Healing Gardens

Kneeling Angelica

Family Name: Parsley (3)

Family Name: Apiaceae (3)

Latin Name: Angelica genuflexa (3)

Also Known As: A. lucida (3)

Common Name: Angelica

Native American Names: Twana—sil3icH (4)

Related Species: A. arguta—Sharptooth Angelica (1:218), A lucida—Sea-Watch (3, 1:218), A. archangelica (2:124)

Body System Affiliations: Digestive System (3)

Botanical Description:

Habit: Perennial (1:218)

Size: Stem 1-1.5 meters tall (1:218)

Leaves: “Compound, with 3 major divisions divided in turn; primary divisions bent back (not directed forward as in similar species); leaf stalk also bent abotve the first pair of primary leaflets; ultimate leaflets egg-shaped to lance-shaped, coarsely toothed; veins tending to end at the points of the teeth; leaf stalks with inflated bases sheathing the main stem” (1:218)

Flowers: “White of pinkish, small; in numerous small compact heads, all arranged together in several umbrella-shaped clusters; involucral bracts lacking” (1:218)

Fruit: “Rounded, 3-4 mm long, hairless, with broadly winged lateral ribs” (1:218)

Underground Parts: taproot (1:218)

Ecology:

Habitat: “Moist thickets, forest openings and edges, swamps, streambanks, wet ditches and clearings” (1:218)

--need moist soil and must be in a position that is in the shade during the hottest part of the day (2:189)

Range: common at low to middle elevations through the northern 2/3 of Pacific NW Coast region, sporadic southwards through Washington and Oregon (1:218)

Western (European-American) Uses/Relationships:

Food: young leaves raw; candied angelica may be made from young, fleshy leaf stems (2:214)

 

References Cited:

 

1. Mackinnon, Andy, and Jim Pojar. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Vancouver, British Columbia: Ministry of Forests and Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.

 

2. Hoffman, David. The Herbal Handbook: A User’s Guide to Medical Herbalism. Rochester, VT: Healing Arts Press, 1998.

 

3. Eloheimo, Marja. sayuyay Botanical Project: Educational Garden Plant List.

The Evergreen State College: Healing Gardens, 2006.

 

4. Eloheimo, Marja. sayuyay Garden SIGN List: April 2004. The Evergreen State

College: 2004.