Abies grandis, Fir Tree Medicine

Abies grandis, Grand Fir, Pinacea family

Abies grandis, Grand Fir

Fir tree Pinacea, pine family medicine. 
        
    In a face to face community herbalism you want to go directly to widely available plants. You don't need elaborate conspiracy theories to know an overt restructuring process of erasure is rapidly unfolding. All kinds of unimaginable scenarios are unfolding that make the simple act of being together with your kind publicly some kind of treasonous act. More than ever before it's vital to gather face to face IRL to learn these accessible tree medicine plants. Plants you can meet without a filter, face to face in small groups of friends without dogma, or baggage. Albies grandis, a fir pine family tree is an excellent starting point. You can find stands of fir from Arizona to British Columbia, from Maine to California. It's a tree you'll be instantly familiar with as soon as you crush the needle leafs or smell the sap in the resinous bumps and blisters, and smell the citrus pine aroma. 

Underside dual white stomata

      There's a good chance you've already embraced this tree in the form of wreaths hung on your door, or had it in your house as Christmas tree. In a sense you have worshipped this tree, you or your children opened presents underneath. The citrus piney scent went through the house. While making love to your wife, wrapping presents, it was there watching you. Informing you of our ancestral resilient bio-spirit for hundreds of generations in the darkest of winter. Fir is a circumborreal northern tree of Europe, Asia and North America. It's scent and medicinal authenticity's in our DNA of westernkind. It speaks to our well being now as it spoke to our fathers and mothers, to our noble good people. It is wanting to speak to you now just as it spoke to them before, keeping them alive during dark winters, with vitamin C, and alterative healing sap. It's both magic and mundane. All of the northern westernkind made a ritual of bringing this tree into their homes. If you are reading my words, know your kin used this tree. Know it. Feel it. Believe it. Become it. Whether pagan or Christian it's part of our tribal identity. Christians unbeknownst to themselves worshipped and prayed to this tree yearly at winter solstice. Even today atheists, Christians, agnostics, pagans do the same and bring the Wild Herb Ways into their life via this tree at solstice time. You see our old ways have been replaced and rewritten many times. Even bringing a plastic, fake machine made tree like form into our homes at solstice approximates and acknowledges these tribal suppressed memories still alive in the archetypes of the unconscious. We have been and forever will be a northern tree people. 

Top side leaf glossy green 

     Abies grandis is a tall evergreen conifer, with a symmetric conical shape, aromatic flat leaf needles, grey furrowed bark with resin bumps or sap filled blisters. The name Abies is of uncertain origins, perhaps a transliteration of the Greek 'pithys'. Pithys was a woman loved by both Panas and Vorias, the north wind. Vorias made too much noise, keeping her restless and on edge. So she went with Panas. Vorias the northern wind was jealous and angry and in a lovers rage, blew her over a cliff. Panas found her in the valley below and transformed her beautiful lifeless body into a fir tree. In her sadness for losing her human life and her longing for her lover Panas, she cries whenever the Vorias Northern wind blows. Her tears are the medicinal clear resinous sap from the sacred fir tree. The word 'fir' from the old Danish 'fyr', and old english 'firgen' or mountain forest, and fairgunni, gothic, originally refers to oak. During the three thousand year period 3400 BC to 400 BC, conifers, firs and birches displaced oaks in westernkinds northern european forests during a climatic shift., not different than climate shift today. A climactic shift that speaks to many of westernkind to move further north and touch base with our northern roots. "Hence it is no surprise, that in the early history of our germanic languages, fir referred to oak forests and shifts to reflect the transition to fir conifer forests." (Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Indo-Europeans and the Indo-Europeans. 1994)

    It's range is from British Columbia on the west side of the cascades south to north California with a sub-species Abies grandis idahoensis in Idaho, Montana and far eastern Washington. Identitfy Abies grandis by the familiar conical Christmas tree shape, the grey bark with bumps blisters, and the flat needles rounded at the edge bright shiny green on the top side, grey dull green with two distinct whitish bands of stomata underside. 

      One tendency to avoid in western herbalism is the focus on the flashy, talked written about then talked written about some more, exotic, rare, endangered plants rather than the common, widely available, endemic, easily obtained plant medicines. Whether yarrow, dandelion, fir and pinacea tree medicine, balsam root, canadian flea bane- so many easily sustainable harvest wild plants are there for you and your families, don't overlook them. Abies grandis, grand fir, is one such tree medicine. Besides the medicinal constituents, it has a cultural aspect, it describes in intimate terms where and how you are and who your heroic ancestors are. It's a plant deeply present in our lineage. Our bio-spirit is called and is calling you to these old ways. In many ways your well being is my well being. 

The clear sap can be gathered with spoon

clear sap gathered by pressing

grey bark has blisters filled with clear medicinal sap

      Abies grandis is a potent sustainable abundant tree medicine. The needles and other fir and pine needles were long used as a winter tea with vitamin C that sustained people in the north. A quick tea is a good way for families and friends to meet this tree all. Take one cup of the new growth needles, a handful of Nootka bush rose petals or hips, some aralia nudicaulis root, asarum caudatum leaf or root, juniper berries or herbs spices you have around your kitchen ginger root, cinnamon, fennel seed, boil some water place the grand fir needles or any fir you may have growing nearby, pour the boiling hot water over the fir and add the the other roots you have, let steep and enjoy. 

     Grand fir tree medicine has a distinctly aromatic respiratory effect with a pine lemon orange scent, lightly astringent, the disinfectant topical sap as an ointment for open skin wounds, internally mildly diuretic, importantly as an expectorant especially the runny sap and fragrant needle leaves.  With most long lived trees, the resinous sap functions to heal wounds on the external tree surface. These saps and resins have broad antimicrobial action and have been refined for hundreds of thousands of years in the crucible of the trees evolutionary history. You can easily gather from the blister bumps on the lower portion of younger trees. The leaf needles produces a light clear aromatic essential oil through steam distillation useful in salves, as an ingredient in a pleasant aromatic room spray, a few drops in a cup of fir needle tea, in boiling water as a steam inhalation for colds, as an addition to formulas for coughs and respiratory congestion. Fir medicine has an ability to produce a productive cough and seems to go directly to the lungs. 

