Whorled mountain mint, Pycnanthemum verticillatum, Lamiaceae family. Mountain mints Pycnanthemum make up their own wood mint tribe located here on the east coast, here growing in a relatively, open, full sun meadow environment.
Whorled mountain mint is a Lamiaceae/mint family perennial plant. The mountain mints are eastern woodland plants with highly aromatic foliage, square mint stems, and a basic opposite leaf pattern. At first appearance it's flattened pale white flowerhead pattern, at the very top of the plant, resembles an asteraceae plant. It appears similar to the white asteraceae tribe, similar to pussy toes, from a distance looking at the meadow like tall yarrow. It's foliage is stiff hard to the touch, unlike many mints whose foliage is soft, moist, wet and downy. It's leaves have a tactile, sense of a drought tolerant, open meadow, full sun, hardy plant vs the soft watery, moisture filled, palustrine mints.
Palustrine means a non-tidal, fresh water marshy wetland. Whorled mountain mint does not usually grow in a wet marsh. Palustrine is the same as paludose, from the latin paluster. Palustrine is foot wet zone, whorled mountain mint is in the foot dry zone, an open, full sun, well drained eastern states meadow. Yet it's aromatic foliage resembles, smells like, tastes like the moist poleo, or Mentha arvensis, Mentha canadensis. I think it's fair to call whorled mountain mint, a whorled horse mint.
It has a brown red woody square stem, a set of lanceolate opposite leaves, sessile, meaning attached directly to the main stem without a petiole. This mountain mint has a unique feature for which it's named, a distinctive whorled pattern of smaller leaves at the leaf axil.
Reconciliation is the next step of the process. The idea is that you want to build from personal direct experience. You get a sense of the plant within the landscape, you co-inhabit that same landscape. Then you do your best to reconcile what you've got directly from that personal experience, with what others have understood about the plant as herb use for various conditions, complaints, and concerns. You want to rule out the random, anomaly. Are most whorled mountain mints like the ones I saw? Ideally you want a direct face to face confirmation from another person who has used, gathered and done stuff with the herb, an herbalist. That interaction, face to face, direct, is both social and culture. Then you want to confirm, deny or expand on that confirmation with a written source, meaning further reconciliation. Each one of those steps, organoleptic, person to plant, person to person, academic book based confirmation, each herbal step is essential.
It has a brown red woody square stem, a set of lanceolate opposite leaves, sessile, meaning attached directly to the main stem without a petiole. This mountain mint has a unique feature for which it's named, a distinctive whorled pattern of smaller leaves at the leaf axil.
It's foliage is stiff to touch, oily, minty spicy aromatic. Its quality is warming, spicy hot tasting, minty, like other spicy, minty, highly aromatic herbs of the mint family. We gain this knowledge of the individual plant by organoleptic testing. We experience the plant directly by sense input. From this input we can frequently get an idea of the plant identity, and this can lead to understanding what the plant does in the body. Of course organoleptic is only part of learning the plant. A plant has leaf characteristics that can best be described by the specific botanical term, through a specific unique language developed within our western cultural tradition. Likewise a scientific specific binomial, first and last, genus and species name. Pycnanthemum verticillatum. This name and system of categorizing plants, organizing plants is another aspect of western european culture and heritage,
Organoleptic comes from the french, organoleptique, -organo meaning 'organs of the body', thus the senses and -leptique from the greek leptiqos, disposed to take. So through the organs of sense we take in information about the plant directly in front of us. So using all your senses including tongue, nose, touch sensorial input, and the gestalt of biosense, the whole terrain and lay of the land, we can frequently learn something about the plant. Not only tasting the herb, but seeing the patterns in the landscape. Probably being alone with the plant where it grows. Then taking this style of knowledge which is non-verbal and letting it do its own thing developing connections as it goes. Spending time in the bio-environment of whorled mountain mint. Organoleptic perception allows me to get a sense of the herbal nature of the plant and what that herb does in my body. So you get a sense of how the herb lends itself to certain actions within the body.
