Marie Meilinger wrote, “The soft fern is maidenhair. This dainty Wildling is found growing near mountain trees and waterfalls with slender black stems and horseshoe-shaped fronds of palest green. Maidenhair has been a fever medicine, and the shiny black roots are sold under the name ‘Capillaire.’ It was also used for rheumatism. With agrimony and broomstraw (Andropogon) and ground ivy, maidenhair could give one vision to see witches. Called ‘dudder-grass,’ this fern made a mucilage for stiffening hair—or, as Gerard, an English botanist, said, ‘It maketh the hairs of the head to grow that is fallen or pulled off.’”
Mustard (Brassica) has several different plants in the mustard family. Although not native to the Southern Appalachian region, some of those that grow in the area are winter cress, spring cress, tansy, black mustard, field mustard, and charlock. Some varieties enjoy damp areas, while others like drier soil. Most have clusters of green leaves near the base of the plant with a single, long stem rising to two feet in height. Most varieties have small flowers in varying shades of yellow. (For photos of this plant, see Foxfire 2, pages 74 and 80, and Foxfire 3, page 344.)
As a remedy for headache, pour hot water over mustard leaves to arouse their odor and strength. Bind these leaves in a cheesecloth poultice to the head.
New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus) reaches two feet in height. The flowers are showy, puffy clusters. A tea made from the leaves was once a popular beverage. Native Americans used the root tea for colds, fevers, snakebites, stomachaches, and lung ailments.
PLATE 78 New Jersey Tea
PLATE 79 Partridgeberry
Partridgeberry (Mitchella repens) enjoys damp, cool woods and sandy soil. The small branches produced from a tender underground stem are usually no taller than six inches. Leaves are near the top of the branch and are evergreen and leathery. The partridge-berry blooms May through July. The flowers, which occur in pairs, are followed by berries that are red in the fall and can stay on the plant until the next blooming season. The flowers are united at the base and smell a bit like lilac. After the blossoms wilt, the two flowers fuse together to form one berry.
This aromatic evergreen is gathered for the entire herb or for the leaves in fall. Cherokee Indian women made a tea from this plant and drank it for weeks before having a baby. It was believed to make childbirth much easier. The tea was also used to treat coughs and colds.
Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides) is very aromatic and enjoys dry soil. Its height is usually only one foot, and it possesses a slim, hairy stem with several branches. In summer, pale blue flowers among small narrow leaves appear in clusters. The entire plant has a strong minty odor and taste. (For a drawing of pennyroyal, see Foxfire 3, page 337.)
This cultivated herb is gathered in summer for the leaves and flowers. Gertrude Mull said that pennyroyal’s leaves are really good for treating a cold and that it’s prepared in the same way as boneset tea.
Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) has gray bark and leaves that are ovate and multiveined. Fruits arrive after the flowers and ripen to an orange color. The fruits are generally sweeter after the first frost of the season. (For a drawing of persimmon fruit, see Foxfire 3, page 320.)
Clarence Lusk told us, “Sometimes, persimmon bark’s good for that sore mouth. Just chew it, get the juice out of it. You’ll get it all in your mouth, and it’s just about [as bitter as yellowroot], but not quite.” Minnie Dailey recalled, “Sometimes we’d put a persimmon stick in the fire and let it get hot enough for the sap [or juice] to run out. It looks like soapsuds. We’d catch that in a spoon and pour it in the ear for earaches.”
Pine (Pinns) is abundant throughout the Southern Appalachian region. Most common are the white pine, the yellow pine, and the Virginia pine.
These evergreen trees are large and have horizontal branches. They can grow to two hundred feet tall and have slender green needles that can be up to five inches long. The white pine has cones that are one inch thick and five inches long. In fall, seeds fall from the mature cones. The Virginia pine has three to five needles in a cluster and can live about fifty years.
Information was not available concerning the type or types of pine trees that were used for the remedies below. A few people felt that any of these three—white, yellow, and Virginia—could be used, but this has not been confirmed.
Pine bark—A cough medicine can be concocted using pine bark and wild cherry bark.
Pine bud—Clarence Lusk said, “Pine bud tea’s what you use for a bad cold. Go around and pick the little buds in the pine bushes that you can reach the tops of. Just pull that little ol’ bud off the top of the little twig. We’d break the little buds out and make a tea out of that for a bad cold.”
