Wildcrafting: Medicinal Wild Plants

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Wildcrafting Sidebars:
• 12 Step Medicinal Plant Gathering Guide
• 16 Edible Wild Greens Recipes 

Some of us think of medicinal wild plants as weeds—unappealing plants that grow where they’re unwanted. But shift your perspective—and possibly your taste buds—in a different direction for just a moment.

Weeds grow without our help; they’re usually native or naturalized to their home environment. They thrive without fertilizer and usually without supplemental watering. Best of all, many common “weeds” are actually therapeutic, nutritious, or both. And usually, they’re yours for the taking, although you may have to ask a landowner’s permission or be careful to avoid roadsides and sprayed areas.

Harvesting medicinal wild plants is known as wildcrafting; it’s a tradition with a rich history both in Europe and the United States. Unfortunately, as the market for herbal products has heated up, some species of less common herbs have been overharvested in the wild. Arnica (Arnica spp.) and goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) are two examples.

But harvesting the more common plants, ones that grow in untended abundance, to eat or use in easy, healing recipes, can be a wonderful way to reunite with the outdoors, and an excellent introduction to using medicinal herbs. Here are eight to try.

Dandelion
(Taraxacum officinale)

Believed to be native to Greece or Persia, dandelion now grows throughout the United States in most lawns and fields. It’s a perennial with a basal rosette of jagged leaves up to nine inches in diameter. Succulent stalks that grow from the rosette’s center are from three to nine inches long and exude a milky juice when cut. Dandelions are one of many herbalists’ favorite herbs to wildcraft; they’re so easy to find!

Eating dandelion: Leaves are collected in the spring, before flowers appear, and can be consumed raw or cooked. (The older leaves become bitter, but if you cook them in several changes of water, the bitterness is removed.) Roots can be collected throughout the year. Try scrubbing them and steaming as you would carrots. They can also be dry-roasted, ground, and made into a coffee substitute. Flowers may be added to muffins or battered and stir-fried. And dandelion wine from the flowers is a delight! One hundred grams (about 1/2 cup) of the fresh leaf yields about 14,000 IU of beta-carotene (more than carrots), 35 mg of vitamin C, 187 mg of calcium, and 397 mg of potassium.

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