      Using the medicine: immediately upon ingestion the terpine lipid aromatic constituents travel into the bronchial lung world environment and lend their aromatic anti microbial, anti-viral, anti-bacterial qualities to loosen secretions, helping to produce more effective cough. The same constituents which ensured the survival of the tree against physical stress from wind storm and pathogens in the environment begin to work in some of the same ways in your body. Just as breaks in the integrity of your skin can open pathways for infection, so too breaks in integrity of the tree surface open ways for pathways of infection in the fir. The easily gathered sap can be used topically, directly on the surface of warm, hot inflamed skin wounds to both aid granulation and address infected wounds to speed healing, acting as an alterative in wound healing. It has a soothing quality and doesn't pinch or burn. It has a mild anesthetic quality and draws down the sharp inflammation. It helps to form granulation tissue in wounds. 

young small fir are best for leaf needle tea

     When using abundant fir tree medicine in your herb think tank, use your entire folk herbal base knowledge with fir. It's forgiving and easy to work with. It's available winter, spring summer. Often with hard to come by exotic rare herbs, using the herb gets locked into narrow pathways due to availability. Those herbs are expensive. Maybe you've only seen it once or twice face to face. Or maybe you've never seen it. Or it grows a hundred fifty miles from you and your car has bald tires and the engine light is on. You only have a tiny bit, you may not see it again, so you hoard its use. You heard and read from an expert, who heard and read from another expert, that such and such herb does this or that so you repeat, and re-repeat the cliche expert phrases. The pinacea fir tree medicines you can make your own. If you make up a formula that doesn't work out, you can trash it and start fresh, knowing that for hundreds of miles fir will be with you, year in year out. You don't have to order online, it's right there. You don't need 190 proof alcohol, you can use vodka, tequila, honey, vinegar, hot water, or just the resin itself direct. 

     It lends itself well to instilled oil, steam distillation, oxymel, steam, cough syrup, tincture, chest rub, glycerites and salve. In addition fir is a circulatory stimulant and function well in topical liniments, rubs, massage oils, and salt rubs. 

     Playing around with Fir: it's important to play around with herbs, to experiment and experience whatever fir has to say. Start with one tree plant medicine and use your insight to go outward to other similar trees. Fir is light and doesn't have heavy complex chemistry. Some of the other conifers are harsh, almost at the point where the taste is too astringent, too aromatic. Fir needle is a tasty tea beverage. You don't need complex intricate tools or understanding to work with fir. You don't have to pay to attend an online seminar done by a expert rooted in complex cliche verbiage mainly designed to befuddle rather than clarify, to approach fir tree medicine. You know this plant since childhood, whether your family were catholics, pagans, atheists you already have deep memories and experience with this tree. You don't need to wack out or puke out in the rainforest, fir it's near, right there wherever you are and importantly where you need to be. 

Get to know Abies, Fir forest medicine

      Let's play around with some basic simple stuff you can begin right now. Reread if you need to the identification. I put some pictures up on the leaf needles. As far as a look alike, there is one plant in the pacific northwest you don't want to confuse with fir. In the Pacific Northwest there is yew. Yew has a much more complex chemistry. Kind of like an advanced level, maybe some time down the road you can check it out. The bark on yew is papery and brown. The berry like seeds called arils are pulpy and red, fir lacks any kind of red seed. The needles on yew are much shorter, they lack the dual white stomata on the underside of the needle. Know your fir, work with one tree at a time, get to know it in and out. Once familiar with fir then move onto other widely available tree plant medicines. Understand the basic principle that trees through thousands of years have developed complex broad spectrum antimicrobial substances in their sap and resinous pitch that are easily utilized in your herbal medicine practice. 

Steam distillation essential oil

      Abies grandis is unique in that the bumps and blisters contain a runny clear liquid that is easily gathered. Go from tree to tree and gather both the visible pale yellow drips, and using two spoons press on the blister and with the second spoon collect the clear liquid. There are some other ways to gather the sap but at the beginning try this gathering method. It's straightforward, you see a bump on the grey bark, you press on it, and a light clear liquid squishes out. Place both the visible dripping golden sap and the clear liquid you are gathering and mix them together in a small jar. This antimicrobial liquid can be placed on skin, or with gauze to heal any kind of boil, red raised warm infected puncture wounds from splinters, relatively superficial skin scrapes, road rash from scapes, blisters etc. It's an amazing liquid and since it's labor intensive to gather you'll treasure it. 

     The Abies grandis clear liquid gathered from the blisters and the visible gooey pitch is extremely mild compared to hardened yellow pine pitch. Compared to other conifers it is slightly salty, sweet, neutral astringency, not as hard on the kidneys yet highly aromatic. It can be applied directly to open wounds and skin, either while in the field or saved in a small jar for later use or to add to formulas.

The silver grey bark, Grand Fir

The golden sap drops Abies Fir

     An excellent cough syrup can be made from placing fir needles chopped small covering with brandy, tequila or whiskey. Letting it sit for 14 days then strain, then adding honey in a ratio of 1:3 one part honey to 3 parts of the strained liquid. You can make all kinds of adjustments as you get to know the plants in your area. 

    Depending where you are Prunus spp bark, Mainanthenum racemosum root, Osmorhiza spp, sweet cicely, Balsamorhiza sagittata, arrow leaf balsam , rose hips, along with Abies grandis needles can be added to the first liquid, tinctured, strained then to the mixture add 3:1, 3 parts tinctured herbs to one part honey and have an exceptional cough respiratory syrup.

     Another method is to place the herbs finely chopped in boiling water, making sure they are covered with 2 inches water. Cover and let boil for an hour, when ready the water will just cover the herbs, usually an hour over low heat. Turn the heat off, let the mixture cool overnight. Strain the mixture and for every cup of the liquid 8 ounces, decoction add 1/2 cup or 4 ounces honey. You could add one ounce of tequila, whiskey or rum per 12 ounces of liquid as a preservative but in my experience this has not been necessary. A dose would be 1 tablespoon every hour, or a teaspoon every hour for children until improving. 

