The Serpentine Project

Liriodendron

2011-07-19T05:26:00.006-04:00

I first learned of Liriodendron tulipfera when I was studying tropical diseases in preparation for going to Haiti after the earthquake last year. Actually, I met this tree in Portland, OR. It was in a neighbor's yard. I remember being fascinated by the unusual shape of the leaves, but I couldn't find anyone who knew what it was. Turns out it is a native to the northeast hardwood forests. They are common at the farm here in NE Ohio.

I use the Latin name Liriodendron because it means lily tree (and tulips are a type of lily) and I think its lovely. It's commonly called tulip poplar, but it isn't in the Poplar family. It's in the Magnolia family.

When I want to learn about a plant, I sit with the medicine. First I take an energetic dose (1-5 drops), then I take a therapeutic dose (20-30 drops).

Energetic Dose

My first impressions are of soft colors; shades of pink touched with lavender or orange. Fireworks coming out of the top of the tree. Lavender sky. Pink and orange flowers. Flying. Thoughts of painting and watching as the tree grows as if the painting was moving; capturing leaf buds growing into leaves, flowers budding, and samaras falling.

Then I saw my body as if it was a blurry negative of a black and white line drawing. Then the white lines melt down into the earth taking me with it. Falling. Relaxing. Falling asleep.

Heart beating. Strong awareness of it. For a moment I wonder is it beating harder or faster? Doesn't matter. Feels good. Healthy. Relax... wait, am I breathing? [Consciously take a breath.]

Movement in my eyes. More lavender light. Healing. Eyes moved back and forth starting by looking up and then going left to right - reminded me of descriptions of EMDR - but if I drew the lines I saw going back and forth I would draw the shape of my eyes using lines that zigzagged back and forth, left to right. Reminded me of the eye exercises included in a class that I took in San Francisco for Integral Yoga. [Made a mental note to check that out again, because I remember walking out of the building feeling completely at one with everything.] Healing.

Therapeutic Dose

Tastes sweet and bitter at the same time. Also aromatic. Reminds me of cinnamon, but more bitter, less sweet. Stimulating like cinnamon but cooling, and somehow floral.

Digestive system is stimulated; salivation, gurgling in the stomach, gallbladder, and later in the intestines. For a moment nausea, thoughts of the possibility of vomiting, but no bile in the back of my mouth. Feelings of cleansing and smoothing of the digestive tract.

Heart awareness. This time it is beating harder but slowing down.

Despite the relaxation and the stimulation of the digestion system; there seems to be little relaxation in the voluntary muscles. This suggests activation of the parasympathetic nervous system, there is a chart here that gives a nice quick look at what that looks like. I think this is interesting, because it is a popular food among our hypervigilant friend, Deer.

Medicinal Properties
Based on my experience and my research, I would use Liriodendron for intermittent fevers and chills, (came across this in my research of herbal remedies for malaria and yellow fever in Haiti), but would include with dogwood or boneset and wild cherry bark or white oak bark. Other symptoms that might benefit are diarrhea, fever, mild aches or headache, fatigue, convulsions. I've also seen reports of it being used for rheumatism and to expel worms.

I use Liriodendron as a general tonic for the digestive system (to ameliorate or prevent diarrhea, heartburn, nausea, gas, bloating). Because of the effects on the parasympathetic nervous system, I have used Liriodendron to heal from a long illness, serious injury, or traumatic event (the ones that replay in the mind like a slideshow), especially if there was a need to stimulate the liver and detoxify the organs and blood.

Here are some links to what other people say about it:

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/eclectic/dmna/liriodendron.html
Maude Grieve on its relative Magnolia
Free book by Jacob Bigelow - originally published in the late 1800s
http://www.gardenguides.com/128264-medicinal-quality-tulip-tree.html

Also in Matthew Wood's The Earthwise Herbal.

Other cool stuff:
http://herberowe.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/tulip-poplar-liriodendron-tulipifera-2/
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=LITU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_to_Life
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Giant

Plant Story 1

2011-05-06T14:04:00.004-04:00

You may recall that I asked for plant stories. I want to have a place where we can share our experiences. Here is the first story:

Hawthorn Notes

I first encountered Hawthorn in April of 2010 when a friend recommended it for my heart problem. I pruned, manured and sat with a small Hawthorn tree at Anathoth Farm, in Luck, Wisconsin after the tree was pointed out to me.

