Planting the Future

YERBA SANTA

Eriodictyon californicum

SHATOIYA AND RICK DE LA TOUR

Named by the early Spaniards as the “holy herb,” yerba santa was one of the most important herbs to all the Native tribes who shared an environment with it. It is also known as mountain balm, wild balsam, gum leaves, and miner’s tobacco. The Indians’ lexicon had many names for this beneficial plant. Uses for this plant extend from the physical realm to the emotional and spiritual.

Matthew Wood refers to yerba santa as the “portable temple.” Burning it as a smudge is said to clear any psychic toxins from the area. The smell is sweet and most pleasant. It occasionally grows sporadically along side roads but more often is found on lonely ridgetops surrounded by guardian poison oaks. While researching this chapter we found a lovely patch, but to get to it we had to brave poison oak, various stickers, and a rattlesnake. When we did make our way to the cluster of yerba santa bushes, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the American River canyon and found a beautifully formed hummingbird nest with a solitary egg resting in the branches of the most prominent of the yerba santa bushes.

Sitting in this grove of yerba santa gave us a very strong connection to the history of this land. It was as if the plants could recall the days of the Forty-Niners—and those recollections weren’t all happy. Remembered was the disrespect for the land and the raping of entire mountainsides for the recovery of some perceived precious metal. We both received the message that this is a plant that demands respect—that if used wisely its rewards are great, but if used disrespectfully its dangers are equally great. “Use me and I will ground you,” the plant said to us. “Use me improperly and I will ground you to a pulp.” This is a plant that wants you to earn its lessons.

Once prolific in our area, patches of yerba santa have succumbed to urban sprawl. Perhaps that is why local old-timers now come into our shop to buy it instead of picking it in the wild. These hardy foothill folk are the ones who first piqued our interest in this herb. “When I was a kid, if I caught a cold, my mama would make me drink this tea. I still use it to this day,” was a common statement we heard.

E. californicum, while considered the “official” yerba santa, is only one of several species of Eriodictyon that goes by that name. E. trichocalyx is found in southern California and the central coast, up to the Salinas valley; E. angustifolium grows in California’s Mojave Desert and has also spread into southern Utah and Arizona.

Yerba santa is an evergreen, aromatic, resinous, leafy shrub that grows in the oak savanna and chaparral of the foothills and canyons of California, southern Oregon, Baja California, and parts of Arizona and Utah. It can grow to 8 feet tall but is usually found at a height somewhere between 3 and 6 feet. The alternately arranged leaves are lanceolate with serrated edges. Mature leaves are typically found to be 3 to 4 inches long. The upper sides of the leaves are dark green and shiny while the undersides are yellowish and slightly fuzzy. Visible on the underside is a distinctive mosaic vein pattern. The leaves that are overly mature occasionally become black due to a fungus that often attacks the older leaves. Yerba santa is found growing between the elevations of 500 and 5,500 feet, usually in dry sites. Often growing among the native grasses, poison oaks, and ceanothus, it is distinctive due to the shiny upper surface of its leaves, and also because the leaves are often found clustered at the ends of the branches. The bark—which is light brown in color—tends to have a shredded appearance. The short-lived flowers are purple to white.

Native Americans, then Spaniards, and then gold miners learned the healing properties of this plant. During the California Gold Rush of 1849 many of the miners took to smoking this herb due to the difficulty of getting tobacco to the mine fields. Smoking yerba santa does have an effect that’s similar, though more subtle, to smoking tobacco. The taste is slightly sweeter, but the sensation as the smoke enters the lungs is much like what is felt when smoking tobacco. Modern herbalists on the western side of the United States recognize it as an effective respiratory herb.

All varieties of yerba santa may be used medicinally. They are most often used for severe or chronic respiratory problems. The plant is recommended in many herbals for bronchitis, asthma, hay fever, and any wet, phlegmy condition. As a tea it is often combined with other respiratory herbs—mullein, nettle, grindelia, and coltsfoot. By itself, or in combination, it is an effective decongestant and expectorant. Toward this end it was also smoked in the belief that the smoke went exactly to the place it was needed—the lungs. We use it in combination with grindelia in the tincture form as a “kick butt” cold and cough remedy when gentler herbs don’t seem to do the job. A tincture of equal parts nettle, horseradish, and yerba santa is very effective for sinus congestion and infection.

We don’t generally recommend smoking herbs for respiratory problems, although yerba santa was used this way by Native Americans and root doctors, and some modern herbalists as well. We have mentioned it to people trying to transition off tobacco cigarettes. Not wanting to offer something we haven’t tried ourselves, we decided to roll one up and take a few tokes. Neither of us is a cigarette smoker but from recollections of our youthful attempts to be “cool” we can tell you that the yerba santa wasn’t as harsh as tobacco. The smoke has a sweet, minty flavor. It did make both of us feel a little dizzy and out of it, very much as our pubescent tobacco experiences left us. If you do intend to use the herb in this way, use the dried herb and make sure you get good-quality papers. Never mind the look you get from the clerk when you buy them. If you’ve been an herbalist for any length of time, you should be used to getting funny looks.

