In Chippewa, ini’niwin’dibige’gun, white trillium is Ontario’s official flower and the standardbearer of spring. It’s also a traditional edible and mostly medicinal plant. However, it needs our protection. Also called birth root, a hint at its medicinal qualities. And wake-robin, due to being a spring herald. It heralds the black flies too, who I personally […]
Tag Archives: Antispasmodic
Black Cherry – Prunus Serotina: The Cherry Cough Drop of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants
In Chippewa, ikwe’mic, black cherry while perhaps the least palatable of our cherries is still a bouncin’ edible and medicinal tree. I absolutely love making stuff with it too! The scent of the sawdust – yum! Black cherry is also called rum cherry because settlers blended the fruit with rum or brandy and called the […]
Yarrow – Achillea Millefolium: The “Wounderful” Woundwort of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants
In Chippewa, a’djidamo’wano meaning ajidamoo (squirrel or red squirrel) and wano (tail), yarrow is a “wounderful” edible and medicinal herb. A yarrow salve for healing cuts and scrapes was my first ever herbal medicine maker’s recipe! Yarrow is another European import. It’s most descriptive folk name is woundwort. It’s not the only “woundwort”, so cheers […]
Red Clover – Trifolium Pratense: The Honey of Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants
In Ojibwe, nisoobag+oon ezhi-wadong+in, red clover is honeylicious and this edible and medicinal plant is not just for the bees! My favorite folk name for red clover is honey/honey-stalks, but it isn’t just honey bees that like this honey. Mammals like the opossum, snowshoe hare, eastern chipmunk, raccoon, striped skunk, and white-tailed deer are buzzing […]
Common Mullein – Verbascum Thapsus: The Coziest of Foragable Edible & Medicinal Wild Plants
In Anishinaabemowin, mullein is sometimes calledWaabooyaanibag (blanket leaf). Its uses are blanketly more medicinal than edible. But you can eat the delicate yellow flowers too! Mullein’s folk names include but are not limited to flannel leaf (leaves stuffed in shoes for warmth), tinder plant/torches/torch-wort, candlewick (dried stems used to be dipped in wax to make […]