Some Useful Wild Plants. Dan Jason
into cakes or used in other ways in baking.
Stalks are generally too tough for eating, but they are useful material for cordage, sandals, baskets and mats.
Bur reed
Sparganium spp.
Sparganiaceae
Bur reeds are found in shallow water or mud, but they seldom form extensive patches. The young plant resembles a large, erect grass with white blossoms. When young, they can be confused with cattails; however, but bur reed flowers are not in terminal spikes but in round heads, mainly at the side of the stems. Height can be up to seven feet. Like the bulrush, bur reed flowers during July and August. Flowers are replaced by round seed heads resembling burrs.
Bulbous stem bases and tuberous roots can be used for food in much the same way as those of the bulrush.
Burdock
Arctium spp.
Asteraceae
Burdock is common in moist, exposed areas and near and around buildings. It has a thick stem with many branches. The leaves are very large and woolly underneath. Flowers are bristly and purplish. By fall, the top of the plant is covered with hard, round and very sticky burrs.
The young leaves and shoots can be cooked as greens or eaten raw, but they are not very palatable. The young stems and flower stalk can be peeled down to the pith and included with the leaves. The root, too, is edible if one wants to go to the trouble of peeling away the tough rind. It can also be roasted and ground as a delicious coffee substitute.
Medicinally, burdock is used as a tonic and a blood purifier. Some authors recommend it for skin conditions like eczema and syphilis, and externally as a salve or a wash for skin irritations or burns. A leaf infusion tones the stomach, serves as a mild laxative and may help long-term indigestion. For severe pain, one author recommends bruising and rolling up the green leaves, dipping them in hot vinegar and covering the skin with them and a hot woollen cloth.
Burdock’s chemical constituents include inulin, tannic acid, vitamin C, iron and niacin.
Burdock
Camas
Camassia spp.
Liliaceae
Although camas supposedly only grows west of the Cascades, we have found much of it in the southern Columbia River Valley, particularly near Castlegar. On southern Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, it prefers moist, rich ground—generally near arbutus and Garry oak. Leaves of camas are basal, grass-like and eight to 15 inches long. Flowers appear in early May and are usually a brilliant blue (though there are occasionally white ones); they are on a single stalk and have three sepals and three petals. The plant grows to two feet on the coast and three feet in the Interior. The root bulb is ovate. Flower colour is crucial for identification; the poisonous death camas, which is frequently found with camas, has yellow or greenish-white flowers and a similar stalk and leaves.
First Nations people marked flowering plants with bark strips and returned in August to dig up the bulbs. They cooked bulbs in pits of hot ashes for an entire day, stripped the bark and pressed the bulbs flat like pancakes. The bulbs smell like vanilla and taste like brown sugar or maple sugar. Molasses can be made from the bulbs by boiling them until the water has almost completely evaporated.
Camas bulb is purgative and emetic if eaten to excess.
Camomile
Chamaemelum nobile
Asteraceae
Camomile (or chamomile) looks like yellow-headed daisies. One species has petals, another doesn’t. It grows low in hard-packed open ground around houses, in old dirt roadways, and along highways.
The flower heads and leaves are delicious as tea and as herb beer.
An infusion of camomile is consumed as a remedy for nightmares, insomnia and nervousness in general. It is a popular remedy for indigestion, heartburn and loss of appetite (especially in combination with ginger root, drunk cold). It is also good for colic and preventing children’s summer diarrhea.
Externally, camomile can be used as a poultice for swelling and inflammatory pain, especially in the throat or neck. It is good as a lotion for toothache and earache and as a wash for sore, weak eyes and open sores or wounds.
We enjoy camomile in a bath or as an herbal shampoo, either by itself or mixed with other herbs. Rubbed on the skin in a boiled-down decoction or tincture, it is said to work as an insect repellant and to ease pain and swelling from insect bites.
The decocted herb is supposed to yield a blond dye.
Camomile
Chickweed
Stellaria media and Cerastium spp.
Caryophyllaceae
Chickweed grows throughout BC in shaded areas, waste ground, fields, salty or sandy soil, etc. It flowers in early spring in small, white leafy clusters; flowers have five petals, each of which is cleft in two. The stem of many species is weak, reclining and tufted with hairs. Stellaria media has a line of hairs running up one side of the stem; the upper leaves are sessile and the lower ones are stalked. Chickweed often forms a leafy, mat-like growth from three inches to a foot high.
Chickweed can be eaten raw or cooked. It is rich in iron, especially the upper leaf portion. The young tips can be cooked like spinach.
Chickweed is a good healer and soother for all types of external and internal irritations. The bruised leaves in coconut or other oil make a good ointment for skin irritation. Chickweed is considered a remedy for an irritated digestive system, ulcers, internal inflammation, irritated genitals, skin sores and eye sties. It can be used as a tea, a lotion or a poultice held in place by larger leaves such as mullein. It is also useful for coughs, hoarseness and minor lung irritation. Chickweed baths are soothing.
Chickweed
Chicory
Cichorium intybus
Asteraceae
Chicory (or succory, or bachelor’s buttons) is a common roadside plant. It can be easily identified when it flowers in midsummer in blue dandelion-like heads. It prefers dry open ground, has long wiry stems, and has leaves at the base similar to dandelion leaves.
The young leaves and shoots are commonly used in salads and as a pot-herb (especially blanched to remove the slight bitterness), and the roots are eaten raw or roasted. Chicory is often used with coffee or as a coffee substitute, along with dandelion and burdock roots. (Gather older roots of these plants, slice, roast and grind.)
Chicory is especially rich in vitamins A and C.
A tea made from the root is said to be good for an upset stomach and kidney and liver complaints. The bruised leaves can be used as a poultice for swelling and inflammation. A syrup made from the root is reportedly a good laxative for children.
Chicory
Cinquefoil
Potentilla spp.
Rosaceae
There are over 20 species of cinquefoil (meaning “five finger”) in BC. The characteristic features of the various cinquefoils are the yellow buttercup-like flowers and the five-fingered toothed leaves on branched stalks. Some species are several feet tall, while others are small and shrubby.
Cinquefoil roots can be eaten like potatoes—boiled or roasted. Tea made from the roots is a little bitter.
Medicinally, the root is used