Welcome to the exciting world of plant medicine!

This is your chance to learn about the thousands of plants used medicinally throughout the world and the numerous products for sale in the United States. Some of these you can easily grow in your backyard or in pots on your porch or kitchen windowsill. Then, some hot water is all that stands between you and receiving some of the healing properties of many plants. Other plants are rooted in traditional use from the far reaches of the planet; these have important lessons for us living in the so-called modern world. 

Through this site, I will attempt to be your guide to the amazing topic of plant medicines.

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Mint

Low-Maintenance Aronia

Thank you, Aronia. I didn’t do squat for months, maybe years, and then I arrived to the greatest harvest one could imagine. A marginal fence, and nettles plants as tall as a high school basketball player didn’t deter this native bush from kicking out berries on every...

Jamaica: Botanical Sleuthing

It started innocuously enough. “What a great flower year it’s been!” We were at a wedding reception, and a beautiful bouquet was in front of us. Collegially, we tried to identify the milieu. I blurted out “I think that’s a hydrangea,” though it might not have been...

Making Lemonade from Lemons (or Lemongrass)

Not all grasses are created equal.

Quarantine blues: What the heck are milky oats?

Before the oat fruits are fully mature, those tops are more greenish in color and milky when squeezed.

Valerian

Calming Covid Herbs

An exploration of the dietary supplements and herbals that can have a role in these turbulent times.

Elderberries a glass bottle

Elderberry During These Viral Times

If we focus on herbal medicines and viral infections, which plants should be used when? The answer to this is complicated…