We did have a student who helped her boyfriend transition off tobacco chew by using a yerba santa blend. She combined dried yerba santa, mullein, coltsfoot, mint, a dash of lobelia, and honey. Lobelia contains lobeline, very similar to nicotine, and helps withdrawal from that deadly stuff. The herbal chew was a hit, and eventually he became chew-free.

Although we have not used this with out clients, old herbals speak of drinking the tea to clear up hemorrhoids. Perhaps this is because it has a reputation for strengthening fragile membrane capillaries.

It has been cited for use in urethral irritation and catarrh. The water infusion has a beautiful gold color, like the urine of someone who’s taken a lot of B vitamins. Perhaps that’s the doctrine of signatures at work here.

Internally and externally, it is recommended for rheumatic pain. Local Native Americans used it as poultices, fresh or dried, for their own broken skin as well as that of their animals. Its sticky nature makes it a good adhesive bandage. They also used poultices for sore muscles and skin inflammations. We can personally attest to the muscle-relaxing effects of a bath with yerba santa and eucalyptus.

To make a tea, use 1 tablespoon per cup of water and decoct for ten to fifteen minutes. If you are combining it with leafier herbs such as mullein, coltsfoot, nettle, or comfrey leaf, go ahead and make it as an infusion, steeping the whole mixture for twenty minutes. Add a little honey, mint, or apple juice, if you wish to enhance the flavor.

Michael Moore recommends tincturing the fresh herb 1:2, the dried herb 1:5, in 65 percent alcohol. The home herbalist can make an effective tincture by using Bacardi or Myers 151 rum, which tends to bring out the sweetness in the herb.

For coughs and colds, combine with other lung herbs (as above). Make 2 to 4 cups of tea and sip on it all day. For stubborn coughs or colds, add 2 dropperfuls of tincture of either straight yerba santa or the herb in combination with grindelia, licorice, wild cherry bark, and/ or thyme, to 1 cup of yerba santa tea.

For asthma and hay fever, yerba santa combines well in a tincture with skunk cabbage, skullcap, nettle, wild cherry bark, mullein, and coltsfoot. For hay fever, eyebright may be added. Take 2 dropperfuls as needed.

For a muscle-soothing bath, combine five or six whole yerba santa leaves with the same number of eucalyptus leaves. Place them in a muslin bag, or tie them up in a bit of cheesecloth. Fasten the bundle to the water faucet and let the hot water run through it as the tub fills. Let the bundle of herbs float around as you relax in the healing waters.

Yerba santa leaves may be used in a compress or poultice. In an outdoor emergency, fresh leaves work best. Find the stickiest ones to use and chew them slightly. Place them on the wound. Tie gauze around it if you have some. At home, make a strong tea with dried leaves and apply cloths soaked in the tea to sore muscles, wounds, and the like.

California University libraries have a plethora of documents with opinions about the proper way to start the seeds of California’s native plants. Although the details vary, most subscribe to the idea of starting them in charate, an ashy substance obtained by burning and grinding a variety of native plants.

Yerba santa is considered a fire-following plant, and in the wilds, it often needs a fire if the seeds are to successfully germinate. Gardeners can duplicate this by putting the seeds in a 200-degree oven for five minutes. If you know someone who lives with a posse of yerba santa plants in the backyard, it would be much easier to carefully dig up some babies in the fall. Try not to disturb their roots. Transplant them into the worst possible soil in your garden (a dry, red clay is perfect). Barely give them enough water to establish, and never water them again, unless you are experiencing a seven-year drought. Put them near their dearest friends—ceanothus, poison oak, and any kind of thistle. They should settle in quite comfortably. New England gardeners will have as much fun trying to grow this as California Central Valley gardeners have trying to grow bloodroot.

Generally, late spring and early summer are when the plant is at its stickiest, full of its rich resin. If there is a hillside of beautifully abundant plants, you can gather a few full clusters of leaves off a few plants. Cut the branch above a joint on the stem at a 45-degree angle. If you are taking a small amount, just pinch off one or two leaves out of a few clusters.

I hang up clusters of branches or dry individual leaves on a screen. They will be crunchy when dry, but still maintain a somewhat leathery texture.

UpS RECOMMENDATIONS

• Some limited wild harvest is permissible, but only when absolutely necessary.

• Possible alternatives include pine, elecampane, thyme, sage, and grindelia.

Much of American Indian culture and tradition have been lost. The uses of yerba santa that were passed from one generation to the next for centuries are in jeopardy if we let this plant follow the path of the dinosaur. We can’t afford to lose any of our history, especially elements that offer benefits for society. Do what you can to preserve this wonderful, helpful plant.

Balls, Edward K. Early Uses of California Plants. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962.

Clarke, Charlotte Bringle. Edible and Useful Plants of California. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977.

Emery, Dara E. Seed Propagation of Native California Plants. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1988.

Hutchens, Alma. Indian Herbalogy of North America. Windsor, Ont.: Merco Publishers, 1973.

Moore, Michael. Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West. Santa Fe: Red Crane Books, 1993.

________. Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West. Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1979.

Storer, Tracy L., and Robert L. Usinger. Sierra Nevada Natural History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1963.

Tilford, Gregory L. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press Publishing, 1997.

Wood, Matthew. Seven Herbs, Plants as Teachers. Berkeley, Calif.: North Atlantic Books, 1986.