Tag Archives: Plant

Foraging Class at Strawberry Canyon

I just finished teaching another foraging class, the third one so far. I host them in the SF Bay Area (usually the East Bay Hills) through meetup.com (Bay Area Foragers). This one was at Strawberry Canyon by UC Berkeley. If you’re in the Bay Area, please join us next time!

Leading the Bay Area Foragers class at Strawberry Canyon

Leading the Bay Area Foragers class at Strawberry Canyon

Here is the list of species (common / scientific names) we saw and discussed uses for on today’s walk. It’s just from memory so I may have forgotten a few things.

Plants:

hazelnut / Corylus cornuta
California bay laurel / Umbellularia californica
buckeye / Aesculus californica
horsetail / Equisetum sp.
storksbill / Epilobium sp.
yellow curly dock / Rumex crispus
madrone / Arbutus menzeisii
blackberry / Rubus ursinus, R. armeniacus
thimbleberry / Rubus parviflorus
toyon / Heteromeles arbutifolia
mustards / Brassica sp.
thistle / Cirsium sp.
coast live oak / Quercus agrifolia
teasel / Dipsacus sp.
cherry plum / Prunus cerasifera
stream orchid / Epipactis gigantea
bracken fern / Pteridium aquilinum
sword fern / Polystichum munitum
incense cedar / Calocedrus decurrens
stinging nettle / Urtica dioica
redwood / Sequioa sempervirens
blue elderberry / Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea
grasses / Poaceae
mugwort / Artemesia douglasiana
monkeyflower / Mimulus auranticus
cleavers / Galium sp.
ocean spray / Holodiscus discolor
Willow / Salix sp.
Coffeeberry / Rhamnus californica
Plantain / Plantago sp.
Poison oak / Toxicodendron diversilobium

Animals:
Honeydew
European honeybee (and native bees)
Sphinx moth caterpillar

Herbal medicine for broken bones

Ringtail Cats

My mom just broke her wrist so I did some research to give her some help from the plant kingdom. I immediately remembered an herb called boneset (Eupatorium spp.), but apparently that name comes from its use to cure a type of influenza or dengue fever, called “break-bone” of old. Looking through my herbal medicine / ethnobotany library, I found the following herbal preparations to be good for broken or fractured bones:

To speed healing, a poultice made of the whole plant (roots, stems and leaves) of yarrow (Achillea millifolium) should be kept around the affected area. Drink a tea made of the leaves and flowers of yarrow to also enhance healing. Yarrow s a very effective, all around healing enhancer that is found commonly in temperate areas. Achilles carried it into battle for his injured Myrmidons.

yarrow Yarrow

The fresher the plant and preparation, the better. Wild…

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