets adequate circulation above and below.
The spring-flowering twigs of wild cherry, the bark, and the fruiting stems all carry astringent, bitter, and cooling properties. They also provide a lovely flavor of cherry with a little bitter almond and sweet notes.
Teas can be made from fresh flowers or dried flowers, twigs, and bark. Cherry bark, flowers, berries, and twigs can be added to cough and bitter formulas, whether in a syrup, tincture, or elixir. Start your cough syrup with an infusion of chokecherries in honey. Wild cherry can help relieve diarrhea in children and calm a stomach experiencing food sensitivities.
The extracted aroma of wild cherry can enhance topical preparations. Infuse the plant parts into oils for use in cough rubs and lip balms.
A word of warning when using fresh cherry bark and twigs: due to the cyanide content of the fresh plant matter, it should be administered only in small and infrequent doses. Dried plant matter of wild cherry is of no concern.
Spreading your pruning of flowering twigs and a few branches among many trees will not threaten future harvesting.
Humulus lupulus
PARTS USED leaves, strobiles
The calming and sedative qualities of hops make it a nice tincture for long plane rides.
Wild hops grow from a creeping bine, not a vine, as plants do not have tendrils, suckers, or hooks, but instead use stiff hairs and a vigorous stem to climb bushes and other natural trellises. As a perennial plant it dies back in the fall and grows again the following year. Each year the bine will reach quite impressive lengths of 10–40 feet. Leaves are either heart shaped or have large lobes, usually three to five, and are finely toothed, growing opposite one another. Humulus lupulus is dioecious, meaning it has separate male and female plants. Both plants are needed for pollination. The female flowers, or strobiles, look like small, soft, green pinecones. The male flowers hang in loose panicles that grow 3–5 inches long.
Wild hops grows throughout the mountain west, and indeed North America, in open meadows, disturbed soils, and forest edges. Find them draping over fenced alleyways and sprawling over willows near a creek. Gather strobiles in late summer and early fall.
The strobiles are ready to be picked when they are highly aromatic and vibrant in color; get them before they dry out. Pick them from the stem and place in a paper bag to keep all the lupulin. A fine golden powder will be present on the strobiles or in the bag after harvesting; this resinous powder is the lupulin, the source of this plant’s sedative and calming effect.
Wild hops strobiles are highly aromatic and antimicrobial with a citrusy, bitter taste. This herb is calming to anxious nerves and can ease digestive cramping or discomfort. It can help soothe the intolerable feeling of having a fever, relax the body, and remedy minor aches and pains. Hops has an affinity for mellowing the feeling of butterflies in the stomach that may be brought on by a slew of emotions—love, anger, jealousy, or angst.
Taken as a tincture or tea it can be heavily sedating, good for those who wake up in the middle of the night and cannot get back to sleep. This is a cooling and drying herb that can be aggravating to those who already lean that way constitutionally.
Topically, as a poultice, hops can bring relief to skin eruptions, spider bites, or wounds. The oil combines well in dreaming balms or can be used alone as a massage oil for its relaxing and antispasmodic properties. It can also be a pleasant oil in chest rubs meant to relieve coughing fits and relax the bronchials. Hops oil is a lovely relaxant and pain-relieving antispasmodic for muscular tension, pains, and twitching. It is often used for backaches, kinked necks, and menstrual pains.
No concerns here beyond the usual: never strip any one plant of all it offers the wildcrafter. The bines are weather-resilient and can be transplanted easily through spring cuttings.
Lactuca species
PARTS USED leaves, stems
The white latex is extremely bitter but useful at relieving pain.
Wild lettuce leaves growing along the stem are lanceolate and arranged alternately, clasping the stalk closely. Leaf margins are toothed or prickly and may or may not be lobed. The underside of the midrib is noticeably barbed. The leaves start out in a basal rosette and could easily be confused with other similar-looking plants, like chicory, dandelion, or sow thistle, which all lack these small spines; however, all these plants have a milky white sap. The flowers of wild lettuce are small and yellow, with prominent green bracts. Wild lettuce can have a lot of branched flower stems coming off the main stalk. Seeds are small, brown, and attached to a fluffy white pappus.
