Mountain Folk Remedies: The Foxfire Americana Library (9) (5 page)

Liverwort is gathered in April for the leaves. It is believed to be medicine for the liver.

Maidenhair Fern
(Adiantum pedatum)
has wiry black stems with light green foliage and reaches a height of two feet. It is rarely found in poor soil. It was used mainly as a medicine for women.

Marie Mellinger 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.

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LLUSTRATION 15
New Jersey Tea

New Jersey Tea
(Geanothus)
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.

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LLUSTRATION 16
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 partridgeberry 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
(Pinus)
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.

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. Pokeweed’s root is poisonous. The plant must be picked in the early spring when the leaves are still yellow-green and the asparagus-like stalks are no longer than four to six inches. This plant is most often gathered for its leaves. Bernice Taylor warned, “You’ve got to gather the leaves before they get about six inches high. Don’t mess with them after that. When we was little and comin’ up on hard times, the kids, we’d all gather up some berries and mash ’em up and use ’em for ink.”

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 Mellinger 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.’ ”

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LLUSTRATION 17
Rattlesnake Master

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 rootstock 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.

Redbud
(Cercis 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.