Flower Power The Medicinal Properties of Popular Plants

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Flower Power The Medicinal Properties of Popular Plants

Gardening is the world's most popular and enduring recreational

activity, feeding the spirit and the body, reducing dependence on the

florist and the supermarket, and, when done organically, curtailing

the use of toxic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Gardening feeds

the senses with scent and color, and feeds the body with exercise,

fresh air and the freshest-and therefore more vitamin-packed-foods.

But gardens can also feed your health in other ways: By growing your

own medicine, you can reduce your trips to the doctor and pharmacist.

Garden plants can help with everything from infections or insomnia to

healing wounds and broken hearts. Best of all, you can grow these

gems in a floriferous landscape that keeps the neighbors happy and

boosts your property values.

Here is a small sample of the many flowers that do double duty in a

vase and in your medicine cabinet:

Calendula (Calendula officinalis): These indefatigably cheery bright

orange flowers are good for both the garden and the gardener. Like

their marigold cousins, the plant deters pest insects.

Calendula's sticky resin is superlative for healing wounds. Make a

flower tea and use as a skin wash, or steep flowers in olive oil for

two weeks and apply topically. Used internally, calendula combines

well with drying herbs for respiratory infections. The dried flowers

make a bright addition to wintertime teas-you can eat the whole

flower as it floats around in your cup.

Even two or three plants will give more flowers than you can keep up

with, self seeding prolifically to ensure your garden will always

have their blooms. This annual plant is hardy to Zone 6, but may over-

winter in warmer climates. Easy-going calendula tolerates many soil

and sun conditions, but thrives in full sunlight.

Lavender (Lavandula spp.): Best known for its perfume, lavender is

also a remarkably versatile medicine.

The chemicals that make lavender so wonderfully aromatic also make it

a potent pathogen fighter. The name comes from the French word for

washing; the earliest antimicrobial soaps were made with lavender.

The flowers fight bacteria, viruses and fungi, and the essential oil

helps heal wounds and burns.

Lavender is also deeply cheering in cases of sadness or mild

depression. A hot cup of lavender tea, brought to you by a friend, is

wonderful for alleviating a broken heart.

Cultivars of this mounding, Mediterranean perennial can grow larger

than four feet high and wide. These sun lovers are hardy to Zone 5.

Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata, P. edulis, P. caerulea.): Fast-

growing, vining passionflower is one of the best herbal medicines for

promoting sleep without making you feel drugged. It also has been

used for the pain of shingles.

Passionflower

The flowers of these prolific climbers look almost extraterrestrial.

Depending on the species, passionflowers can be hardy to Zone 6,

evergreen unless knocked back by a cold snap. The sprawling vines

require support, growing as much as 18 feet in a year. Warm-climate

gardeners may even get some of the delicious tropical fruit.

Roses: Roses raise the spirits, both for their beauty and their

medicine. Possibly the world's most famous garden flower, roses come

in every imaginable form, from groundcovers less than a foot tall to

ramblers that clamber up trees or power poles. So many cultivars

means there's a rose for almost every situation, whether you live in

chilly Zone 2, have a fully shaded yard, or garden within spitting

distance of saltwater.

The most famous rose medicine comes from the fruit, known as hips,

which are high in cold-fighting and antioxidant vitamin C. Picked

after they soften in the year's first frost, fresh hips are dried for

tea or used fresh in jams.

Rose leaves, flowers and buds also make excellent medicine, calming

the nerves, easing indigestion, and acting as a mild astringent for

skin wounds or sore throats.

Purple coneflower: This native of the North American prairies is not

only striking, but one of the best known medicinal plants-Echinacea.

This sun-loving, hardy perennial grows from Manitoba to Texas,

thriving down to Zone 3 and growing grander each year. The medicinal

species (Echinacea purpurea, E. angustifolia and E. pallida) are

covered with two-inch to three-inch flowers, each with a corona of

pink or purple petals surrounding a prominent, spiky seed cone.

From root to flower, all parts of this plant are medicinal. In

summer, one way to get coneflower's medicine is by cutting the

central cone in quarters and biting the soft inner part like an

orange slice. Be careful at first: The medicinal constituents will

zing your tongue like pins and needles.

Echinacea is thought to be an immunity booster, best taken as early

as possible in the case of infection. Ideally, begin taking the tea

or tincture when you think you might get sick.

C Orna Izakson

ORNA IZAKSON writes and gardens on the Oregon side of the Columbia

River. She also is an herbalist and student at National College of

Naturopathic Medicine.

 

The coward believes he will live forever If he holds back in the battle, But in old age he shall have no peaceThough spears have spared his limbs Stanza 16 of the Havamal (the Sayings of Har) from the Poetic Edda

 

 

 

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