Starry False Solomon's Seal

So, since I have a hard time growing the more standard medicinal herbs, I've decided to really start trying to learn how to use the native plants and non native weeds such as dandelion. Well, actually, I already use my weeds, dandelion, shepherds purse, plantain, lamb's quarters, etc., so I'm going to focus on learning a few of the native plants that grow on my place this year.  One of them is Starry False Solomon's Seal. This plant has been through several latin names but the current one (I think) is maianthemum stellata. There's a huge patch of this in the largest gully we have.

So I did some research and then went harvesting. The leaves are supposed to be useful as a tea for coughs and colds. The rhizomes are supposed to be good for certain lung and heart issues. I think they help improve circulation and remove excess water. It's also supposed to help with sore joints and arthritis. The powdered rhizomes are a nutritive that's supposed to help tone the stomach among other things. I didn't dig enough to be worth drying and grinding. Instead I'm tincturing most of the rhizomes and infusing a small amount of them in honey. Hubby has sore joints sometimes, so I may try that out on him. I'm also drying the leaves to try when someone gets a cold. I'll just have to play with this one a bit throughout the year and take lots of notes.




Here's my harvest.

The rhizomes separated from the upper parts.

The washed rhizomes.

 

The leaves hanging to dry. There's a dandelion flower oil and a cottonwood bud infusing in oil in the background.

The big jar will be filled with alcohol to make the tincture and the little one is getting filled with some of my honey from my bees to make an infused honey.

Here's the little jar full of honey and chopped rhizome.