Common Name: Virgin’s Bower, Traveler’s Joy, Love Vine, Lady’s Bower, Sugar Bowls, Devil’s Darning Needles, Pepper Vine, Leather Flower, Vasevine
Botanical Name: C. neomexican, C. chinensis, C. virginiana  and other related species.
Botanical Family: Ranunculaceae
Botanical Description: Generally semi-woody climbing vines with opposite leaves, trifoliate. Dioecious flowers with four sepals, no petals and numerous stamen. Achene fruits that [...]

There’s nothing quite like the sound of a warm spring wind rustling through a vibrantly green patch of Oats. Bowed with the weight of their ripening fruit, they nod and toss their heads with each breeze. Their sweet smell and long smooth leaves certainly invite us to sit down and get acquainted with them. In [...]

Botanical Name: Salvia subincisa
Botanical Family: Lamiaceae
Common Name: Sawtooth Sage
Energetics: Cool, dry
Taste: bitter, aromatic (skunky)
Actions: Relaxant nervine, nervous system trophorestorative
Parts Used: Flowering tops
Come August and our annual summer rains, a lush abundance of flowering plant will grow in the cool shade of Alder trees. Among these will be a diminutive and graceful plant with tiny [...]

From the Lion’s Mouth: Dancing A Weedy Revolution
by Kiva Rose Hardin  http://animacenter.org

Common Name: Dandelion
Botanical Name: Taraxacum spp.
Taste: Bitter, sweet
Energetics: Cool, dry
“It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a [...]

Common Names: Mullein, Punchón, Gordolobo, Wild Ice Leaf, Our Lady’s Flannel, Hag’s (or Hedge) Taper, Torches, Candelaria, Quaker’s Rouge,
Botanical Name: Verbascum spp.
Parts used: root, leaf, flower, flower stalk resin
Energetics – Root: neutral, sl. drying. Leaf: cool, sl. moistening. Flower: cool, neutral
Taste: salty, bland, vanilla
This velvet leafed plant with its brightly bloomed flowerstalk is one of [...]

I don’t find the idea of magic bullets to be very effective in healing, and find that the most successful therapy always originates in tailoring the treatment to the individual person and situation. For this reason, you’ll rarely see/hear me recommending a set formula or list of herbs for any given diagnosis. In fact, my [...]

Common Names: Goldenrod, Blue Mountain Tea, Liberty Tea
Botanical Name: Solidago spp.
Taste & Impression: Bitter, Aromatic, Astringent, sl. diffusive
Energetics: Warm, Dry
Parts Used: Flowers & Flower Buds, Leaves, Roots
Actions: digestive bitter, alterative, stimulant and relaxant nervine, diaphoretic, astringent, digestive aromatic (and carminative), diuretic, vulnerary, anti-inflammatory, bacteria-balancing (often termed anti-infective)
Specific Indications: Red, inflamed eyes, “bad skin” related to [...]

This is for the October blogparty on Bioregional Cold/Flu Herbs, hosted by Rosalee of Methow Valley Herbs.

As the colder weather begins to move into the northerly reaches and higher eleveations of the Western hemisphere, there’s been much talk of the dreaded H1N1 as well as other virulent strains of cold and flu. The most important [...]

Common Names: Silktassel, Bear Brush, Quinine Bush, Fever Bush
Botanical Name: Garrya spp.
Energetics: Cold, dry
Taste: Bitter, bitter, bitter
Actions: Very Strong Relaxant (anti-spasmodic), uterine stimulant, febrifuge, anodyne
Parts Used: Twigs & Leaves
Preparations: Tincture for the most part, as I’ve yet to meet a person, including myself, who can get the tea or infusion down. Fresh plant 1:2 95% [...]

This is for the September blogparty, hosted by Henriette, with the theme of Herbs Don’t Read Books!

Open the herbal book nearest to you, pretty much ANY herb book. Find the section on wild cherry or chokecherry, if there is one. Now check out the contradictions or warnings. It will almost certainly command you in [...]

Through the dry heat of this long Summer with very little rain, I have been drawn time and time again to the sweet cooling presence of the Onagraceae tribe. From the golden glow of the Suncups to the delicate white blossoms of the Evening Primrose to the feathery silk of the Willowherbs, I find myself [...]

The taste of a drop of rich wildflower honey, a lick of peach elixir or a sip of spice infused cordial is sensual, comforting and ecstatic all at once. Humans crave and love all things sweet, and while it’s clear that this is the taste most easily overdone and abused, it still retains its own [...]

For The Weeds of Summer Blogparty hosted by Darcey Blue over at Gaia’s Gifts
Prequel: An Irreverent Introduction to Weeds and Other Wild Things
 

 
Unruly and feral, weeds annoy us with their promiscuous strut and blatant disregard for convention and known boundaries. Many of them are immigrants and gypsies, with a reputation for sneaking into happy [...]

Monsoon season is a magical time in the Southwest. The air grows heavy, the clouds roll in and the thunder rumbles across the mountains. Within days of the arrival of the first storms, the golds and sages of the semi-arid woodlands, grasslands and meadows erupt into a riot of vibrant wildflowers and lush green growth. [...]

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
- Mary Oliver
Nature was my first mother.
I memorized the forest floor as I would
my mother’s body. This forest skin
smelled like pine sap and sweet rot, and
it stained my diapers green and
perfumed my hair, which was [...]