Since I don't drink, I mixed Hawthorn tincture with my regular, hot, malt beverage to burn off the alcohol. This first encounter happened at sunset and I felt like walking. The scene was euphoric with the colors of the sunset, the air smelling of fresh cut hay, and far off in a pasture, a dozen or so deer.

When I woke in the morning, I felt extremely sad. I have difficulty crying but I fell into an awful, remorseful and regretful dread. I packed and said goodbye to my hosts at Anathoth, and drove the ten hours straight back to my home in Michigan.

My friend, who'd recommended the Hawthorn and had made my tincture, suggested I take it again. She said I should keep an eye out for Hawthorn trees and befriend them. I live in a college town of about 100,000 people and found two Hawthorn trees where I pass almost daily and three more where I've lived half my life without knowing they were there.

The second time with Hawthorn was different: I sat with the trees for a bit and then went to a sidewalk cafe where I people-watched.

I found myself fascinated by the interactions of 'couples' and of friends sitting there, as if I was magnetized by their relationships to each other. I experienced none of the sadness I had the first time and wrote several pages in my journal.

I now take Hawthorn tincture in hot drinks almost everyday. I visit the trees and remove dead branches, touching the bark. This will be the first year I'll be sufficiently able to make my own tincture. I'll ask permission from the trees, to make the tincture from Hawthorn flowers, leaves and berries. More than anything else, the Hawthorn has helped me with emotional life,

traditionally associated with the heart and heart chakra. I feel as though something has opened up inside.

I feel like I'm more honest with myself and I trust my feelings more. My emotional 'palette' so to speak, has expanded and I feel as if I'm now having many more feeling events than I had previously. I am really happy about having a relationship with members of the plant world, which has overflowed into my cultivating other medicinal plants.

jones

April 2011, Michigan

The Heart Healer
Hawthorn is a wonderful medicine for the heart. It regulates blood pressure, strengthens the tissues of the heart and the circulatory system, and helps the body shed excess water.

I give it to friends to help them heal from a broken relationships, grief, and empty hearts. It helps us see new ways to open our hearts while helping heal emotional wounds. During times of great change and sadness, it allows us to wake up to new ways of feeling and knowing.

The heart has an electromagnetic field that is about 5000 times greater than that of the brain. It is included as an organ in the endocrine system - it produces at least two hormones. The heart is a center of great healing and a sense of perception that seems to have been forgotten by "civilized" societies.

Compassion, love, and kindness are felt in the heart. Nourishing the heart will help us expand these feelings so that they can radiate to others. And I don't mean this in a "woo woo" sense. Pacemaker cells in the heart regulate the rhythm and studies have shown that they don't even have to be touching each other to do so. Other studies indicate that when close to each other, the hearts of people who love each other will change rhythm slightly to try and match the other.

I tell you these things as a way of adding to the story about Hawthorn.

Spring Update

2011-04-22T10:54:00.011-04:00

Welcome to the Blog
We are not avid writers, but updates will now be posted here along with stories about plants and healing. If you have a story about plants that was inspired by our work, please send it to us and we will share with our plant friends. Email: info@serpentine-project.org

Health Survey in West Virginia

The photos are from my trip to West Virginia in March, where I volunteered on a health survey. During a break, I had the opportunity to drive to the New River Gorge where spring was just beginning. The first picture looks down into the gorge where a coal town used to be. The second is from the mining site near the top of the gorge. The third is of a common Orchid called Rattlesnake Plantain, what I think is a species of Cinquefoil, and a lichen I'm unfamiliar with.

The survey intends to demonstrate health differences in two different communities in West Virginia. The major difference between the two communities is that one is near coal-mining operations and one is not. We took hair samples and surveyed community member's cancer history. My job was to put together a training for the volunteer interviewers. Some of the topics were the region's industrial history, cultural norms, logistics, health inequalities, culturally appropriate behavior, how to use a survey, and how to take a hair sample.

