Native Medicinal Plants

Here's a couple of more pictures from my recent hike. They are all of more native medicinal plants. Enjoy!

False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)

The lack of rainfall has really taken its toll on all the flora. This plant was no exception and it is not the prettiest example I have ever seen of the plant. But there is a nice detail of the spotted berries. The berries will get redder as they ripen but the nearly metallic lime green with crimson mottling that they are now is spectacular. And yes, this is another one of the native medicinal plants. Please see the Plants For a Future entry on this plant for its medicinal qualities.

False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)

Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)

The usual elderberry to spot in the woods and edges of farmers' fields is the common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). But on this hike I managed to spot a red elderberry with fruit. The fruit are a stunning red. The fruit and flowers are edible while the plant parts are used medicinally. The stems of this elderberry are hollow and can be turned into whistle. See the PFAF entry on this plant for details on its uses.

Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa)

Pale Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida)

Growing in moister and shadier settings, the pale jewelweed is not seen as much as its more condition tolerant sister the spotted jewelweed (Impatiens capensis). Either species, jewelweed is a beautiful wildflower. And great amusement for young people when its seed pods are ripe. The seed pods "explode" seeds at a touch - hence the name "touch-me-not." For more on that, see another article I wrote on touch-me-nots and young people. It seems that jewelweeds are a common one to make it into my articles for I wrote another article on a rare color variation of I. capensis that I spotted on another hike. Anyways, this plant and its sister the spotted jewelweed are commonly used in herbal poison ivy remedies. But for the full list of uses, be sure to see this plant's PFAF entry.

Pale Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida)

  

Stone Root (Collinsonia canadensis)

While hiking yesterday, I stumbled across a group of the plants below. It is Collinsonia canadensis or stone root. This plant has a plethora of common names including: Canada Horsebalm, Richweed, Hardhack, Heal-All, Horseweed, and Ox-Balm - common names like this speak of its rich history of herbal use.

This plant is a perennial native to eastern North America. It, like many indigenous plants, was used medicinally by the Native Americans to later be adopted into early American herbal traditions - its uses are referenced in both King's American Dispensatory by Felter and Lloyd as well as  Cook's Physiomedical Dispensatory by Cook.

According to Daniel Moerman in Native American Ethnobotany, both the Cherokee and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) used this plant medicinally. The Seneca, one of the Haudenosaunee nations and in whose traditional homeland I live in, used it for a wide range of medical needs including as an analgesic, antidiarrheal, antirhheumatic, dermatological aid, heart medicine, and kidney aid. [Source: Native American Ethnobotany by D. Moerman]

I'll be sure look for this interesting and lemony scented medicine plant in my future hikes and travels. When I do find it, I think of the traditional healers that would have been happy to find this plant and the good such a plant would have done in their skilled hands.

Stone Root (Collinsonia canadensis)

Stone Root (Collinsonia canadensis)

Know Your Herbs?

Here is another entry in our herb identification feature, Know Your Herbs? Can you ID the plant pictured above? All the plants featured in Know Your Herbs have some sort of culinary, medicinal, or utilitarian use.

Think you know what it is? Check the ANSWER to see if you are right!

Just So Blue...

While at the Seneca Park Zoo with my kids last week, I just happened to see this plant in the landscaping there and couldn't help but to snap a few shots of it. It is a Hydrangea. A blue one. So incredibly blue made even more so by being in the shade with the sun sneaking a peek at it. I just had to share some snapshots of it!

(Click on the images below to see the larger picture.)