    To make a simple oxymel, fill a quart Mason jar 3/4 full with finely chopped fir needles, add apple cider vinegar to cover fir needles,  then add enough honey to fill the jar with 1/2 inch to the top. Cover the top with wax paper, shake every day and the oxymel wil be ready in 10-14 days. You can use it mixed with olive oil and salt on fresh dandelion or any salad greens. You can add garlic, onion, cayenne, ginger to make a fir vinegar to have at table as a condiment and seasoning. 

https://youtu.be/_GfFFluu_Fg

Going Free

All lyrics and music by Paul Manski, recorded 6/5/2020, all music vocals, bass, and guitar by Paul Manski

“ Going Free, going free, 

We’re gathering our tribe and family.

Going Free, going free,

We will never apologize or take the knee.

Brothers and sisters, strong are we,

We will live out the truth

Recapture our destiny.

We will walk confidently,

We gather to live the truth

That is meant to be.

Going Free, going free, 

We’re gathering our tribe and family.

Going Free, I’m  going free,

I will never apologize or take the knee.

Our blood is great and good’

I promise you will see.

Walking hand in hand,

In the forested north country.

We will take our place

And make a stand.

In the north doug fir

Red cedar land.

Going Free, going free, 

We’re gathering our tribe and family.

Going Free, we’re  going free,

I will never apologize or take the knee,

You’ll be my woman,

I’ll be your man

We’ll secure the existence of our children

In this promised land.

Going Free, going free, 

We’re gathering our tribe and family.

Going Free”

By Paul Manski

Recorded June 5,2020

     I need and want you to get comfortable with fir medicine and all the plants growing around the tree. Start with fir then move outward in a circle. A lot of folks ask, 'what's the best way to get started? an online class? a herb school? a book?', yes all of that, yet fundamentally from my perspective the best way  is to find one plant that you can meet up with face to face. Herb schools and online stuff have become problematic because there's a lot of agenda that's connected with them. The teachers are oftentimes appealing to a demographic to sell more seminars, more this and more that. These agendas can sabotage your learning journey with the plants. Especially if the reason you have been drawn to these plants is to use these medicines to increase the circle of well being of not only yourself, but for your family, for your people, our westernkind. Trees don't live in classrooms unless we redefine classrooms to mean forest. So one way or another we have to meet in the forest where the trees grow. We are not only learning about these plants for physical healing or to duplicate some medicine you can get at the pharmacy. We are doing what our ancestors have done, what you are going to do, and what you will teach others to do- heal this sickness that has entered our bio-spirit. The complex association of plant community can't be captured in a classroom or online.  Online stuff is absolutely problematic because there is no such thing as an online tree medicine. The entire composite of smells, taste, sight, hills and meadow can't even be approximated in an online class. If you want to give money away, just send the teacher some green frog skins and say, here's some money! Books are another story, well written plant identification field guides, botanical key and check lists, a loupe, topographic maps, they can really help. I don't know where you live but I have to drive 15 miles in any direction to get a cell signal so books are the way to go. Online apps and the portable cordless cellphones young people are so fond of, not so much. We will figure out how to make it happen, it will happen because we can't allow our kind to be erased, to be reduced or diminished. We will heal one another because more than anything we love one another. We love our people, that's the bottom line. 
      We can get focused on illness, what causes illness? We can put our doctor and nurse stethoscopes, put on masks, put on rubber gloves, play hospital 911 show with illness. Microbes, virus, blood work, CT scans, put on our emt first responder doctor hats...but the biggest cause of illness, sickness, dis-ease is the individualism and the disconnect that has broken up our families, broken up our tribe, broken up our westernkind culture. So what we are doing is building connections, community, family. Re-building, re-connecting, re- family-ing, becoming familiar with tree, familiar with each other. 

     So go directly to the plants. Learn that one plant in and out, topical internal, winter summer. Tree plant medicines are best for this, they don't disappear in winter. They are tangible and long lived. If your basic personality type is introvert intuitive, you can use that to get to know the tree better. Sit with it. Do simple breathing exercises where you visualize the roots and the visible tree body above ground. Get to a place where the energy transfer from the underground roots to the sunward above ground portion of the tree synchronizes with your in out breathing. Visualize the roots and put your breath into the tree. You can visualize the North Star polaris overhead and how the bear and dog turn around with polaris unmoving. Plants  are in families, not unlike human families. If you know Mary Beth Sullivan and she liked carrot cake on her birthaday, chances are if you meet Diedre Sullivan and she's Mary Beth's sister, you can probably count on if you baked Diedre a carrot cake for her birthday she's going to appreciate it. It's not much more complex than that. By going into one tree plant family medicine like fir, you'll understand the other Sullivan, Pinacea pine family tree medicines. Another plant tree medicine to start with might be Populus, aspen, cottonwood, just go deeply into that one tree. In the process of arranging your time with that tree plant medicine you'll find other, annuals, shrubs, green things growing under the fir. Branch out to those plants one at a time, get to know them. For that reason it helps if the tree plant medicine grows right close, as in outside your window. You don't want to start out with elaborate exotic far away plants. Here I don't mean invasive or non-native, by exotic far away I mean close by, for example eucalyptus is from Australia, but if it's growing outside your window, and there are eucalyptus growing near by, then that may be the tree for you. In general though pine, fir family, cottonwood, aspen, birch, maple, tree family medicines are the best to start out with. You don't want to get baffled and confused. Look for a tree family medicine that is abundant and near you then branch out in a circle from that specific tree. Everything you need to know is close by, right there. 
    For instance in the picture below is a young Abies grandis, Great Fir. In the bottom left of the tree is arnica, to the right bunch berry, above past the bunchberry are wild strawberry, although blurry some avens and cinquefoil, bottom left uva-ursi, pipsisewa- there is basically a northwest medicine garden without going anywhere. So hunker down, find your tree, find your spot and dig in for the long haul. It's about bringing these plant medicines back to your, our people for the long haul. On a basic level, security is at risk because the fundamental relationships that make up our western society are no longer trustworthy. Going to a physician or clinic is also going to the new stasi-police-medico conglomeration. What you say or don't say to the nurse, nurse practitioner, physician could affect your employment, your ability to keep your children in your home under your care. A simple matter of fact statement to a health care worker could easily land you in an observational lock down psych-facility. A statement your son or daughter makes to a school counselor could wind up landing your child in state CPS child protective temporary foster care, with a lengthy complex hearing process to get your children back in your home. People are literally fired from their jobs for making statements that oppose a new cultural narrative. People are right now at this present moment in prison for statements of belief in western countries. 

