Tag: Medicine Prairie

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.

Passiflora incarnata

~ Badger Johnson

Passiflora incarnata, “maypop”, “passion flower”, “happy dappies”
Passifloraceae

Pictures from Jenny Hipscher’s yard in Columbia, MO.

Passion flower’s name refers to a bit of Catholic lore. Kids stepping on the fruit And making it loudly explode=maypop. Happy dappies is what Melissa calls it, because it makes her happy to stick her nose in since she was a child.

It has long been used as a carminative (relieving flatulence), and as a sedative for treating menstrual cramps, tension headaches, insomnia, high blood pressure and nervousness without bad side effects. People make a tea or smoke it, it’s fairly non-addictive.

The aerial parts of this plant contain flavonoids, sterols and the alkaloids harmol, harmane, harmaline, harmine and harmalol.

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

Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Tolerant of drought. Roots appreciate a loose mulch. Spreads by root suckers to cover large areas in optimum growing conditions. Although P. incarnata is the hardiest of the passion flowers, it is not reliably winter hardy throughout USDA Zone 5 and may not survive extremely cold winters therein. In the St. Louis area, it is best to plant this vine in a protected area that is sheltered by a wall, garage or other structure.

“Passiflora incarnata is a rapid-growing, tendril-climbing vine which is woody in warm winter climates and herbaceous (dies to the ground) in cold winter climates. A native of the Southeastern U.S., including southern Missouri where it typically occurs in sandy soils, low moist woods and open areas. Features three-lobed, dark green leaves and showy, 2.5″ diameter, fringed flowers having white petals and sepals and a central crown of pinkish-purple filaments. Flowers bloom in summer and are fragrant. Fleshy, egg-shaped, edible fruits called maypops appear in July and mature to a yellowish color in fall. Ripened maypops can be eaten fresh off the vine or made into jelly.”

(Missouri Botanical Garden)

Senna marilandica

~ Badger Johnson

 

Senna marilandica, “Senna”
Fabaceae

Glabrous leaves, upright habit, leaflets are on the largish side. Useful as a laxative due to the antraquinone content. Popular species for pollinator gardens, forms colonies and bares spectacular yellow flowers. I think that first pic was actually taken at Hot Springs National Park, the second is just below the East Wind glade on the path in.

Erect perennial to 1-2 m, glabrous or sparsely villous.

Leaves glabrous, pinnately compound; leaflets are large (2-5 cm long, 10-25 mm wide), oblong to elliptic. No terminal
leaflet. Stipules lance-linear, deciduous.

Rocky woodlands, alluvial thickets.

Compare with Astragalus canadensis (undersurface of leaf hasstiff straight appressed hairs) and Lathyrus venosus (tendrils).

(Hybrid MOFEP/National Park Fire Ecology Manual)