Some Useful Wild Plants. Dan Jason

      Elderberries can be steeped raw in cold water for a refreshing drink, in hot wine with honey, or canned and drunk in the winter. They are one of the richest natural sources of vitamin C. The flower, too, can make a delicious beverage, usually a tea.

      Elder leaves and flowers can be made into an ointment for bruises, sprains and wounds. Bruised or decocted, they are said to drive away flies and other insects. They also help in the treatment of poison ivy rash. The flowers can also be used for coughs, colds and sore throat (combined with honey and vinegar), as a laxative and as a general remedy and tonic.

      Elder bark can be used to quickly cleanse the system through the bowels and bladder, and by vomiting. It contains sambunigrin—a cyanogenic glycoside—which is poisonous if absorbed. Hot elderberry wine with honey is a popular remedy for colds, and the berries steeped as tea are reportedly good for diarrhea.

      Occultists claim elder is surrounded by a wide healing aura; it used to be common practice to plant an elder near the house as protection against disease and evil spirits, or to carry an elder twig for good luck and health.

      Elderberry

      False Solomon’s seal

      Smilacina racemosa

      Asparagaceae

      False Solomon’s seal (or wild spinach, as it is known in the Slocan Valley) is found in damp, shady places throughout BC. A plume of fragrant, creamy flowers blooming in May and June tops the stem of two rows of alternate broad glossy leaves from 2.5 to 6 inches long. Greenish-red berries are ripe in late July and August.

      Some say the berries are tasteless, but they seem to us to taste like the fresh leaves. Both the leaves and young shoots are delicious raw or as a pot-herb.

      The thick fleshy rootstalk can be grated and made into a poultice for wounds. It is also said to be a laxative and a remedy for rheumatism. The seeds eaten in quantity cleanse the bowels.

      False Solomon’s seal

      Ferns

      Dennstaedtiaceae

      Bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum pubescens) is the most wide-ranging fern in BC. Stems, unlike those of most ferns, do not cluster from a compact base. Leaf margins have lines of spore cases. Bracken fern is found in moist coniferous forests at low elevations from Vancouver Island to the Rockies. During early spring, the young shoots of bracken fern uncurl in juicy stalks called fiddleheads. These can be eaten raw, cooked like asparagus or used in soups. Roasted roots can also be eaten if the outer skin is stripped and the insides pounded to separate the fibre from the edible part. They contain much starch and are best dug in autumn. It is wise to avoid eating large amounts of raw fiddleheads because they contain an enzyme, thiaminase, that destroys thiamine in the body. This can result in vitamin B1 deficiency. (Cooking deactivates thiaminase.)

      The rhizomes of swordfern (Polystichum munitum) can be roasted and used as food, as can those of bracken fern. Swordfern forms dark green symmetrical fronds up to three feet long. The pinnules, or side leaves, are sharp-pointed and sharp-toothed, and the underside is brownish from the twin rows of spore cases. Swordfern is found on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, and in coastal forests.