young Abies grandis, Great Fir with plant community 

     Know that these plant medicines as I have directly seen recently can be the difference between above ground vs below ground status on a gut level. I can say without reservation that by doing this plant study, you or someone you love and care about will be alive versus being a memory. I had to deal with this scenario directly, face to face as the bug hit with infection and the enforced lockdown protocol. I was able to use the formulas of native wild plants I have worked with to recover and claw back. Know that all that went down is a dress rehearsal for deeper and more severe enforcement and erasure of resistance. Whatever is going down now as portrayed by the media is not remotely resistance, it is capitulation and cooperation with the regime agenda. The window of opportunity to peacefully gather together in love is seriously diminished. I advocate health, peace and love for our people, nothing more, nothing less.
     We are heading into some dark times and it's becoming more and more difficult to rely on things and institutions that nurtured and protected us and our loved ones in the recent past to carry on into the present restructuring and erasure process. You need not only the herbal medicines to get you through the infectious pathogens, you also need a psychological defense against the meme pathogens widely infecting our sphere. Many disease processes are made more insidious via an impaired altered immune response due to a complex psychological assault on the unique bio-spirit of westernkind. The ubiquitous self-inflicted dis-ease processes of alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, autism, physical self mutilation are now rights of passage into a partial slow process suicide cult. The paralysis of the bio-spirit encouraged and inflicted by a multi-factorial regime agenda must be both outed and dealt with effectively and compassionately.  More than anything,  right now I invite you to enter this positive sphere of well being via the pathway of love through these plant medicines. There are compassionate friends here. We have no experts only facilitators. These future meet ups are about going deeper into the process of allowing the spontaneous bio-spirit archetypes to be returned to function, to heal one another through a circle of love. At this point there seems to only be this choice to care for one another and re-invigorate our common resilient ancestral spirit alive in each one of us, and work together going free.

     You need to learn these plants and medicines now. I can't tell you how many plant medicine books are in my hand that a few years ago were in libraries. Libraries are being de-populated by an algorithm of erasure. That erasure process is accelerating on many fronts. Just yesterday I talked to an older man, he bought 3 acres for ten thousand dollars. Not that long ago, not in ancient times, fairly recently. He was making at the time thirty thousand a year. So for one third of his annual income he was able to secure for himself a homestead. If you are a young person living in 2020, you may have to pay, ten to twelve times your annual salary to secure a homestead for your family. In many ways that is not doable. That's how the subtle erosion and erasure occurs in real time of our people. Learning, re-learning these plant medicines is the real work of existing in love, doing no harm into the future. Do it, don't delay. Know that it's not only for you but for those who will live and love on after you've gone.

    ...share these plant teachings freely 

     

Nootka bush rose petals excellent in fir tea

     

     

     

Monoterpenes (62.95%)

Esters (18.65%)

Sesquiterpenes (12.93%)

Other (3.31%)

Monoterpenols (1.70%)

Aliphatic Aldehydes (0.26%)

Ketones (0.20%)

Beta-pinene, alpha and beta pinene, bornyl acetate, beta-phellandrene, limoline, methyl thymol

References

1. Moerman DE. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press; 1998.
2. Wood M. The Earthwise Herbal: A Complete Guide to Old World Medicinal Plants. North Atlantic Books; 2008.
3. Bensky D, Clavey S, Stöger E. Chinese Herbal Medicine: Materia Medica. Eastland Press; 2004.
4. Moore M. Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West. Museum of New Mexico Press; 2003.
5. Thomas V. Gamkrelidze; Indo-Europeans and the Indo-Europeans. 1994
6. Charles W. Kane. Medicinal Plants of the Western Mountain States. Lincoln Town Press. 2017
7. Tokos, George Mike. The Nature of the Chemical Constituents of Grand Fir Bark (abies Grandis Lindl). : Oregon State College. 2012

Dogwood medicine

    

Red-osier Dogwood 

      Here as part of our study together, we will be talking about Cornaceae plants, dogwood family plants, which have been little used in western herbalism in recent history.  We will be exploring some traditional eclectic uses, ethnobotanical historic uses, and current TCM uses for the use of the fleshy berry of the Asiatic species. 
     

Bunchberry Cornus unalaschkensis

We will be looking at endemic species in the rocky mountain west and pacific northwest. We will take several breaks and also go into the field to look at how this plant presents in the wild, some harvesting considerations and my hope is that you can make a personal connection, a  personal contact with these important medicinal herbs which are seldom mentioned in modern herbalism today. As part of this seminar will be using some techniques I have been working with to experience these plants on a one to one basis. There’s quite a few ticks and mosquitoes out now and you may want to use the mix I showed you earlier made with essential oils and plants growing here. We will not be gathering any plants from this location, except for your notebooks and the exercise portion. 

     Cornus sericea, Red-osier dogwood, kinnikinnick, red twig dogwood, red willow, Creek dogwood, Family Cornaceaea, Dog wood family. Formerly called Cornus stolonifera, 

     Cornus means horn or antler, sericea comes from the latin sericatus- which means silky, describing the fine silky hairs found on the under side of the leaves. leaves and young twigs, stolonifera refers to bearing stolons, running stems, its lower stems that grow upright and when the branches bend down they grow roots where they touch the soil. Osier is a word for willows whose branches are used for making baskets or wicker furniture. Kinnikinnik an Algonquian, eastern tribe word, refers to its use in smoking mixtures, the dried bark mixed with leaves from Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, bear-berry, raspberry leaves and tobacco. In the journals of Lewis and Clark from 1806, “ Since their arrival at the mouth of the Columbia river (Portland) almost daily rains had drenched the men…their meat spoiled, some means of stretching their tobacco, dispatched two men to the open lands near the Ocian for Sackacome, which we make use of to mix with our tobacco to smoke, which has an agreeable flavour.” Lewis and Clark sent a sample of the kinnikinnick to then president Jefferson. 