The study will help us learn more about health impacts in that region. We are particularly interested in the health impacts of toxin accumulation and pollution due to coal mining operations, such as mountain top removal. The National Institutes of Health has identified the Appalachian region as an area needing research and health promotion to reduce health inequalities; Appalachia has higher death and disease rates compared to the rest of the U.S. Our principal investigator, Michael Hendryx, PhD, West Virginia University, has published a number of studies using secondary data (generally data collected by the Centers for Disease Control or other federally funded agency). Some of the abstracts of the studies are posted below for those who are interested.

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/AJPH.2007.113472v1
http://www.lungcancerjournal.info/article/S0169-5002%2808%2900060-3/abstract
http://www.springerlink.com/content/7n75225tx529nr71/
http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/env.2008.0500
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a787652790

In this study, we collected primary data by having volunteer students go to do door to fill out a survey and collect hair samples. This is significant because there have been no previous studies of this kind. Analysis has just begun, I'll share what we learn in future updates.

Thanks to the community members in Coal River who helped make this happen. Some of the community organizations who provided volunteers and recruited students to conduct the survey are Coal River Mountain Watch, Christians for the Mountains, and Restoring Eden.

Seed Fund

Thanks to those of you who have sent donations. The goal is to raise funds for seeds and continue fundraising efforts for our biggest project thus far: a strawbale apothecary and classroom! If you have a few dollars to send us or would like to visit our fundraising project – The Twisted Serpent – to purchase jewelry for yourself or a friend, please go to: http://serpentine-project.org/donate.html. Donations of $50 or more are tax-deductible.

Annual Update

This year, SP has been accepted as a sponsored project of the Progressive Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit in Luck, Wisconsin. The Progressive Foundation also sponsors Nukewatch (www.nukewatch.org), an educational organization that works toward the abolition of nuclear development. The annual update posted here includes our 2011 plan.

Classes/Intern Program

The spring class schedule is available at http://serpentine-project.org/classes.html. Currently, May listings are posted. If you would like to have a class in your area or would like to consider becoming an SP Intern, read the classes page on our website, then send an email to info@serpentine-project.org.

Annual Update and Plan 2011

2011-04-16T13:50:00.003-04:00

The Serpentine Project is an educational endeavor to protect and cultivate medicinal plants and traditional approaches to healing. We envision communities that cultivate, protect, and learn from plant medicines as part of an ecological, holistic, and educational health system with an eye to future generations. Our mission is to contribute to this system of health by teaching people about medicinal plants, public health, and preventive medicine. This year, the Progressive Foundation, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, has agreed to sponsor the project. This will give us the opportunity to seek grant funds and receive tax-deductible donatons.

BLD farm

The woodlands restoration project at BLD farm began in the spring of 2009. Several plants were saved from a site that was expected to be logged heavily. The plants moved included Blue Cohosh, Black Cohosh, Bloodroot, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Trillium. In autumn, approximately 120 Goldenseal roots and 120 American Ginseng roots were purchased and planted in multiple beds throughout the woods. Freshly seeds of Black Cohosh, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, and Goldenseal have been planted in optimum habitat and new plants are expected to be found in the spring and summer of 2010. In addition to the woodlands restoration project, a garden project began in the fall of 2010. The herb garden was sown with the seeds of Nettle, Wormwood, Elecampane, Marshmallow, Chamomile, and Calendula.

In 2011, we plan to expand the herb garden by seed at-risk plants include Echinacea. Goldenseal will be propagated from an existing stand to start a new stand upstream and in other suitable locations. Other established plants, including Black Cohosh, Trillium, Bloodroot, Blue Cohosh and Mayapple will be propagated by freshly harvested seed and rhizome cuttings.

Other at-risk and to-watch plants that are already thriving here include Skunk Cabbage, Stoneroot, Lobelia, Mayapple,

Plowshares Land Trust

The woodlands restoration project at the Plowshares Land Trust includes the planting of 25 Goldenseal roots, transplants of Red Trillium and Blue Cohosh grown by seed, and root propagation of Butterfly Weed. Twenty-three Slippery Elm trees propagated by seed in 2009 were transplanted to their final locations throughout the property. A prairie garden has also been started with Echinacea and Black-eyed Susan that have been planted among Goldenrod, Wild Bergamot, Milkweed and some native grasses and non-native grasses.