Wild lettuce is a weedy foe to many in the mountain west, as it grows just about anywhere its seeds land. Find it in vacant lots and fields or lining sidewalks and parking lots. Gather the young leaves of the basal rosette in early spring and into summer, until the plant puts up a flowering stalk. You may also collect the young stalk and unopened flowerheads in summer.
Pick the choice-looking young leaves from the young rosette. Cut the stalk off at the base while it has fresh flowerbuds on it. The milky sap that exudes from the plant is the medicine we are after. It will coat your fingers and make your clippers sticky.
The bitter medicine of wild lettuce species helps to calm the nerves and soothe irritability in sick, restless children. It also acts as a mild sedative with an anodyne effect.
Tinctures can be made from the freshly cut plant parts leaking their milky latex. Fresh plant material is best, as the latex has the best medicine. The tincture can be included for fever formulations or for insomnia. It can also be used in formulas for pain relief of menstrual cramps, musculoskeletal issues like arthritis or injury, and wound care.
Wild lettuce is in the Asteraceae, and some people may have allergic reactions to this plant family.
Feel free to harvest vigorously—it’s even fine to pull this easily spreading weed from the ground.
Glycyrrhiza lepidota
American licorice, sweet root
PARTS USED roots
When combined with other herbs, wild licorice increases their vitality and seems to seamlessly blend formulations, adding a slight sweet note to all.
The long leaves of wild licorice are compound and pinnate, always with an odd number of leaflets. The lanceolate leaflets grow opposite each other with a single leaflet at the tip. Leafstalks have a slight downward bend to them that deepens on hot days. A sticky, waxy coating can sometimes be felt on the entire plant. Wild licorice grows to about 2 feet tall and forms robust colonies, thanks to its creeping root system. It has small, pea-like flowers produced in a spike-like raceme, blooming in late spring and remaining through summer. Flowers are primarily white but can be yellow-green or purple tinged at times. Wild licorice is commonly confused with poisonous milk vetches (see caution), but the fruit of wild licorice is brown and burred. It is the only spiny-fruited member of the pea family (Fabaceae) in the mountain west.
Licorice can also be confused with Xanthium (cocklebur), which also has hook-bristled fruits, but cocklebur is a member of the sunflower family and a completely different medicine.
Find wild licorice colonies skirting around cities, towns, and mountain drainages throughout our region, near mountain streams and irrigated fields and ditches. Gather roots in either spring or fall, when they hold the most flavor. The large taproots may be hard to dig up, as they can reach 3 feet in length; therefore, choose a location that has loose soil, such as a riverbank. In some places, roots are easily pulled up, complete with attached rhizomes.
The root of wild licorice is not as sweet as that of the cultivated species. It does however offer the same mucilaginous and anti-inflammatory properties. This makes it soothing for sore throats, coughs, or stomach irritations. The root can be chewed on fresh or dried and it will soothe or even heal up canker sores in the mouth. It can also work on ulcers in the stomach lining. Wild licorice has an affinity to help many conditions that are exacerbated by overdryness. This includes dry constipation, wheezing, or scratchy throats.
A cold infusion of the root can extract properties that are anti-inflammatory and support the immune system, which can be beneficial when a cold strikes and the bronchioles are inflamed.
Wild licorice has a look similar to milk vetches (Astragalus species), which are poisonous. Be positive with your identification. Not for use in pregnancy, or by people with high blood pressure or kidney disease—wild licorice causes sodium retention.
This plant is stout and an aggressive grower; harvesting some roots should not hurt the stand. Don’t harvest in areas where wild licorice is a bank stabilizer, helping to keep down erosion. Rhizomes transplant well and have been known to take over gardens.
Mentha species
poleo mint, field mint, cornmint
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
Wild mints can usually be smelled before you realize you are walking on top of the plants, crushing them and releasing the aromatics.
Mentha arvensis, our most common mint species, is almost always growing at the water’s edge. For identification, pick a leaf—they are simple and grow in opposite pairs—crush it, and take a sniff. Mint will always smell like mint, and all mint stems are square. To be certain, roll the stem, feeling for the ridges of a square. The small flowers with long stamens grow around the stalk and look like light purple puffballs.