Cornus sericea underside 

     Red osier dogwood is found in the northeast and in the western US from Arizona, where it’s found sporadically in higher mountain areas, as a kind of high forest woodland plant, more due to the predominant dry nature of the ecoystem, rather a quality of the plant.  Northward  much more common presenting as a lower elevation riparian plant growing in dense thickets in mid to north Cascadia, hence it’s name red-willow. 

     Be grateful for your privilege brought by spirit for where you are at here near the border, going free in a low population density area, on a property provided free and clear by spirit for western herbalism study.  I have seen that time and time, repeated again and again, duplicated in so many people’s lives, especially right now, more than ever before, land and learning situations drops into people’s hands when they are focused on this real work. I have to believe it’s being grateful for your privilege, celebrating that privilege and using it to advance your people’s well being, and enter a positive sphere based on love where you do no harm.
       

Dwarf dogwood habitat

      Here it is growing as a riparian plant, much like a willow, hence the name red-willow, as the stems and peeled bark can be used similarly to the willow Salix species for basketry. 
It grows about 7 feet tall with distinctive red stems that will help you identify it in winter. The leaves turn a deep red to orange depending where it is growing and the bark tends to redden also contrasting with the snow. It is a deciduous perennial.  It’s leaves are opposite, oval shaped, twice as long as wide, about 3 inches long, deeply veined with a center vein, 7-9 secondary veins begin at the center vein and run parallel to each other converging at the pointed tip. Flowers come in late spring, they are white, at the brach top end in flat cyme clusters, the individual flowers are 4-petaled and resemble tiny, tiny miniature Cornus florida, flowering dogwood flowers. 

     Another widely distributed western species of the Cornaceae family plant valuable for medicine in the area, Cornus unalaschkensis, bunchberry, our dwarf dogwood, has quite a different presentation. It’s range is Cascadia north and into eastern Russia, a circumboreal species. It is about six inches tall, a perennial, the most common of the dwarf dogwoods. Leaves are in 4’s or 6’s appearing in a whorl, but if you look closely they are opposite. Bunchberry spreads by woody rhizomes and is a plant of deep shade, often boggy wet moist deep shade northwest forest. The leaves are shiny dark green above, lighter green below, 2-3 inches long, egg shaped, with arching veins. The flower is a single appearing to have 4 white spade shaped petals, which are bracts, with small flowers in the center, which will mature to a tight bunch of 5-9 bright red berries with a single seed. There is a similar eastern species of dwarf dogwood C. Canadensis growing in similar wet forest conditions back east. 

Bunchberry patch

     Cornus unalaschkensis was used by the Abnaki as a analgesic, the Algonquin for colds and stomach aches, for fevers, all native peoples as a food berry, and by most in smoking mixtures. 

     The impotance of bunchberry as a folk medicine is due to the aspirin-like effects acting via a different pathway, the iridoid glycosides, corine, corvine, cornic acid, and other constituents. The dried berries have properties similar to TCM Shan Zhu Yu. The whole plant dried as a tea has anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, anodyne, antispasmotic, astringent, hypotensive, tonic qualities. To use the dried gathered leaf and portion of root, you may add 4-6 rounded teaspoons to a quart of water as a cold infusion, or 1 rounded teaspoon in warm, hot but not boiling water and drink, up to 3 times per day.

     As the mid 19^thcentury eclectics were centered in the original 13 colonies, they used mainly eastern woodland plants. Flowering dogwood grows from about the mason-dixon line into the  deep south territory. From eclectic medicinal handbooks written in the mid to late 1800’s Cornus stolonifera also known as C. sericea, was considered a substitute, replacement for the dried bark of Cornus florida, flowering dogwood which previously was in the official USP formulary. Flowering dogwood itself was a substitute for Peruvian bark, or cinchona bark, Cinchona offinalis. 

    So let’s look at Cinchona and get a picture of what the eclectics were attempting to approximate. Cinchona is a plant native to tropical rain forests in South America. Cinchona, also known as quinine bark, was used as an anti-fever agent for the treatment and prevention of malaria. Later the drug hydroxychloroquine was synthesized from chloroquine which in turn was delevoped from cinchona bark. Malaria an Italian word for ‘bad air’ was a European epidemic in the 1600’s which killed Pope Gregory XV in 1623, during the conclave to elect the new pope 8 cardinals died, and many Catholic church officials. The Vatican itself was in lock down for a time. Even the new pope pope Urban VIII caught the dieease coming down with fever, chills, jaundice and body aches. Jesuits active in South America at the time brought back cinchona bark and Urban VIII survived. At roughly the same time Oliver Cromwell the man responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Catholics in Ireland also caught maleria but refused to take the Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit’s powder remedy and died. 

Dwarf dogwood

     Malaria was long a scourge of Rome, and the Italians believed it was caused by ‘mal aria’, bad air arising from fetid swamps. Their explanation is not far from the truth as the disease is spread by mosquitoes carrying a parasite, plasmodium spread by mosquito bites. Quinine bark, and refined medicine from the plant was the only known treatment for the next three hundred years. Quinine was not synthesized until 1944. Even though synthetic drugs like chloroquine initially were more effective in treating malaria, by the 1960’s Plasmodium falciparum developed resistance to the synthetic drugs while quinine had to be used again in parts of the world where malaria remains a health issue.  Quinine is still used today in quinine or tonic water for cocktails. Cinchona bark contains 5% quinine. 

     Comparing the dried bark in my hand to Cornus florida’s description. It is visually the same with a bitter astringent taste. Dogwood bark was used, “many years ago as a antiperiodic  in intermittent fever.”, for malaria-like periodic circular fevers, ebbing and flowing in a diurnal cycle, cooler in the morning with rising fever later in the day peaking towards bedtime.  That is certainly one possibility for you to use in your herbal tool kit. Besides the pain relieving qualities we’ll talk about later with bunchberry, periodic fever is a good use of red osier dogwood.  

