Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) is a prized edible and medicinal herb. And not just for the rootbeer. (Though that’d be enough for me!) Wild sarsaparilla’s folk names include rabbit foot and wild licorice. In some of my herbal books, it’s called spikenard instead. But there are many plants called spikenard. And confusingly, a more popular …
Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) 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 for Latin names. On the same note, it’s been called …
In Chippewa, ini’niwunj meaning “man like”, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) is a monarch of the edible and medicinal wild plant kingdom. Let’s cultivate this king of herbs for the butterflies more than we eat it, please! Milkweeds folk names are somewhat all over the place, as there are tons of varieties, and many probably don’t …
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is honeylicious and this edible and medicinal plant is not just for honey 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 about it. …