Even Pandora Prefers Natives

A couple of years ago a starved kitten started coming by our place. It was as wild and as untouched by human hands as cats can come. It would raid the compost bin of whatever was edible to vanish at the first sight of a human. Sometimes it would vanish for days or weeks at a time. So wild was it, that I started calling it "Pan" after the Greek god Pan who was the god of the Wild.

The weather turned colder and Pan roamed less and stayed more. We had 2 old barns filled old hay and straw that do provide a haven to many a critter. But it was clear that Pan was starving and I began to leave food out. I would call "kitty-kitty" and shake the food container to let Pan know that the human left the food and it just didn't fall like manna from the sky. Pan came to know the call meant food but was very secretive about coming for it and often waited until the human vanished again.

This went on for months....a year. Pan came more and now would let itself be seen but would keep a very safe distance. My husband began occasionally feeding the cat. He began talking to it. And over the course of many months and numerous hours of patient waiting, he was able to touch Pan. Over the following months, he came to be able to pet our feral cat. The cat even changed its scheduled time for visits to match his schedule. My husband also came to realize the cat we thought as male (red cats usually are) was female. Pan had become "Pandora."

Now 2 years later, she is still wild but she loves to be petted. She often hangs around our deck not only for food but for pets. Even though we speak of her as "Pandora" she knows her name as "Kitty-Kitty" from those early days of being fed.

She loves my "woodland" native plant garden. My woodland garden is on the east side of our house under a huge, old crabapple tree. It provides the copious leaf litter and shade to grow many native woodland plants. I grow wild ginger, twinleaf, bloodroot, jack-in-the-pulpit, black cohosh, blue cohosh, solomon's seal, spikenard, goldenseal, wild geranium, ferns, white baneberry, ramps, bellwort, and more in this garden. Some of the larger plants (like the solomon's seal and spikenard in the picture above) make a nice place to bed under. I couldn't resist snapping a picture of her snoozing there - of course she woke as I was going to take the picture, but you get the idea. 

Botanical Medicine Classes

Native Medicine Plant - Joe Pye Weed

My friend, Dr. Les Moore, is offering another series of his Botanical Medicine Certificate Program courses. These classes are excellent if you wish to learn more about medicinal applications of plants. Some of the plants covered are native, wild medicine plants while others are from other places and herbal traditions.

There will be six different classes will be held over a period of five weeks, September 20th – October 18th  2012. Students can elect to take the entire series or individual classes. The guided herb walk for this series will be held at Ganondagan on September 22.

Please contact Classical Formulas for details and registration - their website has full class descriptions and registration information.

Of note, Classical Formulas also now has a Facebook page that you can "like" to get news about upcoming classes, lectures, and workshops as well as daily posts by me about herbal medicine and medicine plants.  

Native Orchid: Summer Coralroot

Summer Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata)

While on a recent hike I spotted an usual sight - a native orchid in bloom. I had never seen this plant before and had to ID it after the hike - good photos are always key to that! The plant was tiny and appeared to be possibly a parasitic plant since it had no leaves or green parts.

The plant I spotted was the blooming Summer Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata). This orchid's native range is much of the US and Canada, including NY State, but this is the first time I have ever spotted it. According to Wikipedia, it "is a myco-heterotroph; it lacks chlorophyll and gets food by parasitizing the mycelium of fungi in the family Russulaceae." I guess first impressions were correct!

Orchids are a special sight and one in bloom even more so.  Other than this plant and the alien orchid Epipactis helleborine, I've only seen wild, native orchids blooming in one location, Zurich Bog. I've found lady slipper plants (no blooms!) in a couple of other locations but that is it. Our native orchids are special as are the places they grow for these plants usually have very specific needs.  Poaching these plants for your own garden - very illegal given the rules of the parks and preserves they usually grow in - is unwise. Few gardens are going to meet the growing needs these plants have and the plants will die. Take only photos and leave the plants be.

Because this was such an unusual plant, I referenced my ethnobotanical sources to see if the Native peoples here used these plants. According to Moerman in Native American Ethnobotany, the local Iroquois people used this plant for:

• Basket Medicine - Infusion of pounded root used as a basket medicine
• Hunting Medicine - Root placed in a half cup of water and used to wash guns and clothes as a hunting medicine
• Love Medicine - Infusion of pounded roots used as a love medicine
• Tuberculosis Remedy - Compound infusion of roots taken for tuberculosis
• Veterinary Aid - Infusion of whole plant added to horse's grain for heaves
• Witchcraft Medicine - Infusion of pounded roots used as an anti-witch medicine

Looks like the Iroquois found this plant to be special as well given the number of ceremonial "medicine" uses of the plant.

For more information on this plant, see the links below. I have also included other photos below as well.

For more information:

Orchids of NY State:
http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/administration_pdf/orchidsofny.pdf

Plants For a Future:
http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Corallorhiza+maculata

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corallorhiza_maculata

USDA Plants:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=coma25

Other Images:

Entire Plant

Plant with author's hand for scale

Sedges Have Edges

Rushes, cattail, and boneset at the water's edge

I must say that identification of grasses, sedges, and rushes is not something I excel at. In fact, I'm usually pretty bad at it but I can get the right grouping for the plant without any effort -- you have to love mnemonics! Here's what I know plus a couple of variations I've heard on it:

Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses have joints.

Sedges have edges, rushes are round, and grasses are hollow right up from the ground.

Sedges have edges, rushes are round and grasses have knees that bend to the ground.

 Maybe this will help you get your plant into the right grouping as well!

Know Your Poisons

Poison Hemlock (along a local hiking trail)

In a conversation once with another herbalist about poisonous plants, we agreed that those were some of the first plants we learned in our wildcrafting and harvesting endeavors. Why learn the poisonous plants right away? You need that knowledge to avoid dangerous, potentially deadly mistakes.

You need to know what dangerous look-a-likes may exist (queen anne's lace or poison hemlock?). Also, how to avoid dangerous situations (don't plant deadly monkshood next to your edible chicory). You need to know that some plants have edible parts and toxic other parts. And still others need to be harvested at specific times or need special processing to make them usable and non-toxic.

Knowledge is power. Certainly so in this case. But even more than power, this knowledge teaches you to respect the power our green friends have. They can cure us or kill us with equal ease.

(If you like this sort of info, be sure to catch my daily herb posts at the Classical Formulas Facebook page.)

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)