     Ethnobotanical accounts was that it was used both internally and externally. Internally to treat diarrhea, fevers, externally for skin problems. Whenever we have an astrigent herb, that tightens the tissue this is a legitimate pathway you’ll want to explore. It’s important to note that multiple accounts of the fresh bark indicate it used as an emetic, while the bark dried as an infusion is less likely to have this property. So with the dogwoods we have here focus on the dried bark as a tea or cold infusion rather than a fresh plant tincture. In addition, as said before, was a kinnikinnick, or blended smoking mixture. You should try it that way, we’ll try a smoking blend at break, for those interested. The young upright stalks like willow, as fibre, cordage,  to make baskets and dream catchers, with its distinctive red color making the weave interesting, often alternating with willow.  In addition the dried berries were eaten mixed with other more flavorable berries, and as in Chinese TCM, in Asiatic varieties considered a tonic. 

Riparian Osier  Dogwood

      As we have seen consistently in mid 19^thcentury eclectics they often used native American herbs, usually from east coast forests to attempt to duplicate another plant used for a particular constellation of symptoms, in this case periodic low grade intermittent fever, as a quinine like compound. In this case both cinchona bark and southeast flowering dogwood with the end plant Cornus sericea, here in abundance in the American mountain west and Cascadia. Oftentimes there are dead ends, lack of reliable research, and one can often hope at best that in time others will take up the same task with better results for the future.  

      Dr William H. Cook writing in his Physio-Medical Dispensatory, 1869, wrote of Cornus sericea in this way: “The bark is similar to that of cornus florida, but partakes more of the characters of a pure astringent, and less of those of a tonic. It is also more stimulating than the other dogwoods. It expends a considerable influence upon the uterus, and is of service in atonic conditions of that organ. …It has been commended in dropsy and as an antiseptic, but its powers would be limited under such circumstances. “William Cook writing in 1869 does not mention Red osier dogwood’s use in periodic intermittent fever, and it seems to have dropped into a realm of folk herb use after that.

      Maude Grieve writing in her 1931, A modern Herbal, wrote regarding Red-osier dogwood,:” The active properties are similar to those found in Peruvian Bark, except that there is more gum mucilage and extractive matter and less resin quinine and tannin. It is tonic astringent and slightly stimulant, used in periodical and typhoid fever. Taken internally it increases the strength and frequency of the pulse, elevating the temperature of the body. It should be used in the dried state, the fresh bark being likely to upset the stomach.” 

       In my research there is no evidence that any of the North American Cornus spp have any quinine content. Yet the plant does have active plant constituents such as iridoid glycosides, corine, corvine, cornic acid, flavanoids, fumaric acid, tannins. Iridoid glycosides are regarded as a group of compounds that function as defense chemicals against eaters of the plants such as insects and mammals and against pathogens. Iridoid glycosides is the bitter taste in Cornus sericea. Iriod glycosides also have an anti-inflammatory effect and are present in plants like African Devil’s claw, Harpagophytum procumbens, figwort, proven effective in dealing with pain due to arthritic joint conditions.  

CORNAC

     Two common points stated by all sources are, that active plant constituent corine and others present are harmed by intense heat and secondly the fresh dried bark is emetic. So using the herb is by cold infusion of dried bark, roughly one half an ounce, 14grams or so of dried bark to a quart of water, left overnight in a quart jar, 3-6 oz of the strained liquid drunk 1-2 three times per day. Begin with less and experiment how it works, sometimes less is more.

     Regarding the dwarf dogwood, Cornus Canadensis now in the process of being renamed to Cornus unalaschkensis, or bunch berry contains corine, corvine, cornic acid and compounds have mild salicin like anti-inflammatory effects and according to Michael Moore from field notes, “Corvine is not as strong as salicylic acid, and it has a different transport mechanism in the blood stream. It’s a good anti- inflammatory for a person who’s become allergic to salicylates. It’s also a lot safer than other alternatives. The dried herb could be used as a simple tea. Each person's response to {comic acid} is different. A rounded teaspoon per cup might be needed to give the equivalent of one aspirin.”

      Finally, western herbalists are beginning to use the fruit as in Chinese traditional medicine TCM, an Asiatic Cornus officinalis is known as Shan Zhu Yu, is widely used as an herbal medicine. Cornus officinalis is a deciduous shrub and the fruits are used primarily. Considered an herb that stabilizes and binds  to reduce heavy menstrual bleeding, and unusually active secretions, sweating, urination, and in men premature ejaculation. It is used with other tonic herbs in formulas, as stopping or inhibiting secretions could be dangerous long term. The fruit without the seed, is antibacterial, antifungal, astringent and tonic. The fleshy pulp is used for the treatment of arthritis, fever, and many ailments. Good journey with this plant, and as always...share

William H. Cook MD, The Physio-medical Dispensatory, William Cook 1869

Maude Grieve, A Modern Herbal, 1931

Charles W. Kane, Medicinal Plants of the Western Mountain States, Lincoln Town Press, 2020

Charles F. Millspaugh, American Medicinal Plants, John Voston and company, 1892

Michael Moore, Medicianl Plants of the Mountain West, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2003

Michael Moore, Field Notes

Joseph P. Remington and Horatio C Wood, The Dispensatory of the United States, J.P. Lippincott Company, 1907 edition

Mark Turner and Ellen Kuhlman, Trees and Shrubs of the Pacific Northwest, Timber Press Field Guide, 2014

Redroot snow brush

Ceanothus velutinus, is in the Buckthorn Rhamnaceae family. It’s known as Snowbrush, because when it goes down with flowers, it's white as snow. It's also called sticky laurel, tobacco brush and red root. In western folk herbalism passed on face to face, all ceanothus are red roots. It has a range southernmost towards the jarbidge,  northward into Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Like several other plants, within this tradition many know and use: long tailed ginger, wild sarsaparilla, red cedar, huckleberry, it's a marker, pillar boundary plant, that says, 'this is where i am', this is the place, this is the bioregion. 