Along streams and riverbanks is a good place to start when looking for wild mint. You will find these plants from spring into fall anywhere with substantial moisture and a bit of shade. Young leaves are more tender; they get tougher and less potent as they age and begin to brown.
Walking along a riverbank or in a moist field, you can usually gather more than enough mint bundles for a season of medicinal use. I pinch off the top 4 inches of the plant, leaving plenty of leaves and flowers behind.
Wild mint tea can be a simple easy fix to an upset tummy or as a postdinner drink after overeating. It helps to dispel gas or calm gastrointestinal cramping. Blended into bitters formulas, wild mint can provide a cooling flavor that will help to stimulate the flow of bile.
The cooling combination of wild mint, yarrow, and elderflower is a useful tea for feverish children.
A double infusion of mint oil carries the tingliness of the mint, excellent in sore muscle rubs, lip balms, and massage oils.
Don’t go tearing mint out of the soil; it acts as a stabilizer, protecting banks from erosion. Be gentle while harvesting this plant, and always leave enough for regrowth.
Fragaria species
PARTS USED leaves, flowers, fruit
You’ll hardly need the reminder, but do take the time to enjoy the berries while harvesting other parts of the strawberry plant. Better yet, find a way to incorporate the fruits into your medicine-making.
Wild strawberry grows horizontally, sprawling across the ground bearing white flowers and compound, three-part leaves. The leaflet edges are evenly jagged, giving them the distinctive strawberry look. Fine hairs may be present on the underside of the leaf and along the leafstalks. Five white petals make up the delicate flower that turns to fruit by midsummer. The stems of the fruits, flowers, and leaves are sometimes red, making them easy to spot. Another distinctive feature of strawberry is its reproductive use of stolons, creeping stems that root into the ground at regular intervals.
Strawberries dwell in meadows of varying elevations. They like moist but not wet, well-drained soil and are often surrounded by plants that won’t completely crowd out sunlight. Find them near forest edges and riverbanks and along trails. Pick flowers in the spring and leaves through until fall. Berries can be gathered starting in early summer and continuing until late summer at higher elevations. They may grow bigger at lower elevations, and flavor can be dependent on habitat, but the tiny morsels at 11,000 feet are worth the scavenge.
Dry strawberry flowers and leaves for an astringing tea or sitz bath. This can be a tea used for young ones or those of any age experiencing diarrhea or stomach sensitivity. Chew up leaves for placement on gum injuries or mouth sores. The berries can be a flavorful accompaniment to tinctures, cordials, and elixirs. Dehydrated, the dried berries are a lovely addition to teas as well.
Harvest with care. Strawberries reproduce both by seed and by rooting from their stoloniferous spreading stems. Be sure to leave a good amount of fruit, both for the strawberries to reproduce and for the animals. To encourage next year’s crop, be careful not to tread too heavily on the spreading stems.
Salix species
PARTS USED bark, twigs, leaves
Salix trees vary greatly, some species growing thin and small, others tall and hardy. Sample a few of your local species to find your favorites.
There are so many Salix trees, and they can be found at any elevation. They range greatly in size. The genus includes one of the smallest “trees” or woody shrubs in the world—snow-bed willow varieties of S. herbacea that grow high in the alpines of eastern North America—and the countless shrubby willows you have to bushwhack through to get up or down a mountainside, and my favorite, the tall and glorious golden weeping willow S. ×sepulcralis. More than a few hundred Salix species grow throughout the world.
One major characteristic of willows is the narrow, lanceolate-ovate leaves, though some species, such as Salix bebbiana, are more rounded. The leaves usually have serrated margins, and all are pointed and grow alternately up thin bendy-brittle branches. The leafbuds that cling tightly to the branches in the wintertime are also a helpful indicator of species. Buds vary by species, but all have a single cap-like scale as a covering.
Willows are dioecious, meaning each plant has either all male flowers or all female flowers. The flowers consist of fluffy, upright, slightly dangling catkins.
Willow is one of the most common plants of the west and can be found in your neighborhood park, reviving riparian zones, and clustering on mountainsides. Harvest leaves and branches from willow trees when the sap is flowing in the spring and fall, but if the medicine is needed, you can also harvest on warm winter days or in the middle of summer. Bark can be peeled off branches or twigs and be chopped up to use fresh or for drying.