A native plants garden existed prior to the founding of the Serpentine Project. This garden was quite overgrown and has been heavily weeded and supplemented with medicinal plants that grow well and can be substituted for at-risk plants such as Fennel, Calendula, Feverfew, Angelica, Blue Vervain, Sage, Common Mugwort, Wormwood, Louisiana Sagewort, Marshmallow, Wood Betony, Grindelia, Evening Primrose, Thyme, and Elecampane.

In 2011, the focus will be on expanding the prairie garden with more dry prairie native species.

Other at-risk and to-watch plants that are already thriving at the Plowshares Land Trust include Echinacea, Stoneroot, Lobelia, Maidenhair fern, Pippsissewa, Wild Yam, Trillium, and Blue Cohosh.

Education

In 2010, the Serpentine Project taught classes in Luck, WI; St. Croix Falls, WI; Pittsburgh, PA; Erie, PA. Many classes will be taught again in 2011 - so far classes have been taught in Pittsburgh, PA; Erie, PA; Providence, RI and classes are scheduled in Ithaca, NY; Ashtabula, OH; Luck, WI; Minong, WI; and Amery, WI.

Topics include:

Herbal and Community Approaches to Disaster Situations

Herbal First Aid

Home Remedies for Common Maladies

Spring Tonics from the Backyard - Parts 1 and 2

Growing At-Risk Medicinal Plants

Tree Medicine

Kitchen Medicine

Beginning Medicine Making 1-4

Herbal Approaches to Lyme Disease

Autumn Roots

Winter Warming and Nutritive Herbs

Intuitive Approaches to Healing

Storytelling and Healing

Shapeshifters: Plants and People

Board Members:

Bonnie Urfer, Progressive Foundation, Luck, WI

Barb Katt, Plowshares Land Trust, Luck, WI

Theresa Schiavone, Landowner, Conneaut, OH

Charles Schiavone, BLD farm, Conneaut, OH

Mary Blue, Herbalist and Health Educator, Farmacy Herbs, Providence, RI

Mo O'Brien, RN, Herbalist and Health Educator, Hamilton, MT

Project Manager:

Leah Wolfe, MPH

Childhood Friends

2010-01-14T20:05:00.007-05:00

When I was a child, I lived on a threshold. The San Andreas fault divided the mountains bordering the high deserts of Southern California. Here plants from two ecosystems overlapped. The mountains in front of my house were a forest of Jeffrey pines, oaks, huckleberries, and wildflowers. The lower hills behind my house were dotted with Joshua trees, scrub oak, sagebrush, yerba santa, and prickly poppies.

The plant I remember the most is the sagebrush. The way it smelled when I crushed it between my fingers. The extremely bitter taste. It was a comfort when my friends and I hid beneath its low branches at the edges of the playground.

Sagebrush is called Artemisia tridentata. It is not related to sage (Salvia species). Its relatives are mugwort, wormwood, tarragon, and Southernwood. Many of the Artemisias are taken for purification both physically and spiritually. Most of them are taken as bitters to stimulate digestion through their actions on the gallbladder and liver.

Wormwood, often taken as absinthe, clears the doorway to the creativity. Absinthe was popular among artists and writers as a way to open the visionary mind. The drink earned a reputation as a poison, though it's unknown whether the constituent thujone or the colors and additives were to blame. The brilliant color of the spirit and its ability to give drinkers visions inspired the nickname "The Green Fairy." Medicinally, it is often included in formulas to rid the digestive system of parasites. Wormwood is given to pigs as a natural vermifuge and anthelmintic; that is it stuns and expels parasitic worms. Externally as a poultice or ointment, it speeds the healing of inflammation in the joints or of the skin.

Another door opened by the Artemisias is to the dream world. Some place mugwort above their beds to provoke lucid or vivid dreaming. The oil is rubbed on the forehead to stimulate the pineal gland, which secretes melatonin to promote deep sleep, creativity, and vision through the third eye. It is also used in the form of moxibustion to clear acupressure points by increasing circulation and reducing inflammation. It has a history of being used to purge parasites, as an emmenagogue (promote menstruation or purge the uterus), and as a digestive/gallbladder/liver tonic.