Whorled mountain mint like ginger works as a servant herb to get herbs deep into the tissues. You can consider understanding the mountain mints as kinetic, moving, warming, heating herbs. When an herb is strongly kinetic, promoting movement in the body, heating, warming it automatically should bring up certain cautions and concerns, especially regarding its use in pregnancy. Herbs that heat you up, make you pee, poop, sweat, make your face red, cause you to blush, should be avoided during pregnancy. Pregnancy can be understood as a modified stuck condition. A stuck condition here needs to be kept that way. During pregnancy, mommy wants the baby to remain, stable, well nourished stuck, within baby's house, the uterus. She is carrying the baby, holding it there. Baby needs to stay so mommy needs to chill. The baby's needs to be held and protected, in baby's safe space within mommy until baby is ready to come out. So you want the baby to be held, stuck safely inside mommy's belly. For that reason, strongly moving herbs are contraindicated in pregnancy. Well meaning folk herbalists need to be aware of this principle. Just because an herb, or any substance is fairly safe does not mean it's safe during pregnancy. People without a lot of experience tend to over do things, especially so called natural things. Just because an herb is natural doesn't mean it's a good choice in the modified stuck situation of pregnancy. Deeper into this, when similar, well meaning dominant culturalists, medical experts or not, say various things are safe during pregnancy that has to be seriously questioned. Beyond, nourishing food and clean water, any substance taken into the body during pregnancy needs to be seriously questioned. You would be safe to say, that just as the modern american life/style if lived according to its own narrative, guidelines and advertising, if executed as advised will make a person sick, in the same way if a pregnant American woman attempts to live as a regular person, in the standard narrative and agenda of modernism, she will inevitably adversely affect the baby she is carrying. Pregnancy is a unique woman specialized condition with its own guidelines. Likewise the care, suckling, breast feeding, nursing of the infant is a specialized mommy, female, womanly zone type of thing.
https://youtu.be/9SeeuYB6kG8
Pycnanthemum spp, mountain is diaphoretic it promotes sweating; stimulant an aid to digestion; antispasmodic can help with cramps; carminative dispels gas; and tonic. A warm infusion is very useful in puerperal the first 6 weeks after delivery; likewise in other forms of recurring fever, coughs, colds, catarrhs excessive mucus from inflammation of the mucus membranes. It can be useful alone or probably more appropriate added to a customized herbal formula with other herbs for spasmodic situations in the body, especially colic, stomach cramps, menstrual cramps. The cold infusion is a good tonic and stimulant during convalescence from exhausting diseases. Dose of the infusion, either warm or cold, from 1 to 4 fluid ounces, 3 or more times a day. A liquor, similar to spirit of poleo can be made, see other blog posts. A good formula for colic or nausea is fennel seed, catnip, and whorled mountain, made as glycerite. Or raspberry leaf, whorled mountain mint glycerite. Another formula is mountain mint, bugle weed, and catnip for empacho. Empacho is a term from traditional folk medicine of the southwest, which may be unfamiliar in other parts of the country. See my blogpost from 2015. Mountain mint can substitute in formulas for Mentha arvenis, horsemint or other mints.
A tea made with whorled mountain mint resembles both monarda and poleo, you can almost instantly feel it opening up the breathing, causing you to sweat, and encourage urination. Its decoctions are quite helpful in healing wounds, curing fever, and pains of various origins (especially toothache). Also added to a pain relief liniment. In the field, you can rub the leaves on clothing including shoes, socks and pant legs as an insect repellant. You can combine horse mint with yarrow for insect repellants and mixed with rose geranium for tick repellant on clothing pant legs, socks and shoes in early spring.
Mountain mint, similar to poleo mint, has a folk usage for upset sour stomach, digestive tract disorders, as a mouth rinse with a little salt for mouth sores, bleeding gums, indigestion, colic, and gas/flatulence. Mountain mint also encourages menstrual flow. It can help to open up stuck, boggy uncomfortable menses. If used at the right time in the cycle it can relieve menstrual cramps and bloating.
https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/2016/10/el-empacho-remedio-nebada-poleo-hinojo.html?m=1
A tea made with whorled mountain mint resembles both monarda and poleo, you can almost instantly feel it opening up the breathing, causing you to sweat, and encourage urination. Its decoctions are quite helpful in healing wounds, curing fever, and pains of various origins (especially toothache). Also added to a pain relief liniment. In the field, you can rub the leaves on clothing including shoes, socks and pant legs as an insect repellant. You can combine horse mint with yarrow for insect repellants and mixed with rose geranium for tick repellant on clothing pant legs, socks and shoes in early spring.
https://pgmanski.blogspot.com/search/label/Poleo?m=1
The leaves of mountain mint are rich in limonene, menthone, pulgeon, and menthol. I strongly recommend adding whorled mountain mint to your materia medica.