Willow is a long-standing pain reliever, revered for centuries for its powerful actions as an analgesic. Salicylic acid is perhaps the most useful constituent of willow; it acts as an anti-inflammatory and can be useful for inflammations all over the body, the gut, the bladder, or even for headaches.
The bark of willow, its twigs, or even leaves can be used in alcohol extractions, oils, sitz baths, decoctions, infusions, or vinegars. The tincture and tea of willow are drying, bitter, and astringent, which can help ease sore throats, fever and chills, or diarrhea.
The infused oil can be spread on the gums of a teething baby. Try combining it with equal parts pineapple weed for a calming pain relief. The oil can also be used as an eardrop, helping to dull the pain of a throbbing infection or virus. Mix it into warming oil with garlic, mullein flowers, and beebalm flowers or leaves. The oil can be used for salves or massage oils that relieve sore or injured body parts.
Willow leaves can be used fresh for bug-bite poultices or chewed for relief of mouth pain.
If you are taking blood thinners, you should check first with your doctor before using willow, which has salicin in it. While willow does contain salicylic acid, it is not the same as aspirin and is therefore not an appropriate replacement.
Fresh willow branches can be picked from the grown tree and planted. They are incredibly vivacious and will happily root and grow where there is water or soil.
Epilobium species
PARTS USED leaves, flowers
Infused into oil, willowherb makes an antioxidant-rich face serum.
Willowherb is closely related to our tall and radiant fireweed (Chamerion species). Its green leaves are tinged with red and grow oppositely along the slightly squared reddish-colored stem. Depending on the species, leaves are ovate to lanceolate in shape, and flowers are white, pink, or bluish purple in color and have four heart-shaped petals. The seedpods are elongated and filled with many tiny seeds that are attached to a plumed pappus, which helps them disperse by wind once the pods open.
Willowherb can be found in moist environments or near creeksides. Harvest in late spring when the leaves are a reddish green, or wait until the flowers have bloomed in the summer. Clip the top 6 inches of the plant, to get plenty of leaves and flowers in your harvest bundle. Take home to wilt or dry completely before making an infused oil. Fresh herb is best for tinctures.
Willowherb is very similar to fireweed in its medicinal actions. It has an affinity for helping lower inflammations of the pelvic region. As a tea or tincture, it can be beneficial for complaints of the gastrointestinal tract, from gut imbalances to acting as a mild laxative during a bout of constipation.
The freshly wilted plant makes an exquisite oil infusion for face serums. The plant is high in antioxidants and provides excellent nourishment for the skin. Blend with other herbs that treat the skin well, such as violet and elderflowers.
Clipping only the flowering tops or leaves from willowherb should not pose a threat to its survival and well-being in the wild.
Artemisia absinthium
absinthe
PARTS USED leaves, flowers, stems
That’s right. The infamous green drink called absinthe is made from this plant.
Artemisia absinthium is a perennial that dies back each year. It has dark green leaves that have a teal to grayish silver color due to the fine hairs that cover the plant. Leaves are dissected several times and are divided into highly lobed leaflets, reaching a span of 2–5 inches. Flowers are small, yellow, inconspicuous, hanging buttons that grow in a spike-like inflorescence.
Discover wormwood growing as an invading artemisia, finding space on dry hillsides, in yards in mountain towns, and in poor, disturbed soils.
Tincture of the fresh leaves, stems, and flowers is strongest and harbors the most medicine. After the herb is dried, the most potent parts are the leaves and flowers. I crush these off the stem to use.
Wormwood tincture is something I don’t travel without—it’s the worst facing a stomach bug or parasite without it. It has properties that will kill parasites or calm a rotten stomach. When the stomach viruses are going around and seem really contagious, this is also the bitter herb I reach for. It is extremely bitter and is needed only in doses as small as 3–10 drops. I like to put a few drops in my water bottle each day while visiting countries where the water is not reliable.