My friend, sagebrush, is often burned as a smudge to clear the air, chase away evil spirits, or transform dark energies. It is extremely bitter and its physical actions are similar to those of mugwort and wormwood. It helps me clear negative perspective so that I can see the best in people and the best in myself. I've had dreams of sagebrush burning. The curling smoke lifts into my ancestry through bloodlines like rivers in a family tree. It clears space in my spirit for the good memories to surface and clears my lens of experience so that I can see anew.

It helps me remember that most of my scars are cultural. Scars that I can heal from by revisioning my life and dreaming a new dream.

What plants call to you in your childhood memories?

Over an Apparition

2010-01-02T13:00:00.000-05:00

It's midwinter. Dark and cold in the northern hemisphere. Industrialization and computer technology have created the expectation that the same work conducted in the summer continues through the winter. For many people in this hemisphere, winter has become an inconvenience for day-to-day activities. But for most of human existence, winter and the other seasons defined all activity.

Winter was something to survive.

My time in the Pacific Northwest taught me to see winter as a time to go into ourselves. Nourish our roots, like a tree. So that in the spring, we have the energy to produce leaf buds and flowers. Fruit in the summer and shed away the old growth in the fall, then begin again.

If you're paying attention at all, it would be impossible to not give into dark feelings and thoughts in the winter. Mountain top removal, a type of coal mining, is quickly destroying parts of the world's oldest mountain range. Plastics are proving to be persistent endocrine disruptors and eternal sources of pollution. War has become an end in itself. Climate change rages along with no global plan to do anything about it. Dark times indeed.

I find myself thinking of a plant that blooms in the middle of the summer throughout the northern hemisphere. St. John's Wort. Traditionally, picked and hung to ward off evil spirits. In some places, the long stems and flowers were tied together to form a cross and hung near thresholds to keep dark things from entering. It's Latin name, Hypericum, is composed of hyper meaning "above" and icon meaning "image," which roughly translates to "over an apparition." I take this to mean that it helps transcend the darkness, the evil apparition.

St. John's wort (wort is an Old English word for plant) is in full bloom when midsummer celebrations occur; receiving its name from a midsummer celebration called St. John's Day. These celebrations are marked by sun and fire symbols - often celebrated with fire festivals and bonfires. Six months later celebrations begin to mark the death of the fisher king in Celtic mythology, the birth of Jesus in Christian mythology, and a time when opposing energies in the cosmos shift to create balance, as in ancient yin and yang myths. Which is where we are now. The tilt of the Earth now brings the northern hemisphere closer to the sun. A time when survival was challenging. And still is.

The species most often used medicinally is Hypericum perforatum; perforatum referring to tiny holes in the leaves. The Doctrine of Signatures, a philosophy that a plant's physical characteristics represent its medicinal properties, still reminds herbalists of the healing qualities. Some believe that these tiny holes represent physical and spiritual wounds that SJW can help seal up and heal. Others believe that the holes signify its ability to let in the light when times are dark.

SJW is a sun plant with an affinity for the solar plexus. The solar plexus chakra in Ayurvedic medicine roughly corresponds to the adrenal system. The will and intuition lie there. In Traditional Chinese Medicine this is where the yin and the yang meet to maintain balance. In dark times (whether environmental or psychological), yin increases, sometimes creating imbalance.

SJW gives us courage in dark times by strengthening the nervous system and healing old wounds. It is often incorrectly used as an herbal prozac, but those who market it that way emphasize one or two isolated constituents of the plant. They misunderstand the complexity and spirit of the plant. It also works on the intuition, an aspect of humans that is not well understood in the scientific world.

SJW tones the nervous system to reduce outbreaks caused by herpes viruses, which, not surprisingly, flare up when the body or the mind experiences imbalance. The virus lives in large nerve bundles (like the ganglia behind the jaw bones [oral herpes] and in the nervous tissue at the base of the spine [genital herpes]. Combined with lemon balm internally and with licorice root externally, anecdotal and research reports have noted that herpes outbreaks lessen in both severity and frequency. Some research is examining its use in HPV and HIV, but it is now best known as an antidepressant.

