Words on Wellness: "A Plant-Powered Spring"

     As we ‘shelter-in-place’ and contain our interactions, nature is expanding and touching all of us with the zeal of a plant-powered spring. She reminds us that we too, are a part of this vibrancy and power to co-create as she extends her healing plants to us. There is plenty in the plant pantry for us to use for treating illness and allergies starting with those fresh greens that only last as long as the rain does: chickweed and cleavers. Chickweed looks like a five-inch fairy plant with numerous round delicate leaves, tiny starry-white flowers and a tell-tale single row of hairs going up the stem. Found clumped in weedy gardens or edges of roads and parks, chickweed alleviates inflamed mucous membranes and helps gently ease congestion of the lungs. It can be eaten like sprouts on a salad or taco or made into fresh tea, or used topically as a poultice. It’s cooling, high in vitamin C, gently detoxing and perfect for inflammatory conditions like rosacea and rashes. Cleavers is a clambering square-stem bedstraw with whorled leaves. It clings to other plants for support and you may have pulled it as a weed. But wait! You can wash some off, break it up and make a fresh tea using plenty of plant material to your pot of water. Cleavers is queen of lymph-vessel cleansing, perfect for keeping lung and sinus fluids moving and reducing edema.

     Two other herbs that come up in spring but stick around all summer are mugwort and white horehound. Both are strongly aromatic, a sign of their beneficial essential oils. The hand-like leaves of mugwort are green-grey on top and white underneath. More commonly used as a topical relief to poison oak itch, mugwort is a wormwood and excellent for fever/chills, indigestion and contains antimicrobial oils that make it contraindicated during pregnancy and nursing. White horehound or ‘horrible hound’ exemplifies the ‘good medicine tastes bad’ idea. The leaves are strongly expectorant and pull sticky mucus out of the lungs. Teas and tinctures of this plant are more palatable with honey; minced fresh leaves can be preserved by covering in equal parts of apple cider vinegar and honey, or 2/3 parts vodka to 1/3 honey (shake biweekly). After two weeks it’s ready to use and after four weeks, considered good and strong for straining and storing when you need it.