Healing Gardens

1. Yarrow – Achilliea millefolium

Habitat: Not exactly a wetlands plant, but likes water and grows more quickly in wet places. In Washington it can be found just about anywhere.
Medicinal properties: good for fevers, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic/astringent, aromatic, antimicrobial against Shigella, menstrual aid.
Other uses: I Ching oracle uses the stalks for prediction, tea of the plant makes a good hair rinse.
Warnings: Not for extended use during pregnancy.
(MPPW 272-275)

2. Large-Leaved Lupine – Lupinus polyphyllus

Habitat: “Moist to wet, open habitats (seashore, streamside, wet meadows) and disturbed sites; at low middle elevations.” (PPNC 195)

3. Sheep Sorrel – Rumex acetosella

Habitat: Introduced from Europe, likes “disturbed sites at low to middle elevations … also sometimes established in undisturbed open forest …” Common in Washington. Weed.
Medicinal properties: Leaves are rich in vitamin C and have a pleasant tart taste to them.
Warnings: Should not be eaten in large quantity due to presence of oxalic acid, which interferes with calcium metabolism. (PPNC 129)

4. Nootka Rose – Rosa nutkana

Habitat: “A variety of generally open habitats (shorelines, meadows, thickets, streamside areas, roadsides, clearings), at low to middle elevations.” (PPNC 74)
Medicinal properties: infusion of buds for eye wash, leaves as astringent, hips as infusion for vitamin c, flavonoids. (MPPW 305)

5. Horsetail – Equisetum arvense

Habitat: Grows anywhere it is wet, and in sand, gravel, and along roadsides and railroad tracks
Medicinal properties: diuretic, eye and skin treatment, excellent tonic, wound wash.
(IHNA 157-158)

6. White Clover – Trifolium repens
Habitat: “Disturbed sites … occasionally in other open, grassy sites; low to subapline elevations.” Introduced. (PPNC 196)

7. Rush

Unsure of species but likely common rush.

8. Red Osier Dogwood – Cornus stolonifera

Habitat: “Moist soil, typically in swamps and streamside forest and scrub, but also in open upland forest and thickets … bog forest edges, and disturbed sites; valley bottoms to middle elevations. (PPNC 90)
Medicinal properties: astringent, anti-inflammatory, mild aspirin-like effect.
(MPPW 95, 295)

9. Tall Oregon Grape – Mahonia aquifolium

Habitat: “Commonly found in drier, more open (often rocky) sites than is dull Oregon-grape …”
(PPNC 95)

10. Sword Fern – Polystichum munitum

Habitat: “Moist forest at low to middle elevations; abundant and widespread from central Vancouver island and adjacent mainland south, less common further north.”
Medicinal properties: Anti-diarrheal
Other Uses: Protective layer for pit ovens, flooring and bedding, a Native American game called pala-pala.
(PPNC 421)

11. Bracken Fern – Pteridium aquilinum

Habitat: “Meadows, roadsides, clearings, sterile sandy soils, burns, avalanche tracks, dry to wet forests, acid sites such as lake-shores and bogs; often weedy; at low to subalpine elevations.”
Other uses: lining pit ovens.
Cautions: not edible!
(PPNC 420)

12. Cattail – Typha latifolia

Habitat: “Marshes, ponds, lakeshores, and wet ditches, in slow-dlowng o quiet water; low to middle elevations.”
Other uses: Mats woven from leaves, insulation for winter homes, cattail seed fluff used for mattress and pillow stuffing, as a wound dressing and for diapers. Provides important food for many marsh animals.
(PPNC 338)

13. Kinnikinnik – Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

Habitat: “Sandy and well-drained exposed sites, dry rocky slopes, dry forest and clearings; common and widespread, from low elevations to alpine tundra.”
Medicinal properties: diuretic
Other uses: Smoking mixture
(PPNC 67)

 

4. Noble Fir – Abies procera

Habitat: “Middle to upper-elevation coniferous forests, often associated with amabilis fir.”
(PPNC 36)

15. Dandelion – Taraxacum officinale

Habitat: “Introduced weedy species of disturbed sites at low to middle elevations.”
Other uses: Edible, good in salads. Flowers make good wine, whole plant can be brewed into beer.
(PPNC 270)

16. Various Asters
Hard to identify without flowers

17. Douglas Spirea – Spiraea douglasii

Habitat: “Streambanks, swamps, fens, lake margins and damp meadows. Low to middle elevations.”
Other uses: twigs were used by Native Americans to make shell collecting devices.
(PPNC 81)

18. Oregon Ash – Fraxinus latifollia

Habitat: “On moist to wet soils at low elevations, often near streams or in other areas that are occasionally flooded.”
Other uses: protection from snakes (poisonous snakes do not go near this tree), furniture / tool handles.
(PPNC 50)

19. Plantain – Plantago major

Habitat: “Roadsides, fields, pastures, lawns, at low elevations; common weed from southwestern B.C. south, infrequent northwards.”
Medicinal properties: headache removal
Other uses: edible (must be boiled)
(PPNC 329)

20. Willow - unidentifiable

 

21. Sedge

Species unknown

 

22. Fungus 

Species Unknown 

 

23. Bird 

Species Unknown

 

PPNC = Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast

MPPW = Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West

IHNA = Indian Herbalogy of North America