It combines well with black walnut, Oregon grape, and chaparral—topically as a soak, liniment, or oil for fungal or bacterial skin infections, and internally for intestinal dysbiosis and parasitic infection. This combination is especially helpful to combat athlete’s foot, as this ailment is usually best addressed internally as well. Internally, take wormwood, black walnut, Oregon grape, and chaparral in combination with or without each other, depending on what you can harvest.
Tincture is the preferred format for consumption of wormwood. I would not like to take down a strong cup of tea, but a cold infusion is certainly much nicer than hot.
Wormwood is not an herb to take for extended periods of time and should be taken in smaller doses, such as 3–20 drops 1–3 times a day for no longer than 6 weeks. This herb, especially when combined with other herbs such as black walnut, can be harsh on the gastrointestinal tract. Use in small doses unless consulting with an herbalist or other healthcare practitioner.
Watch where you harvest, as this plant can be targeted for spraying as a noxious weed.
Achillea millefolium
PARTS USED leaves, stems, flowers
A first-aid must, yarrow has a versatility that can help those wounded or sick while traveling in the woods.
Yarrow is a native perennial averaging heights of 1–3 feet. Plants can have one to several stems that arise from long, finely dissected basal leaves. Some stems may themselves be branched, and the leaves along the stem are small and especially feathery. Both basal and stem leaves are distinctly aromatic when crushed. Flowers form clusters that appear to be in an umbel; however, upon closer inspection you will find several separate flower clusters in heads which form a flat-topped corymb.
You can find yarrow almost anywhere in the mountain west. Gather leaves as you need them from spring through fall. Stems and flowers are best gathered while the flowers are at their most fragrant, in the heat of midsummer.
Gather leaves by plucking a few from each plant. If you have collected the whole stalk to use along with the flowers, first strip the stem of leaves, then finely chop it up, leaving the flowers still attached.
Yarrow is one of my top herbs, for almost everything. It has a gentle warmth that can help to soften and stimulate from the inside out. Dried yarrow is nice as a bath soak, respiratory steam, sitz bath, and tea. As infused oil it is warming to the skin and deeper. I often use it in massage oil—my favorite blend is yarrow, arnica, and sweet clover, infused together in safflower oil. The smell is marvelous.
Stimulating circulation, yarrow helps with blood stagnation, blood blisters, old bruises that have hardened, or to decongest a stagnant and inflamed area. Oils, salves, and soaks are good for when there is bruising, hematomas, and trauma from an injury. Yarrow is useful in people with arthritis, gout, and rheumatism. It can be used on bug bites, stings, and itchy skin conditions.
The oil can be applied to children when they are feverish and chilled. It helps to warm them up while bringing stimulation to the sluggish sick body. The warmth acts as a diaphoretic, guiding the fever to a place that helps to better fight the infection, aiding in breaking it into a sweat. For feverish adults, yarrow makes a gentle, warming tea that will push the heat of the body out to the peripheries, so that the body can start to cool itself down.
Tincture or tea of yarrow can be beneficial for menses that are stagnant or need thinning out. A blend of yarrow, a demulcent herb (such as Siberian elm or mallow root), and rose can help stop the recurrent nosebleeds that come from too dry a climate or constitution.
Chewing up the leaves for a spit poultice can help stop bleeding while in the backcountry. You can also mash the leaves between your fingers to activate the juices for coagulation without the saliva.
Yarrow is in the Asteraceae, and some people may have allergic reactions to this plant family. What’s more, yarrow is often confused with water hemlock (Cicuta species) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) because its white-flowered corymb resembles an umbel. Be positive of your identification.
Yarrow is widespread throughout the mountain west. Always leave some flowerheads behind, and never strip a plant of all its leaves.
Anemopsis californica
lizard tail
PARTS USED roots, leaves
The warm and spicy root can help fight lung infections while soothing the mucous membranes.
Yerba mansa has one of the most gorgeously unique flowers with large white bracts posing as petals and a tall dense flowering spike that is made of many tiny white flowers. The leaves are basal and have a rounded arrow shape. They are green with thick, red-tinged petioles and are almost succulent or leathery feeling. Leaves turn a deep red in autumn.
Find yerba mansa growing as a perennial herb in stands and revitalizing certain riparian zones. The main rhizome has many thick fleshy rootlets. The interior of the root is orange.
