Most herbal remedies seem to come from the huge division of plants called Dicots. Further, they seem to come totally from Angiosperms, with a few exceptions. This is the exceptions page. I only include the plants that we investigated in Bio 160.

Ferns and Fern Allies (spore bearing plants)

Horsetail Family: meadow pine: young raw shoots were eaten by Romans, and other primitive people, like asparagus (they are pretty good actually, the tender tips crunch up nicely raw). Tea is taken as a tonic (1/2 a handful of plant to 1 3/4 pints water: Levy), but small doses are indicated. Also good external use for bleeding, burns (dilute with milk for use here) and white spots on the fingernails. Yields yellow dye when mordanted with chrome or alum. Tea (from sterile branches) can be used in spray for control of fugus and rusts, and for sores on animals (Riotte). Rough stalks of all members of this family can be used to scour pots and pants when camping.

The Tlingit and Salish used Equisetum hyemale for a rather mindless (but fun) gambling game, rather like "button button who's got the button" (quite amusing late night around a campfire).

Jeanne Rose was funny in her description: she like other herbalists, wrote that this Genus is the last survivor of vast forests that once formed forests on the Earth some 350 million years ago. Then she said "cockroaches developed about 300 million years ago". This is one long lived and sucessful genus of plant! This is probably due to the fact that the surviving species are rhizomous plants, and live underground, safe from the terrors of meteor impacts and crunching dinosaurs.

Ferns (from the Braken and Wood Fern Families):

Latin or Botanical name	common name	herbal, or edible use
Athyrium felix-femina	Lady Fern	fiddle heads on this were boiled and eaten as greens by natives. The fronds were (and still can be) used to cover food and keep the flies off it. There is also a Male Fern mentioned in herbals, and it has toxic properties.
Polystichum munitum	Sword Fern	dried fronds were used in storage situations to keep the moisture out of foods, or in bedding. The rhizomes were dug up and eaten (roasted) by the natives in times of starvation, early Spring.
Pteridium aquilinum	Western Braken Fern	rhizomes were eaten by the Natives, but Pojar and McKinnon recommend strongly against this.

Conifers (Division Gymnosperma)

Genus Pinus (we looked at Pinus monticola): needles make good mulch for rhodies, rendering the soil acid. Strawberries also like pine needle mulch. Contraindicated for compost piles. Lots of pine nuts are edible, but we didn't study any.

Thuja plicata: Western Cypress. Rose lists Thuja orientalis and T. occidentalis as being good for a vermifuge (expels worms) the leaf oil being good for skin ailments. Also used in perfumery, for gout, and nasty lingering coughs.

Click here to go on and find out more about Monocots and Angiosperms