Cinquefoil
Clover
Trifolium spp.
Fabaceae
Clover is a familiar wayside plant with leaflets of three and flower heads of purple, pink, white or yellow.
The whole plant is edible, although the raw flowers are hard to digest in quantity. (More flowers can be eaten if cooked or soaked for several hours in strong salt water.) Its high protein content makes clover very nutritious. The seeds and flowers are excellent steeped in boiled water as tea. (Leaves and flowers should never be boiled, as boiling destroys vitamins; instead, pour boiling water over the leaves or flowers. Roots and other hard plant parts usually need to be boiled.)
Clover tea is good for colds, coughs, bronchitis and nervous conditions. One cough syrup uses flowers, onion juice and warm honey; another uses flowers, new sprigs of white pine, mullein leaves, cherry bark and honey. Flowers, boiled and applied as a poultice, are said to be a remedy for athlete’s foot.
Red clover
Clustered broomrape
Orobanche fasiculata
Orobanchaceae
Broomrape grows in dry, sandy soil mainly east of the Cascades. It is parasitic on the roots of other plants such as sagebrush. It is usually purple-tinged but may be yellowish. Leaves are scale-like and in an alternate pattern. Flowers, first appearing in early May, are two-lipped, sticky and hairy. The stem is very scaly and coarse-haired. Broomrape can grow several feet high.
The entire plant, including the roots, can be eaten raw or roasted. The juice or a decoction of young branches or seeds, or just the powdered seed, is supposed to ease pain of the joints and hips and swelling of the spleen, as well as cleanse the kidneys and bladder. The plant has been used as a toothache remedy, to kill lice, and as a skin cleanser (decocted or boiled in oil).
Coltsfoot or butterbur
Petasites spp.
Asteraceae
Coltsfoot leaves may be triangular, kidney-shaped or almost round depending on the species. They are entirely basal, toothed and often deeply cleft, white, woolly underneath and often a foot across. Flowers are purplish-white, sweet-scented and in soft loose heads on the ends of long, scaly-bracted stalks. They appear in March or soon after the snow is gone, sometimes before the leaves grow. Coltsfoot has a thick, creeping rootstalk and grows to a height of two feet.
The young foliage and flowers make a good pot-herb. Salt can be obtained by wilting the leaves in hot sun, rolling them with the stems into tight balls and ashing them on cedar bark over slow coals. The ashes are almost pure salt.
Another plant termed coltsfoot is Tussilago farfara. It also blooms in early spring before leaves appear and has large, toothed, basal leaves that are white and woolly underneath; the flower stalk consists of numerous scale-like leaves. The leaves are round, and the flowers have numerous ray flowers. It prefers moist, heavy soils and is reported only on Vancouver Island. This coltsfoot has been much used in cough and lung medicines and smoking mixtures.
Coltsfoot
Comfrey
Symphytum officinale
Boraginaceae
Comfrey (also called knitbone) is a perennial that’s seldom found wild in BC, but because of its potential importance and easy cultivation, we have included it. The root is oblong and fleshy, the tall stalk hollow and covered with prickly hairs. The lower leaves are large and covered with rough hair, which causes itching; the leaves decrease in size as they grow up the stem. Pairs of drooping flowers, which are creamy yellow or purple, bloom most of the summer. Comfrey grows best in low, moist ground.
The whole plant is used externally as a hot poultice to reduce swollen parts around fractured bones and to soothe pain in any other tender, inflamed part. (This includes insect bites, sprains, bruises, sore breasts, boils and ulcers.) Internally, the root can be used in a decoction for ulcers, lung troubles, coughing and nasal congestion, and as a gentle remedy for diarrhea. The known healing agent it contains is allantoin—a cell proliferant contained in both the leaves and the root.
Comfrey is also used for tanning leather and as a glue.
Comfrey
Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Asteraceae
Some of the uses of dandelion are well known. The young leaves can be used in salads, boiled as nettles or cooked in soup (especially blanched). The dried leaves can be used to make herb beer or tea. The flowers can be used to decorate or flavour various cooked dishes or to make wine. The roots can be cooked as a vegetable. The crown of blanched leaf stems on top of the root is delicious. Old roots can be dried, roasted and ground for a coffee.
Dandelion greens are a blood tonic and a stimulant for the whole body. They have been found to have a pronounced stimulating effect on the digestive system, liver, kidneys and bowels.
Dandelion root is slightly laxative and has been used as a remedy for jaundice, skin diseases and eczema. The juice of the stem and flower is supposed to be a remedy for warts (touch the juice to the wart and allow it to dry).
Dandelion greens contain large amounts of vitamin A (7,000 international units/ounce); vitamins B, C and E; sodium, potassium and magnesium salts.
Dandelion root contains more of its active properties (taraxacin and inulin) in the autumn and should be gathered then. The root should be dried whole for about two weeks until hard and brittle, and (like any dried herb) kept in a dry place. Dandelion greens are best gathered before the flower stalks start.
Dandelion
Devil’s club
Oplopanax horridus
Araliaceae
This prickly shrub is an all-too-familiar sight in the backwoods near streams and rivers. The stalks are tall and thick with sharp spines that produce lingering pain on contact, and the leaves are maple-shaped and prickly. Greenish flowers develop into scarlet fruit.
The young stems can be eaten as a pot-herb, and the root can be peeled and chewed raw.
Medicinally, the plant is good for colds and rheumatism when the bark and thorns are peeled away and the stalk is used for tea. Baby talc can be made by drying and pulverizing the bark. The root bark of devil’s club has been found to reduce blood sugar and thus be effective in the treatment of diabetes.
The root is also reportedly excellent for treating staph infections (used both externally and internally). It is a strong laxative.
Elderberry
Sambucus spp.
Caprifoliaceae
Many people know the elder shrub from using its berries for elderberry wine. When in bloom in the summer, it is easily identified by its flat white head of flowers, which is about five to eight inches across.