Jewelweed is a plant all foragers should know: it’s a helpful herbal remedy that can be used to ameliorate contact with poison ivy.
Impatiens capensis
touch-me-not
EDIBLE stalks, flowers
Jewelweed is a citrus-flavored green with a bit of crunch. Its succulent and juicy stalks and flowers can be incorporated into soups and fresh spring rolls.
Jewelweed is a tall succulent annual plant that sometimes grows densely like ground cover. Its root system is shallow and its hollow stalk a neon translucent green, growing about 3 to 5 feet tall. The plant is very juicy when crushed. In July and August, jewelweed produces a beautiful tubular orange flower. It is a fast-growing plant that propagates by its abundant seed, easily released in the summer if anything brushes against the plant.
Jewelweed is a plant all foragers should know: it’s a helpful herbal remedy that can be used to ameliorate contact with poison ivy.
Jewelweed is found along the edges of streams, ditches, and woodlands, and is almost always in the same moist habitat alongside poison ivy. Drops of water that fall onto the leaves of the plant will glisten like jewels because of their waterproof, waxy coating which also gives a shimmer to the whole stand. For use in the kitchen for soups and stews, gather the plant before it flowers, from mid-June into July, when it ranges in height from 12 to 36 inches.
Jewelweed spreads easily by seeds and grows quickly in large stands.
Poison Ivy: An Inevitable Foraging Companion
Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a common invasive plant across the Midwest, found in damp riverbeds, woodlands, trailsides, sand dunes, and open fields. This is a tricky plant for foragers, who will get out into the field for early spring harvesting before the plant leafs out and unwittingly contract the rash. It’s best to note where the plant grows before winter so as to avoid contact with the vines in the spring. “Leaves of three, let them be” may be a good start to identifying poison ivy, but the plant takes many shapes: a small creeping plant, with berries in the fall, or a bare hairy vine in winter. It has compound leaves, alternate along a woody stalk. It can be easily confused with box elder.
The plant has a shallow root system, so it’s easily removed from the soil.
Jewelweed’s stems are succulent and crunchy, with a density and texture similar to bean sprouts. To use in recipes that call for bean sprouts, use smaller jewelweed stalks or slice up the larger stalks lengthwise into more manageable sizes (large pieces can be fibrous). These pieces can make good additions to spring rolls or used to top spicy Asian soups. The leaves can be used in these dishes as well. If you want to use the greens in a cooked dish, add them at the end as they are tender and will cook down quickly.
Jewelweed is prolific and is deemed by many as weedy. However, if you want to grow a jewelweed stand or spread the seeds, simply gather the ripe seed heads into a bag in the fall and sow the following year as an annual.