Mountain Folk Remedies: The Foxfire Americana Library (9) (7 page)

“The [tea from trailing arbutus] enlarges the tubes from your kidney to the bladder. It lets those little ol’ stones pass through. I don’t reckon there’s anything that dissolves one of ’em totally. But a [stone] you can hardly see will just nearly kill you. I don’t know how many people I’ve recommended that to [who] stayed out of the hospital. They said they was gonna have to go in [the hospital and have the stones surgically removed], and when they drank that tea, they didn’t have to go. It’s a herb that I [really believe in] as a medicine.

“It grows wild in the woods. You could find it right now [in December], but a little later on when the leaves settle down in the winter, it’ll be hard to find. Next spring, it’ll have a sweet-smelling flower on it, and that’s a good time to gather it. I can find it, break the leaves off, and pull it out of the ground. I can get plenty of it up on the mountain. It looks
different from most other plants. Anybody that’s seen it [would know it]. It has green leaves, and it’s very easy [to get confused] with poison ivy. You want to be very careful when you’re gathering it to not get ivy.”

Turtlehead
(Chelone)
grows in swampy areas and along water banks. It can grow up to four feet tall and has a stem that is angled four ways at the base. Toothy leaves are about four or five inches long with flower clusters that bloom in late summer to early fall. Rarely do more than two or three flowers open at once. The blooms are almost always white, very rarely pink. It gets the name “turtlehead” from the shape of its flower.

This herb is gathered either in its entirety or for the leaves while flowering. If a turtle bit you, you used this plant for a poultice.

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LLUSTRATION 23
Umbrella Leaf

Umbrella Leaf
(Diphylleia cymosa)
grows from eight to thirty-six inches tall. Its leaves are umbrella-like. A perennial, it produces white flowers, followed by blue berries, from May through August.

The Cherokees used the root of this plant to induce sweating. It was also considered useful for smallpox.

Violet
(Viola)
plants come in many varieties of violets. Some of these are the common blue violet, the bird’s-foot violet, the eastern dog violet, the downy yellow violet, and the green violet. These small plants have flowers that are singular and symmetrical. Most grow well in moist, shady places and bloom in the spring and summer. Flowers have five petals and are bearded. (For a drawing of the violet, see
Foxfire 2
, page 82.)

Ada Crone says, “And when we had a fever back then, they’d go out and get blue violet roots and make a tea out of that, and that’d take your fever down.”

White Ash
(Fraxinus americanus)
often grows to one hundred feet tall in rich wooded areas. It flowers from April until June. The seeds are winged, flat, and about two inches long.

This tree is used for the bark from the root and the trunk. Native
Americans used inner-bark tea as a strong laxative. The seeds are thought to be an aphrodisiac.

White Baneberry
(Actaea)
“is another sang-sign plant of the rich, humusy mountain slopes, the ‘doll’s-eyes’ of the mountain healers,” according to Marie Mellinger. “This is a handsome plant with finely cut foliage and aromatic yellow-green flowers, followed by a cluster of waxy-white berries with red eyes and pink stems. The berries are very poisonous. The roots are potent and dangerous if used in quantity as they contain a substance that can cause marked irritation to the stomach and intestines. It is a violent purgative. It can affect the heart of increase the pulse rate. The roots have a strong aromatic odor, and a small pinch of
Actaea
supposedly adds potency to other medicines. It is also called the ‘herb Christopher,’ and the ground-up roots are used to poultice snakebite.”

Wild Garlic
(Allium canadense)
is not native to the Southern Appalachian region. It grows well in sheltered meadows and wooded areas. The leaves resemble blades of grass. The flowers are small and sit on green stems above several small bulbs. (For a drawing of wild garlic, see
Foxfire 2
, page 57.) The entire plant has the smell and taste of onion. Numerous Marcus said, “Garlic is good to eat. It’s similar to an onion. You can eat it raw if you want to or you can fry it. It’s good to put on your chest if you’ve got a bad cold or are choked up with the croup. That’ll break it up.”

Wild garlic can be used fresh. It is sliced and put in with food, especially meats, while they are cooking. To preserve it for later use, just dry it, powder it, and store it in a closed container.

Wild Geranium
(Geranium maculatum)
blooms from April through June. The stem is hairy and grows one to two feet tall. The flowers have five pink or purplish petals. As the leaves get older they are often spotted with white.