SJW is helpful for several imbalances or injuries in the nervous system. It is a vulnerary (promotes healing), nervine (soothes the nerves), and anti-inflammatory (reduces pain or discomfort associated with inflammation), astringent (tightens atrophied or loose tissues), and expectorant (stimulates and clears the respiratory tract). It is sweet, balsamic, and oily. Medicines should be made from fresh flowers and buds using alcohol or oil. It loses much of its medicine when dried.

As a vulnerary and nervine it is useful for nerve pain or nerve damage (such as that occurring in burns, wounds, and bruises). As a street medic, I use it most often for injuries to the radial nerve caused by handcuffs and bruises. At the protests at the Republican National Convention in 2008, the street medics knew St. John's wort as "liquid courage" as they went out into the streets to help those injured for raising their voices in dark times. It reduces nerve damage and inflammation associated with repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. It's anti-inflammatory properties soothe inflammation in the nerves, the skin, the kidneys and bladder, and the digestive tract. It heals wounds old and new, physical and emotional.

I write about this summer plant now because it helps us leap into the darkness rather than resist. It improves dark moods brought on by the winter months, perhaps opening the body to light through it's ability to increase photosensitivity. It is also helpful in times of trauma, loss, and grief. It works best in acute situations marked by overwhelming emotions that keep one from moving forward.

The Healer's Healer

2009-12-20T19:21:00.000-05:00

I've spent 9 long months bringing the Serpentine Project into being. And I've only just begun. And I've just begun to learn the lessons the plants teach.

Plants are intelligent. They know what we need more than we do. Those we need the most, tend to grow in our backyards and our fields.

I've become a traveler. My sister calls me her gypsy sister. My closest friend is yarrow. Yarrow is known in the scientific world as Achillea millefolium. Yarrow is my protection, my force field, the healer's healer. The first part of the name refers to the myth of Achilles, who carried the plant into battles to help heal the wounds of his warriors. Millefolium means "thousand-leaf." In the Southwestern U.S. and Mexico it is called plumajillo, or "little feather."

Yarrow is a febrifuge (breaks fevers), diaphoretic (cools the body by promoting sweating), bitter (bitters increase the production of bile and improve digestion), hemostatic (stops bleeding by promoting clotting of the blood), antiseptic, diffusive (promotes movement of blood in tissues), and mild antispasmodic.

Yarrow has a strong affinity for the blood. And an intelligence for healing. It can stop external and internal bleeding, but diffuses blood when it is stuck in the case of a bruise or a slow menses.

As a flower essence it is used for psychic protection and the deflection of negative energy. I met a woman in Wisconsin who uses it to protect herself from electromagnetic waves. A healer in Oregon takes it before sitting with those that come to him. Yarrow helps him differentiate his own energies from theirs so it won't cloud his perception of their needs.

My work with yarrow is a long-term relationship to strengthen my emotional and psychological boundaries. It gives me the sense of being in a sphere of light. I have a friend in Minnesota who talks of Tai Chi and an exercise that imparts a similar power by creating an egg of light around the practitioner. Yarrow has taught me strength. The first time I became truly acquainted with the plant, it accompanied me on a 100-mile bike ride that I accomplished in one day alone. I went to an event where I was going to be surrounded by people I didn't know. The whole time I was there I felt incredibly strong, autonomous, and peaceful.

As I move around this continent, I find that so many people suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and other trauma-related emotional chaos. Yarrow staunches emotional bleeding much like it staunches the bleeding from a wound. It builds strength so that people can feel more resilient to environmental and psychological triggers.

It is a beautiful plant that has a complex chemical profile. Many of the constituents are not well understood. Resiliency is a key characteristic. It is one of the most common plants on Earth and lives in a wide variety of habitats. I have found that the dry, windy places, like those in eastern Oregon, yield a potent bitter medicine. The bluffs along Lake Erie yield medicine that is aromatic and complex. While that grown in a garden tends to be weak in taste and potency.

I primarily make yarrow tincture, but it can also be used as a tea, powder, and bath herb. It has a rich history. Traditionally, the stalks have been used in the casting of the I Ching. Witches of medieval times were said to create incantations with yarrow. Getting acquainted with the plant is a personal thing, but I will say that I didn't believe in magic until I met this plant.