Category: Uncategorized

Sambucus canadensis

~ Badger Johnson

Sambucus canadensis 1

Sambucas canadensis, “American elderberry”
Caprifoliaceae

One of my favorite plants! Plant it in every yard! A good plant to put in your medicine prairie, in the more mesic part of the site (in the swale) along with the blue vervain and nettles. This plant is famous as the basis of a medicinal wine.

The flower infusion is used for colds, respiratory infections and mild nervous disorders. The flowers in bath water soften the skin, soothe sore muscles and act as an excellent remedy for irritable nerves. The berries eaten raw are said to help arthritis and gout. The berry infusion is used for treating colds, insomnia, migraine headaches, to sooth children’s upset stomacs, to relieve gas, and for weight loss as a diuretic and detoxifying agent.. The berry juice mixed with honey makes an excellent cough syrup.

Elderberry contains the active components anthocyanin pigments, triterpenes, the flavonoid glycosoids rutin and quercitrin, sugar, vitamin A, very high amounts of vitamin C (unfortunately you’re supposed to cook the berries to denature the cyanogenic glycosides which also denatures the vitamin C), thiamine, niacin, calcium, the cyanogenic glycosides vaerianic, palmitic, linoleic and linolenic acids.

(“Medicinal Plants of the Heartland”, Kaye and Billington)

-Easy to grow in Missouri; easy to propagate by seed or cuttings.

-Flowering period, fruit ripening, and fruit yield in elderberry are highly dependent on genotype and environment.

-Knowledge of a variety of fruit juice characteristics is important in wine-making. Preliminary evaluations of elderberry juice across multiple cultivars, locations, and seasons reveal the following characteristics for elderberry juice: °Brix = 11.94, pH = 4.65, Titratable acidity = 0.88%.**

(The Center for Agroforestry)

Verbena hastata

~ Badger Johnson

Verbena hastata, “blue vervain”
Verbenaceae

Been wanting to post about this after I heard about friends using it for back pain. I believe I have seen it out car windows on the highway, but these photos from Illinois Wildflowers, as I just haven’t had time to go look at these.

For cultivation, the preference is full to partial sunlight, moist conditions, and soil consisting of fertile loam or wet muck. This plant tolerates standing water if it is temporary. This is a good plant to locate near a small river or pond in a sunny location. Habitats include river bottom prairies, moist meadows in floodplain woodlands, soggy thickets, borders of rivers and ponds, marshes, ditches, fence rows, and pastures. This plant adapts readily to degraded wetlands and other disturbed areas, but it can be found in higher quality habitats as well.

Mammalian herbivores usually avoid eating this plant because of its bitter leaves – an exception is the Cottontail Rabbit, which may eat the foliage of young plants to a limited extent. Also, various songbirds occasionally eat the seeds, including the Cardinal, Swamp Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Slate-Colored Junco. Experimental studies have shown that these seeds can pass undamaged through the digestive tracts of cattle, therefore they are probably distributed to some extent by these seed-eating birds.

(Illinois Wildflowers)

Contains the active components tannin, a bitter principle, the glucosides verbenalin and verbenin. Herbalists recommend using an infusion as an anthelmintic, anti-rheumatic, anti-periodic, antispasmodic, emetic, expectorant, sedative, and tonic for treating intermittent fevers, diseases of the spleen and liver, epilepsy, stones, gravel, to restore blood circulation and as an antidote to poke (Phytolacca americana) poisoning.

(“Medicinal Plants of the Heartland”, Kaye and Billington)

Lespedeza capitata

~ Badger Johnson

Lespedeza capitata, “Round-headed bush clover”
Fabaceae

Thanks Calvin Maginel for pointing this out when we were on Stegall Mountain!

Picture one is from Prairie Moon Nursery, picture two is my own and shows L. capitata is on the left, and Lespedeza virginica is pictured on the right, with a probable hybrid shown in the middle. Very cool to see intermediate blending of the traits. Lespedezas like hybridizing.

L. capitata was one of our more drought-resistant native Lespedezas.
L. capitata has tannins, the flavonoids lespecapitosine and kaempferitrin, and two flavonoid derivatives apigenin and luteolin. It is valued by contemporary herbalists for use in an infusion, as an astringent & diuretic for tumors, as well as urinary and kidney ailments. Research has shown that it lowers blood cholesterol levels, removes nitrogenous compounds from the blood, and is useful against certain carcinosarcomas.
Round Headed Bush Clover is a host plant to a number of butterflies and moths, including the Southern Cloudywing Butterfly, Northern Cloudywing Butterfly, Hoary Edge Butterfly, Silver-Spotted Skipper, the Bella Moth, and the Common Ptichodis Moth. The plant is especially high in protein making it a favorite choice of many kinds of mammalian wildlife including deer, rabbits, and muskrat. It can also be used in pastures as livestock forage. The seeds are eaten by gamebirds and songbirds, including the Mourning Dove, Bobwhite, Turkey, and Junco.

Chamaecrista fasciculata

~ Badger Johnson

Chamaecrista fasciculata, “showy partridge pea”
Fabaceae

I first met this native annual legume at Oak Spirit.

Excellent pollinator plant with extra-floral nectaries at the base of its leaves. Meaning the thing is putting out nectar for pollinators that aren’t even visiting its flowers, much like some strains of elderberrie. It is often planted for honey production and soil stabilization, the seeds are one of the major food items of bobwhite and other quail. If there is a seed source it often moves in early after soil disturbance, then politely fades out when its work is done. Nutritious livestock forage but poisonous when consumed in large amounts (like most forage species lol).

(NRCS Plant Fact Sheet)

Apparently Cherokee athletes would use the root to keep from tiring during ball games??

(“Medicinal Plants of the Heartland”, Kaye and Billington)

Upright, 60-90 cm tall, unbranched, or few-branched near or above middle of stem.

Pinnately compound, leaflets 10-20 mm long, 2-5 mm wide.

Gland located near middle of petiole sessile or nearly so (potentially unreliable; use leaflets)

Yellow flowers, petals subequal (largest petal only slightly larger than others), 25-30 mm diameter, 10 stamens.

Prairies, glades, fallow fields.

Compare with C. nictitans (leaves fold rapidly when touched, smaller leaves and flowers, gland on stalk)

(Hybrid MOFEP/Park Service Fire Ecology Manual)

Thanks Erik Peterson for inspiring this post with your Hibiscus laevis share

Lespedeza frutescens

~ Badger Johnson

Lespedeza frutescens, “Violet bush clover”
Fabaceae

First saw this working at ONSR, then Daniel Boone showed it to me in Mount Airy Forest at the buffalo clover patch. Was doing very well there.

Stems usually much branched, often below middle, covered in appressed hairs. *Often grows in spreading clumps. Delicate overall appearance. Leaves 2-ranked on stem.

Leaflets glabrous above, rounded, often a light green color, with obvious darker green lateral venation.

Racemes loose, few-flowered, some flowers with petals on peduncles exceeding subtending leaves (plus flowers without petals on short stalks in leaf axils). Keels exceeding other petals.

Found growing in rocky open woods, thickets, rocky prairies.
Compare with L. violacea (narrower leaves, taller and more solitary habit).