The wild geranium was much treasured for its medicinal values. A treatment for sore throats and mouth ulcers was made from the boiled roots. A tea made from the leaves was used as a treatment for dysentery. Native Americans used it as a tonic and as an astringent.

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LLUSTRATION 24
Wild Ginger

Wild Ginger
(Asarum canadense)
is found in rich soil in wooded areas and reaches a height of four to five inches. It creeps along the ground. It has only two kidney-shaped leaves on soft hairy stems. The leaves are dark green on top and lighter green underneath. A single brown flower
is produced between the leaves. The root is yellow and has a spicy taste and scent. The entire plant, especially the root, smells like ginger.

In fall, the root is gathered. People make an aromatic tea from it for crying babies and for stomachaches. As a remedy for colds, make a tea from powdered ginger or ground-up ginger roots. Do not boil the tea, but add the powdered root to a cup of hot water and drink. Add honey and whiskey if desired.

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LLUSTRATION 25
Wild Hydrangea

Wild Hydrangea
(Hydrangea arborescens)
is a shrub reaching up to five feet in height and has green-white flowers in round flat clusters in summer. Its common name is sevenbark, and it grows in rocky areas and valleys. It has slim stems and heart-shaped, toothy leaves. The bark sometimes peels back several times to reveal different colors. Native Americans chewed the bark for stomach problems or heart trouble. However, this plant has caused painful gastroenteritis and cyanide-like poisoning. Because this plant is dangerous, readers are asked not to gather it.

The fresh root is juicy, yet very tough when dry. This shrub is collected for the root which can be used as a diuretic, for kidney stones, or for bladder problems. It is cut into small pieces before drying.

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LLUSTRATION 26
Witch-Hazel

Witch-Hazel
(Hamamelis)
grows in damp, woody areas and can be twenty-five feet tall. It has smooth brown bark and produces four-inch leaves. The yellow thready flowers do not bloom until late fall or early
winter. The seed nut does not mature and open until the next season.

This shrub is gathered in the fall for the leaves, sticks, and bark, which contain a potent oil. Native Americans took leaf tea for colds and sore throats. Twig tea was rubbed on athletes’ legs to keep muscles limber and relieve lameness. The twigs were favored for dowsing-searching with a divining rod-for water.

Yarrow
(Achillea)
is common to the Appalachians and is easily found in open areas such as fields, pastures, roadsides, and meadows. It can be almost two feet tall. Yarrow is a soft, fragrant perennial with lacy leaves. The flowers are white or, less frequently, pink. Flat clusters bloom from May through October. (For a photo of yarrow, see
Foxfire 3
, page 341.)

This naturalized weed is gathered in summer for its flowering tops. Herbal tea from this plant was used for colds, fevers, indigestion, anorexia, and internal bleeding.

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LLUSTRATION 27
Buckeye tree with fruit

Yellow Buckeye
(Aesculus octandra)
is not edible, but carrying the fruit, or buckeye, of this poisonous tree was thought to be good luck. Buckeyes were also thought to keep rheumatism away.

Yellow Lady Slipper
(Cypripedium calceolarus)
grows well in wet, shady places deep in wooded areas. It is easily identified by the showy flower, which looks like a small air-filled bag. It blooms in the spring, and the flowers can be varying shades of yellow to striped or grossly spotted with shades of purple. This plant grows to two feet in height and can
have leaves as large as six inches in length. The root runs horizontal and is fleshy with a foul odor and bittersweet taste. This unusual flower is gathered in the fall for its root.

Marie Mellinger wrote, “The yellow ladyslipper is a rare beauty of the mountains that once grew with ginseng but has been gathered too extensively by both herbalists and ’flower lovers.’ The yellow blossoms appear only after the plants are seven years old, and digging the roots destroys the plants. Ladyslipper roots were used by pioneer doctors such as Samuel Thomson and Dr. Hales of Troy, New York, and Dr. Tully of Albany. It was sold under the name ’nervine-root’ or ’umbil-root,’ and roots were gathered in late autumn. The roots have a barbiturate effect, and powdered root was used in a teaspoon of sugar-water or added to chamomile or basswood blossom tea. The roots were also a favorite medicine for female troubles.”