The roots of yerba mansa can be harvested in the spring and fall, or in the middle of summer if that is when you can make it to the middle elevations of southern Nevada and southwestern Utah. It loves to inhabit continually wet, swampy areas. Leaves can be harvested throughout the spring until fall.
The roots propagate really well, and you can also take fresh roots home to grow in a pot that stays damp. This way you can have your own harvest of yerba mansa either in a greenhouse or yard. I have a friend who grows this herb at 10,000 feet in a greenhouse, where it thrives!
When you harvest the roots, carefully dig around the base of a mature plant until you come upon the main root with runners that go deeper into the soil. Cut off the root between the mature plant and a sprout that is growing further along the root, taking a section as your medicine. Then, leaving at least a few inches of root attached to the sprout, replant it. This method allows you to harvest from one plant without taking too much life force, while simultaneously propagating another and helping increase the population.
Yerba mansa is a warming, drying, spicy, and aromatic root, providing circulation and stimulation. It has both anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties, which make it useful for both internal and topical infections.
Sinus and respiratory infections can be greatly relieved by yerba mansa, as it provides a warming circulatory flow that can help to expectorate coughs and move out congestion through toning and restoring mucous membranes.
The fresh root can be chewed on for a sore throat or lung infection when a viral infection is present. It will help to warm the body’s temperature, acting as a diaphoretic. It can also be taken internally as a tincture or tea for a similar effect.
Yerba mansa smells amazing and is a lovely warming oil to apply to people who are sore and achy from a fever. It also blends well in a chest rub oil to help soothe and expectorate coughs; it can be applied to the front of the chest, back, and neck for this purpose. The infused oil can be used in salves for healing wounds. Oils can be made with the leaves and roots. Poultices can also be made of the leaves to place on sore or inflamed muscles.
Use yerba mansa in musculoskeletal issues where pain and inflammation are present. Combine it with antispasmodic herbs like hops, connective tissue healing herbs like Maianthemum species, or structural supporting herbs like mullein. Administer as an internal tincture or external liniment.
Yerba mansa’s population can be greatly increased by human care and interaction. Take only a section of root and replant the remaining sprout.
Yucca species
PARTS USED roots, leaves
If you ever wanted a way to wash your hair in a river with the use of only a plant, then yucca root is your golden ticket.
Not many plants in the mountain west look anything like yucca. They are a distinct evergreen presence year-round—their tall brown flowerstalk and long green spine-tipped leaves can even protrude through the snow. Each plant usually has only one flowerstalk, and the rosette of leaves pokes out around its base. Leaves are stiff and sword-like, with fraying fibers along the edges. Flowers are bell-shaped and creamy white, with tints of purple or green. The oval seedpods are green or cream-colored.
Some of our common varieties of yucca are soapweed yucca (Yucca glauca), Spanish bayonet (Y. harrimaniae), and banana yucca (Y. baccata). Narrow-leafed yucca (Y. angustissima) is also quite common on the Front Range of Colorado.
This plant can be found throughout the lower and middle elevations of the mountain west, usually below 8500 feet. It prefers the harsh climates of the desert, lack of water, and long, cold winters, growing among junipers, piñons, and ponderosas. The root can be harvested in the spring or fall. Be seriously careful, as the spiny leaves can puncture you and hurt like heck. Consider wearing eye-protection, such as sunglasses or snowboard goggles. Those poky leaves can be used to make twine or be spun into rope. This can be handy when bundling herbs.
Yucca is a moistening and cooling herb that can be used to relieve arthritis and inflammation in the musculoskeletal system. It has a mild analgesic effect, so it can be used in liniments for pain-relieving formulas. Internally, it is usually taken as a tincture.
The root of yucca has been used for its saponins to make soaps, detergents, or hair rinses. Those same saponins mean that yucca can be used as a moderate laxative as well as a mild emetic.
Too much tincture can result in a laxative effect. If this happens, decrease the amount. Do not confuse our native Yucca species with that of the edible yuca, or cassava root, found in some grocery stores. Definitely not the same plant!
Yucca grows prolifically in the west, but still, please, harvest with caution and care.