Rosa woodsi, Lupinus sericeus, C. velvutinus

     Snowbrush as a redroot is an evergreen fire tolerant shrub which will sprout from seed or from the remaining root crown after fire. Ceanothus is a greek word for a spiny shrub and velutinus means soft, velvety, referring to the short dense silky hairs on the dull green underside of the leaf, the top of the leaf is sticky, shiny and appears wet, glossy green. Leaves remain on this woody shrub all winter.

     https://youtu.be/KYLQFUkNrro
 Another red root growing nearby is Ceanothus sanguineus, the red stemmed Ceanothus has deciduous leaves that are less resinous although still astringent. Snowbrush redroot can be identified by its shiny sticky resinous, aromatic leaves, widely oval with round tip, 3 inches long finely tooth around the margins.

Fine serrated leaf edge

      A distinctive 3 veined pattern meeting at the base of the leaf, similar to other ceanothus. These 3 parallel leaf veins, most visible on the underside of the leaf, are an identifying sign in the redroots I have met and worked with from the sky islands in southern Arizona through to the Selkirks of southern Cascadia. It grows in dense thickets about 20-30 feet around, and grows to about 4 foot tall from a dense root structure. In late spring early summer it has thick rounded clusters of white fragrant flowers, sweet with a slightly soapy fragrance. It is often found in burned areas, and is fire dependent as it resprouts from a burned root crown and from seeds are aided in germination by heat from a fire. 
     

Underside leaf 3 veins

       When in bloom you can smell the sweetness of the flowers, from quite a distance away if wind is blowing. The leaves themselves put out a resin-like spicy vanilla aroma similar to valerian root, with strong wintergreen tone especially when the sun is shining on the leaves, the leaf when crushed resembles the leaves and root of Asarum caudatum, our long tailed wild ginger.. Taking the white flowers, mixing them in a bucket of water will produce a white frothy soapy lather from the high saponin content and you can use it to freshen up while skinning dipping for a bath. It’s good on the hands, face, hair or skin, or washing t-shirts and clothes in a camp. The clothes will smell slightly sweet with out the heavy crazy scent of store bought soap which seems to attract mosquitoes like a magnet. In a camp the smell of dryer sheets and the chemical petroleum fake clean smell of laundry soap takes on a nauseating tone in the woods. 

Sun facing leaf

      Unlike other redroots C. fendleri or C greggi, which grow in the south in Arizona, and New Mexico, the leaves are large and brilliantly shiny, sticky, leathery and aromatic. The leaves are more warming, with noted astringency that is immediately apparent, with a slightly sweet, salty flavor, vanilla valerian root, with strong hints of wintergreen. Astringents tighten tissue, and refers to a degree of pucker from tannins that with the qualities of the plant act on the body to do certain things it normally does on its own, with a push in the way of that process. 
     In a personal face to face, western herbal tradition the wide wet leaf red roots are considered alterative for both hepatic or liver, which can address processing feeding, nourishing the body, taking food from an outside to an inside, through stimulation of the liver, and spleen-lymph addressing swelling, low grade unresolving cycling fevers, chronic low energy and resisting wellness and recovery from both acute eruptions and low grade chronic imbalance in the recovery mode. Both bloods, red and white work both to move vitality and to resolve waste, move stuff and get rid of stuff. Consider combining snowbush with either or both dandelion and Mahonia roots to address the alterative action within the liver. In a respiratory issue you would want a lung mover to resolve phlegm like lobelia or a strong aromatic. Although in the red roots, as a stand alone remedy, snowbrush leaf in a tea has quite a bit of focus for respiratory grips and colds. 

Ceanothus velutinus- teatree snowbrush red root

     As an alterative in congested blood, both red and white bloods, we have an accumulation of waste products in the body which can not be effectively eliminated. This accumulation of waste products in the tissues clogs the elimination channels of the white blood of the spleen and the red blood of the liver. This backup leads to a backup and accumulation of fluid, swelling in the body, and it also has low energy which if chronic, effect the personality. So you have a person physically sidelined by illness which gradually eroded the vitality of the spirit. In general dampness can be seen in swollen lymph nodes, edema, swelling, and puffiness. As this new normal of congestion becomes the baseline, the inherent intelligence of the body attempts to rid itself of this sluggish damp. Often in accumulated dampness there is a low grade fever, chronic infections, chronic fatigue, low energy and tiredness. The tissues can not eliminate waste and the channels of elimination become clogged. While at the same time the building restorative pathways are blocked, its congested, things aren't moving. The vital intelligence of the body attempts to roast and burn away the accumulation causing a damp heat chronic condition, a secondary damp heat condition manifested as a physical condition. We have to be alert to dry constitutional conditions that would caution using drying red roots and adapt formulas according to constitutional conditions of the person rather than a one size fits all approach. The approach has to be fluid, creative and flexible based on what is happening with the person. Flexible based on what is actually happening as in descriptive rather what should be happening as prescriptive in a diagnosis based approach. The key is process rather than substance. In diagnosis models, the diagnosis overcomes the condition, in folk herbalism the condition overcomes the diagnosis.
   

     Snowbush redroot as a big leaf variety has more warming energetics than southwest redroots. As a remedy or tonic it is strongly water based in use. Meaning, it's useful as a tea, as a water based herbal. Both the leaf and root are strong medicine as a tea or infusion. It is heavier on aromatics with a spicy sweet astringent taste, compared to many other red roots. In matching a plant to a condition, you will be looking for stagnancy in condition. The spleen is the key to understanding snowbush and is the largest lymph node in the body. Snowbush is a valuable herb to have in good supply for most any formula. The leaves are used to resolve a fever by allowing heat to be dissipated, especially in round circular fevers that cycle coming and going. Many red root species do not have such a strong component in the leaf. When we hear of Ceanothus americanus leaf being used a leaf tea plant, it is hard to think of Southwest redroot as a tea plant. Southwest redroots leaf is often nearly tasteless with just a hint of astringency. Eastern Ceanothus called New Jersey tea is comparable to Snowbush. Both are big leafed, moist wet, north country aromatic forest plants with an immediate taste. Snowbush is so aromatic you can smell the aromatic sweet spiciness when sun shines on the leaf. This spicy sweet soapy scent is even more pronounced when it flowers, you can smell the flowers from a hundred yards away. The flowers of southwest redroots don't have this vibrant sweetness, when they are in flower it's more soapy. Ceanothus interigimus as a southwest red root comes close to Snowbush yet it's nowhere near the big leafed varieties. Ceanothus sanguineus, the red stem ceanothus which shares the same ecosystem here with a softer deciduous large leaf doesn't match the leaf medicine content and usability of snowbush either, probably because the leaf of snowbush accumulates active aromatic constituents. The leaf hanging on the bush all winter above the snow in the north gives snowbush a different dynamic than the in out breath of most root medicine family energetics. 