Pine oil As a remedy for a nail puncture, pour pine oil over the wound.
Pine needles—As a remedy for colds, boil pine needles to make a strong tea.
Pine resin—Pine resin can be used as a remedy for cuts and bleeding.
Pink Lady Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) blooms from May through June. It is very rare. This plant was widely used in nineteenth-century America as a sedative for nervous headaches, hysteria, insomnia, and nervous irritability. Because this plant is rare and endangered, readers are asked to refrain from gathering it.
Poke (Phytolacca americana) is dangerous and can be toxic. It is advisable to read the material on poke on page 155.
As a remedy for rheumatism, roast a poke root in ashes in the same manner as you would roast a potato. While it is still hot, apply it to the inflamed joint. This eases the pain and reduces the swelling. You may choose to drink a mixture of pokeberry wine and whiskey instead. The leaves are also said to be good blood builders. Take the young leaves of the poke plant, parboil them, season, fry, and then eat several helpings.
Purple Coneflower (Echinacea) grows in patches in rich or sandy soil. It has a coarse, hairy stem and thick hairy leaves that can be eight inches long. The root, which is thick and black, is gathered in the fall. This perennial herb grows from three to five feet tall. The center of the flower head is cone-shaped. It flowers from June to September. Its extracts are used to stimulate the body’s defense to infections and chronic inflammations.
Puttyroot (Aplectrum) has yellow to greenish white flowers that bloom from May until June. Also known as Adam-and-Eve root, the roots of this orchid were used by Native Americans to make a poultice for boils. Root tea was used for bronchial troubles. A preparation of the root was also used to mend broken dishes, hence the name. Because this plant is rare and endangered, readers are asked to refrain from gathering it.
Quince (Prunus) is used by many in the Southern Appalachian region. It is a shrubby bush that can reach approximately eight feet in height and five feet in width. This bush is thorny and has solitary leaves. It blooms in early spring with reddish flowers that resemble old-fashioned roses. The fruits are a little larger than a nectarine and have a hard core. This fruit was often used for making jelly, while the entire shrub itself was planted in rows and used as a fence line.
Of quince, Clarence Lusk recalled, “Another thing that we keep all the time is quince jelly. It’s good for hiccups. I was told to put quince in regular sweet jelly. I don’t know whether the sweet has something to do with it or not, but it stops the hiccups, even in the hospital. My mother-in-law sent some to a friend of hers in the hospital with stomach trouble because he had the hiccups. He took some of that jelly, and the hiccups went away. The doctor hadn’t been able to stop those hiccups!”
Ratsbane (Chimaphila umbellata) enjoys shady, wooded areas of pine forests in dry soil. It gets no taller than one foot and has dark evergreen leaves that are positioned close to the top of the stem. In summer, sweet-smelling white to pink flowers arrive in clusters. It is gathered for the leaves only or for the entire plant.
Also called rat’s vein, a tea could be made from it for coughs, backaches, bladder, kidney, and stomach problems. To make this remedy, boil two or three whole plants for several minutes in about a pint of water. Strain and sweeten.
Rattlesnake Fern (Botrychium virginianum). Marie Meilinger wrote, “Two ferns mark the site of ginseng and are found in close association with the other sang-sign plants. The rattlesnake fern is known as the ‘hope of ginseng’ This is a lacy-leaved fern with spikes of yellow-brown spore cases in early spring. These supposedly resemble the rattles of a rattlesnake. The bright yellow spore powder is applied to insect bites or snakebites. It may be called rattlesnake fern because it grows in the often rocky woods that are the haunt of the timbler rattler. Gerard wrote of this plant, ‘Of the colonies, [North America] has berries given for twenty days against poison, or administered with great success unto such as are become peevish.’”
Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium) likes swampy, wet ground in low areas. The leaves are like thick grass and can be two feet in length. A stout two-to six-foot stem remains unbranched until it nears the top. It bears dense small flowers in summer and has a thick knobby to straight rootstock. This root-stock is the reason for fall gathering of the plant. This perennial grows from one and one-half to four feet tall. Its flowers are white and appear in September. Native Americans used the root as a poultice for snakebites.
