Walk any roadside, fence line, or field edge this time of year and you’re surrounded by medicine. Most folks call them weeds. We know better.
Here are five plants you can find in these mountains right now, what they’re good for, and what to keep in mind before you use them.
Queen Anne’s Lace
Daucus carota
The wild ancestor of the carrot, just now sending up its lacy white flower heads. Traditionally the seeds have been used as a digestive and diuretic, and the plant has a long folk history as urinary tract and kidney support. The root, while young, is edible and carrot-like.
Use it for: mild fluid retention, gas and bloating, urinary support.
Critical caution: Queen Anne’s Lace has two deadly lookalikes — poison hemlock and water hemlock, both of which can kill. Queen Anne’s Lace has hairy stems, a single dark purple floret at the center of the flower, and smells like carrot when crushed. Poison hemlock has smooth, purple-blotched stems and a musty odor. If you aren’t 100% certain, don’t harvest it. It is also a uterine stimulant — keep it away from anyone pregnant.
Goldenrod
Solidago spp.
The foliage is up now, but goldenrod is a late-summer and fall bloomer — you’ll harvest the flowering tops July through September. Worth knowing now so you can mark your stands. It is one of the better herbal anti-inflammatories for the urinary tract and a respected diuretic that, unlike many, doesn’t deplete electrolytes harshly. It’s also an upper respiratory ally and, surprisingly to most, an allergy support herb — it gets unfairly blamed for the ragweed that blooms alongside it.
Use it for: urinary tract inflammation and stones, seasonal allergies, sinus and respiratory congestion.
Caution: generally well tolerated. Use care with anyone on diuretics or with significant kidney disease.
Mullein
Verbascum thapsus
First-year rosettes of soft, flannel-like leaves are out now; the tall flower stalks come in the second year. Mullein is a premier lung herb — soothing, mildly expectorant, and relaxing to irritated airways. The leaf is used for coughs, bronchitis, and dry irritated lungs; the flowers, infused in oil, are a classic remedy for ear infections.
Use it for: dry or unproductive coughs, bronchial irritation, ear infections (flower oil).
Caution: always strain mullein tea through cloth or a fine filter — the tiny leaf hairs can irritate the throat. Harvest leaves now, save flowers for when the stalk blooms.
Dandelion
Taraxacum officinale
Everywhere right now, and every part is useful. The leaf is a potassium-sparing diuretic and a bitter that stimulates digestion. The root is a liver and gallbladder tonic, gently supporting detoxification and bile flow, and is one of the better gentle remedies for sluggish digestion and skin conditions tied to poor elimination.
Use it for: fluid retention, liver and gallbladder support, poor digestion, as a nutritive bitter.
Caution: use care with gallstones or bile duct obstruction. The latex in the stems can irritate sensitive skin.
Plantain
Plantago major / lanceolata
Broadleaf and narrowleaf both, growing in every yard and path right now. This is the herbalist’s first-aid plant. The fresh leaf, crushed or chewed into a poultice, draws out splinters, stings, and venom and speeds wound healing. Internally it’s soothing and mildly astringent for the gut and the respiratory tract.
Use it for: bites, stings, splinters, slow-healing wounds (topical); irritated digestion and coughs (internal).
Caution: very safe. The main risk is misidentifying the patch you harvest from — avoid anything sprayed with herbicide or along busy roadsides.
Everything here is traditional and folk use for educational purposes and is not a substitute for individualized medical care. Know your plants cold before you harvest, and when in doubt, leave it standing.
Image credits. All photographs are used under their respective Creative Commons or public-domain licenses, via Wikimedia Commons.
Queen Anne’s Lace — Alvesgaspar (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Goldenrod — Georg Slickers (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Mullein — Gilles Ayotte (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Dandelion — Isaac Wedin (CC BY 2.0).
Plantain — Harry Rose (CC BY 2.0).
