Turning Points

In a lot of respects, visiting in early April was beneficial – the flower of the bloodroot plant does not last that long – it blooms from March until May, so I caught it pretty much in the middle of its blooming period. The flower petals are shed within a couple of days of pollination by bees and flies so I was fortunate indeed to find a small number of the beautiful flowers.

Despite the fact that the plant was used as an herbal remedy by the Native Americans, caution is advised in its use. Bloodroot contains sanguinarine, which kills animal cells. In 2005, the “folk healer” Dan Raber, of Rochelle, GA, was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license after patients he was treating for cancer were severely disfigured after using a paste that he had given them that contained extracts of bloodroot. A licensed M.D., Lois March, surrendered her medical license to settle charges that she aided Raber by prescribing opiates to relieve the pain caused by the bloodroot extract treatment. The Quackwatch website has more information. Bloodroot extract is used in the mole remover Dermatend and also in some toothpastes as an anti-bacterial and anti-plaque agent. Perhaps it is safe for removing moles and skin tags, but I think I’d consult with a physician before using it.

Bloodroot (sanguinaria canadensis)

There is a large colony of this plant on my neighbor’s property and since it grows in a rather damp location, I didn’t expect to find it on my property. But here it is! I took this picture, on my neighbor’s property, back in May of 2008.

Here is the picture that I took on this trip – I didn’t recognize the plant because it had not yet flowered.

The Latin name has recently changed from senecio aureus to packera aurea.

The Native Americans used a tea of the plant for heart trouble and to prevent pregnancy while the early settlers used it to treat lung diseases, aid childbirth, and to regulate menstrual periods. Scientists have studied the toxic alkaloid that the plant contains, pyrrolizidine, and don’t recommend that it be ingested, however. Pyrrolizidine is thought to be carcinogenic and to cause liver damage.

This has been such a wonderful learning experience! I never would have known that the plants that I found on my property had so many uses. The one featured in this post, Catchweed Bedstraw, is regarded by many as a terrible weed, suitable only for being yanked out of the ground. However, the plant was used by the Native Americans as a relief for the rashes caused by poison ivy and stinging nettle. The young leaves can be steamed with butter and eaten and the roasted seeds make a good coffee substitute. Because it has hairs on the leaves and stems, the plant was formerly used as a sieve for straining milk. As an herbal remedy, it is said to be a diuretic, antispasmodic and was used for the treatment of psoriasis and eczema. I also read a story about a woman who had rescued a dog that had been hit by a car. After the dog had recovered from surgery enough to walk, it went out in the yard and munched on catchweed bedstraw for months. So the plant must have useful healing properties, also. Before you dismiss a plant as a “weed”, do a bit of research. You just never know!

Catchweed Bedstraw (galium aparine)

I didn’t find many common blue violets, a native North American wildflower, on my property, most likely because April marks the beginning of the blooming season for the plant – it blooms until June. According to the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service website, it is a common plant throughout the eastern two-thirds of the United States. It doesn’t grow in South Florida, though. If I ever establish a flower garden on my property, I think this would be a plant to consider. The Illinois Wildflower website has a great deal of information about the plant.

Common Blue Violet (viola sororia sororia)

I spent a fair amount of time, head down and camera in hand, searching the ground for interesting-looking plants. I was intrigued with the narrow leaves of this plant but the flower hadn’t opened yet. Still, I thought it was pretty. It is a Spring Beauty plant, much loved by Native Americans because the tuber has a chestnut-like flavor. Another name for the plant is the “fairy spud”. It is native to eastern North America but in some states it is becoming rare, due to over-harvesting. In Massachusetts, it is listed as an endangered plant. Since it is easy to grow, this should not be the case. A good place to obtain native wildflower plants, including Spring Beauty, is from Gardens of the Blue Ridge, in Pineola, NC.

The All Creatures website has a lot of very detailed pictures of the Spring Beauty flower.

Spring Beauty (claytonia virginica)

The Putty Root is a terrestrial orchid – it is also called the Adam & Eve plant. This is because there are a pair of corms in the ground – Adam and Eve. One way to propagate the plant is to cut the corms apart and plant the older one. But the plant produces a corm every year, so this shouldn’t be necessary. After a number of years, you will have a cluster of the plants. The other common name, Putty Root, is derived from the fact that a mucilaginous substance can be obtained from the crushed corm. This sticky substance was used by the Native Americans to repair broken pottery. A solitary leaf (shown below) arises in late summer or autumn and remains over the winter. In the spring, the flower stalk springs up next to the leaf.

