Kate Miller of Dynamic Roots and Alpine Botanicals asked me to send her a list of the wild edible and medicinal plants that I have found so far at our new location. In addition to these pictured below, I’ve also found wild geranium, juniper, yarrow…and more!
It’s almost impossible to make a complete, exhaustive list of every medicinal plant that you may encounter in the wild…I feel like I’ve named every plant except for grass (of which there are several varieties as well!). And it definitely depends on the season – dandelion, mullein, and wild rose are easily identified in June at our altitude (9,200 feet above sea level), while wild geranium, goldenrod, evening primrose and yarrow don’t bloom until July or August. Mugwort is ever present, but I like to wait to harvest until August when it’s tall, and right before it goes to bloom. (There is definitely some magic worth researching in association with harvesting Mugwort at the harvest moon.) But plants like horsetail, lambs quarters and cleavers you definitely need to get as early as possible because as they mature they will concentrate high levels of silicon (horsetail) and oxalic acid (lambs quarters). (Spring cleavers just taste better in my opinion).
Oh, and then there’s plantain, and don’t forget red clover, and fireweed…we really are surrounded by abundance!
Scroll through these pictures and see if you can recognize any of the plants that I’ve found at the Homestead:
Photo by Peter Fazekas on Pexels.com
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Pineapple Weed grows in small bunches very low to the ground. Pinch off a petal-less flower head and smell it – a strong, sweet vanilla scent should permeate the air, you know you’ve got Pineapple Weed!
underside of a plantain leaf, notice the prominent waxy ribs
Musk thistle grows thick on my property. Image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carduus_nutans#/media/File:Carduus_nutans_180807.jpg
Colorado mullein before flowering