PLATE 80 Rattlesnake Master
Redbud (Ceras canadensis) is a small tree with a rounded crown that reaches heights of forty feet. The flowers are red-purple, pea-like, and on long stalks. They bloom from March through May. The inner-bark tea is highly astringent, and Native Americans ate the edible flowers like candy. In order for the flowers to be edible, they must be picked from green stems.
Red Clover (Trifolium pratense) grows wild in most open places and along roadsides. It has a hairy stem and narrow, pointed leaves with a white mark near the fullest part of the leaf. This thriving plant is not native to the region. (For a photo of this clover, see Foxfire 3, page 332.)
Charles Thurmond said to “use the blossoms and leaves from clover. Not only does clover have a lot of vitamins and things like that, but it is a sedative. If you have trouble sleeping at night, get some clover tea. It improves your circulation and digestion. It helps thicken or thin your blood, depending on which way it is used. If you use too much to thicken or thin your blood, a good tonic of boneset will get it straight. Clover can also be used for bronchial problems and stimulating your circulation and appetite.”
PLATE 81 Red Trillium
Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) likes damp, shady woods with rich soil. This low-growing plant has a stout stem with three stemless leaves (three to seven inches long and wide), arranged in a circular pattern at the top. In spring, a single flower, with petals arranged in threes, is produced. This foul-smelling flower is dull red and blooms from April to June. It is followed by a red berry. The plant is gathered at the end of the summer for its root. Native Americans used the root tea for menstrual disorders, to induce childbirth, to aid in labor, and for the “change of life.” Because this plant is rare and endangered, readers are asked to refrain from gathering it.
Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) grows in wooded areas with rich soil and can reach one hundred feet in height. The leaves, which can have three different shapes, are long, toothless, and ovate. They can be oval, three-lobed, or mitten-shaped. In early spring, fragrant yellow-green flowers appear in clusters. The fruit, which is pea-sized and dark blue, ripens in September on a red stalk. (For a photo of sassafras, see Foxfire 2, page 49.)
This tree’s inner root bark layer is used and gathered in spring or fall. Its roots are used to make tea and was a favorite spring tonic of settlers and Native Americans. As a blood builder, make sassafras tea using the roots of the plant.
“Sassafras is not real strong if the sap’s not up,” Charles Thurmond told us. “It’s an ointment. It stimulates your system like a tonic, but it makes you sweat. If you’ve got something in your system, and you want to sweat it out, this is a good herb to take.”
To make sassafras tea, gather the roots and tender twigs of red sassafras in the spring. Pound the roots to a pulp if they are very big, and wash them with the twigs. Boil them, strain, and sweeten.
Smooth Sumac (Rhus hirta) is most likely found in dry soil and open areas. It usually ranges from three to twenty feet in height with a smooth brown-gray bark. Leaves can be up to three feet long with as many as thirty-one pointed leaflets. Clusters of green-yellow flowers arrive in summer and are followed in the winter by large cone-shaped, crimson-haired berries. (For a photo of this shrub, see Foxfire 3, page 286.)
Smooth sumac is used for the berries, bark, and leaves. Berries are gathered while the hair is on them to produce a sour taste. The juice was supposed to be good for you because it contained malic acid. Native Americans used the bark to make a tea as a wash for blisters. The berries were chewed to treat bed-wetting. It was also used as a wash for poison ivy. Charles Thurmond said, “Sumac is a plant you must be careful with. If you get it at the wrong time, you have problems. Most sumacs are not poisonous. It is an astringent, so it’ll cleanse the skin.”
Snakeroot (Prenanthes) likes rich soil and can be found along river-banks or in richly wooded areas. It has a slender wavy stem and grows six to eighteen inches high. It has heart-shaped base leaves that end in a point. Brown flowers bear near the base from May until July and are followed by a round, seedy berry. Roots are thin and fibrous and possess a camphor-like taste and smell.
Snakeroot is gathered in fall for the root. It was used as an expectorant and diuretic, for snakebites, and for swelling. As a remedy for colic, drink Sampson snakeroot tea.
Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) is easily found in wooded areas, can be sixty feet tall, has a trunk diameter of up to fifteen inches, and has smooth bark. Its leaves are up to six inches long, three inches wide, and toothed. In early summer, small waxy white flower clusters appear. The inner wood of the tree is hard, heavy, and red-brown in color. The leaves can be chewed to quench thirst. It is also used as a diuretic.