Snowbush red root meadow

     As a folk herb, and what I mean by that are herbs you pick and use with your kith kin and family, not store bought herbs which can come from anywhere and appear in a store, in a bottle with a shiny label. Mostly with store bought herbs you are buying the bottle and the label. So as a folk herb, snowbrush redroot is used for boggy warm swollen lymph glands, adjacent to the ears and neck, in the groin and armpits. The kind of dull achy feeling when you are low energy and recovering from some kind of bug. Useful in chronic conditions like low level infectious states that linger and don’t readily resolve, stuck conditions that don’t seem to move, that often manifest with a lethargic spleen. 

     Although I call it snow bush redroot, the leaves and stems are especially good in this variety with both aromatic and astringent qualities. The root is more astringent and potent, when gathering the root you’ll have to decide if you want to shave the red outer layer and just use it, as the larger roots are pretty knarly, regardless you want to process roots quickly as they become super rock hard. You can also mix up a batch using the leaf and root, a whole plant medicine which is probably the best way to go when on a medicine making run.

    Folk herbalists consider this a blood purifier focusing both on the red blood and on the white clear lymph blood which goes through the spleen, lungs and liver. Something like swollen tonsils that produces a blood poisoning with back up into the lungs, snowbrush redroot would be good for that, sluggishness with phlegm, to clear that dampness. Or a uterine congestion with painfulness in the breats, long dragging heavy periods. Or a chronic damp heat in the liver causing distention backing up into the pelvis with clogged elimination and constipation. You may want to add Mahonia and dandelion roots to the red root for this condition.  With this red root you’ll get the astringent tannins that tighten and tone tissue and the saponins that lubricate and help restore flow and create movement in conditions that tend to go damp and stagnant. It helps to balance the thick stickiness of the blood in stagnant conditions so the blood can do what it does better, move stuff around. As you recover from illness a lot of extra waste products are released that need to be flowed out, filtered out rather than just recirculation around in a funk. 

Ceanothus velutinus in flower, early June

     Snowbush red root acts strongly on both spleen and liver to get both the white lymph blood and the red heart blood moving and circulating. A strong aromatic red root not only has astringency, it also has a way to transform, eliminate damp. The body is like a doughnut with a hole in the middle, so that the inside of the doughnut is actually the outside layer. You can think of your mouth, oral cavity, throat, esophagus, trachea, lungs, large and small intestines – from one perspective they are inside the body, from another perspective they are the outside of the body, like the dough nut hole. Redroot enables this positive negative charge between the inside and outside of the body, what comes in and what goes out, on the level of the lymph and blood to be regulated and balanced so that waste elimination on the cellular level can occur. The inside and outside of the cell membranes can maintain the coming and going that needs to occur. 
   

Snowbrush patch

       Snowbush redroot helps to thin thick sluggish sticky blood so it flows better, reaches everywhere it needs to go. When the blood is too thick after a heavy fatty meal, all the blood goes to the center of the body, this can cause a liver stagnant headache, with a blood shortage to the brain. In these kinds of conditions you can add dandelion root and Mahonia  to red root to stimulate the liver to loosen up the blood and release bile so the fat can be broken down. 

    
     Red root is a tonic for the spleen and white blood lymph in sub acute chronic condition of infection, it can added to many formulas including sore throat and quincy with throat pain and swollen tonsils and tender lymph nodes at the throat. Especially once recovery is occurring but there’s been a set back. This often occurs after taking antibiotics and you have a quick recovery, then several days later after finishing the antibiotics, it feels like it’s coming back. During an acute stage red root can be taken in high doses, you’ll have to experiment but believe me you can take a lot when you’re sick. The root pieces can be boiled two or three times as long as your getting color. Make sure you dice up your red root as soon as you can, while you still can because in short time it turns into stone that you won't be able to work at all. Big pieces that you can't cut can be dumped in a pot of water and boiled for medicine. Thanks for reading and may the road come up to greet you! and as always...

Going Free

Going Free

an original 

All lyrics and music by Paul Manski, recorded 6/5/2020, all music vocals, bass, and guitar by Paul Manski based on Going Free a book by Jason Köhne

“ Going Free, going free, 

We’re gathering our tribe and family.

Going Free, going free,

We will never apologize, beg or take the knee. https://odysee.com/@WildHerbWays:4/GoingFree:e?r=5p2ttggf39mzS4CGDzrGdEb4aeELD91C

     https://youtu.be/_GfFFluu_Fg

Brothers and sisters, strong are we,

We will live out the truth,

Recapture our destiny.

We will walk confidently,

We gather to live the dream, truth

that is meant to be.

Going Free, going free, 

We gather together our tribe and family.

Going Free, I’m  going free,

I will never apologize, beg, or take a knee.

Our blood is great and good

I promise you will see.

Walking hand in hand,

In the forested north country.

We will take our place

And make a stand.

In the north with doug fir

Red cedar land.

Going Free, going free, 

We’re gathering together our our tribe and family.

Going Free, we’re  going free,

I will never apologize, beg or take the knee,

You’ll be my woman,

I’ll be your man

We’ll secure the existence of our children,

In this promised land.

I'm going free, going free, 

Gathering together our tribe and family.

Going Free”

By Paul Manski

Recorded June 5, 2020