Putty Root (aplectrum hyemale)

Since this plant doesn’t have a flower stalk yet, I’ve gone to the Mountain Wildflowers website and borrowed one of their pictures. I’ll have to visit in early May next year to take a photograph of the flower stalk. That is, if I can remember where the plant is!

Now, here is a very interesting plant that, unlike the two previous plants in this series, happens to be native to Eastern North America. It is interesting that I found it on my property, since it is a plant that loves well-drained loamy soils and moist woodlands. My property is on a south-facing slope, but it is densely wooded in some areas and that is where I found the mayapple.

Mayapple is an extremely toxic plant, so be very careful with it. The only part of the plant that can be safely used is the fruit, and that only when it is ripe (no green shades of color in it). According to a number of sites, it was used by the Native American peoples to commit suicide, death occurring in a matter of hours after ingesting parts of the plant. It is also a very powerful laxative, so powerful that the Food and Drug Administration has warned against using it.

Mayapple (podophyllum peltatum L.)

In the 19th century, mayapple was one of the ingredients in Carter’s Little Liver Pills. The FDA has approved two drugs, etoposide and teniposide, which are prepared with podophyllotoxin and used in chemotherapy. Drugs that include podophyllotoxin are also used to treat viral and genital warts. Information on the medicinal use of mayapple may be found at Drugs.com and information about herbal uses of the plant may be found at Herbs2000.com

Continuing the series started with Colt’s Foot, we move on to the Burdock (arctium lappa) plant:

This is another plant that is native to Europe and, because the seeds have hooks on them that grab onto nearly anything, it makes me wonder if the plant was introduced via animals brought from Europe by the Scots-Irish who settled this part of Virginia over 200 years ago.

Burdock has a long history of use in folk medicine, according to numerous sites, including Botanical.com and the University of Maryland Medical Center. It has traditionally been used as a blood purifier to clean the system of toxins and it is also a diuretic and a topical remedy for eczema, acne, and psoriasis. In addition, it is used as a vegetable by many people.

I visited my property in Floyd County last week to take care of a number of things and, while there, took pictures of plants and flowers that were unfamiliar to me. Fred First, the resident botanical expert in Floyd, identified them for me. Rather than combine all of the pictures into one post, I’m going to devote one post for each picture, because I’m adding interesting information about the plants that I’ve gleaned from the world’s largest library – the Internet.

First up is Colt’s Foot (tussilago farfara):

This plant is a native of Great Britain and has been introduced to this country. According to the Arkive website, “Colt’s foot is one of the earliest flowers each spring. The alternative name ‘son-before-father’ refers to the fact that the bright yellow flowers held on purplish woolly shoots are often present before the leaves. The large leaves with their thick felt-covered undersides occur in rosettes. They are similar in shape to animal hooves, hence the names colt’s or foal’s-foot. The scientific name Tussilago derives from the latin for ‘cough’ (Tussis), and hints at the widespread smoking of the dried leaves in folk-medicine to cure coughs . It is still smoked in some areas today as herbal tobacco, and the names ‘baccy plant’ and ‘poor-man’s-baccy’ survive in some parts of Britain. … This plant has been put to a wide range of uses through the years. The leaves can be incorporated into salads, cooked and used to make tea. The felt from the leaves has been used as a stuffing agent and dried for use as tinder. Colt’s-foot is still available in health-food outlets as a treatment for coughs and other chest problems. The plant must be boiled before being ingested as it contains substances that can be toxic to the liver.”

The Botanical.com website has a great deal of information on the plant, should you be interested in reading it.

I’ve subscribed to The Baseline Scenario for over a year now. I find it to be a very balanced and informative source of information about how we got into the financial straits that we are in. The authors (Simon Johnson and James Kwak), along with a number of well-read readers who leave comments, also provide answers to how to get out of the mess, answers that frequently don’t agree with what is being proffered by the establishment. But it seems that the establishment is starting to realize that Johnson and Kwak are not so ignorant after all – they are slowly moving in the direction being shown them by The Baseline Scenario. Johnson and Kwak have a new book, 13 Bankers, and, while I have not read it, I think it should be on the reading list of anyone who wants to understand how we got to where we are. From NPR, here is a short interview of Simon Johnson. There are a lot of sites out there in Internet-land claiming to have the explanation for what happened, but I think Johnson and Kwak’s site is the best. The posts there can be hard to understand for the layman, but there is enough there for naifs that anyone who visits will come away with a better understanding of where we are and where we need to be.