PLATE 82 Sourwood tree
Spicebush (Lindera) grows four to fifteen feet high. It produces aromatic leaves and tiny yellow flowers from March to April. Its red berries are also aromatic. (For a drawing of this plant, see Foxfire 2, page 50.)
Spicebush is gathered for the twigs and berries. The twigs are used for tea and the berries for seasoning. Native Americans used the berry tea for coughs, croup, and measles. Pioneers used the berry as a substitute for allspice. They also used it for colic, fevers, worms, and gas.
Star Chickweed (Silene stellata) reaches six to fifteen inches in height. The leaves are oval and smooth, and the flowers are small and white. It blooms from March through September. (For a drawing of this plant, see Foxfire 2, page 70.)
Tea from this common herb is traditionally used as an expectorant for coughs and for skin diseases. Star chickweed was said to be planted by the Cherokee Moon and Star Maiden. It was sacred to the Cherokee women.
Stonecrop (Sedum ternatum) has many thick, waxy leaves with a dense stem and can grow with almost no water. Stems are long and can be erect to prone. The young leaves were used in salads and as a poultice for wounds.
PLATE 83 Stonecrop
Sweet Birch or Spicewood (Betula lenta) enjoys rich wooded areas and grows along branch banks. This aromatic tree can reach eighty feet in height and has red-brown bark on the young branches and a thick, rough trunk. Male and female flowers are borne in April and May. (For a drawing of sweet birch, see Foxfire 2, page 52.)
This tree is sought for its bark because it contains oils that are similar to wintergreen oil. It is sometimes also called spicewood, and the bark was used as a substitute for chewing gum.
Spicewood tea is said to be good as a blood builder. To make it, gather the twigs in early spring when the bark “slips” or peels off easily. Break the twigs, place them in a pot, cover with water, and boil until the water is dark. Strain and sweeten. You can also use the bark, as Mrs. Laura Patton recalled. “The bark from the [birch] spicewood tree is good to drink as a tea. It is good for the whole system. Use about a half cup bark to
a quart of water. Boil about twenty minutes, let cool, and drink three times a day for good health.”
Mrs. Hershel Keener claimed the tea is especially good with pork and cracklin’ bread.
PLATE 84 Sweet Fern
Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina) grows two to five feet high on dry hillsides and has red-brown bark and spreading branches. The thin leaves of this deciduous shrub are three or more inches long and are shaped much like the leaves of a fern. Its flowers do not attract attention. It produces burr-like berries from September through October. The entire plant has a spicy scent that heightens when the leaves are scarred.
Sweet fern is gathered for the entire leaves and tops. It was used as a remedy for vomiting, diarrhea, and rheumatism. It was also used for Cherokee Indian ceremonies and medicinal tea.
Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) is commonly found in low areas near waterways. The leaves are pointed, serrated, and smooth, and the fruits are round, prickly balls. The bark of this tree was used to make a sedative. Gertrude Mull said, “You get sweet gum bark for nerve trouble.”
Trailing Arbutus (Epigaea repens) spreads along the ground in sandy soil and has stems of more than six inches. Leaves are evergreen and stem from rusty, hairy twigs. Flowers are pink, waxy, and fragrant and bloom in the spring. This plant is gathered during spring for its leaves.
PLATE 85 Trailing Arbutus
“This trailing arbutus is the best [medicine] I’ve ever seen for [treating] kidney stones,” Clarence Lusk recalled. “Trailing arbutus is a little vine that grows right on the ground. Just pull it up and wash it and take enough leaves and roots [about a handful] to make a half gallon of tea. Boil it at least an hour [in water]. Then drink about two or three cups a day if you have a kidney stone bothering you. If you have had them and are afraid you might have ’em again—Well, me and my boy—we’ve both had kidney stones—make tea about once a month, and he’ll take a quart, and I’ll take a quart, and we’ll drink that up. Maybe in about a month, I’ll make another half a gallon. We ain’t never had no more kidney stones since we’ve been doing that.
Foxfire 11: Wild Plant Uses, Gardening, Wit, Wisdom, Recipes, Beekeeping, Toolmaking, Fishing, and More Affairs of Plain Living Page 17