Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. — Matthew 6:28
Medicine That Grows Where You Live
Most of the herbs in this book do not have to be bought. They grow in yards, along fences, in vacant lots, at the edge of the woods. Dr. Christopher paid his family’s bills by weeding gardens and carried the weeds home as medicine. In an emergency, a storm, a long power outage, a cabin miles from a hospital, or a time when stores are empty, the person who knows the plants around them can stop bleeding, draw out infection, ease a cough and bring down a fever with what is growing outside the door.
That is survival herbalism: knowing your local plants well enough to use them when you need them, and knowing how to care for your family until help arrives. Wildcrafting is the art of gathering medicinal plants from the wild, safely and with respect.
Dr. Nicole Apelian and The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies
Dr. Nicole Apelian is a biologist and anthropologist who has spent years learning from traditional peoples, including the San Bushmen of the Kalahari, and teaches wilderness survival; many people first saw her surviving alone in the wilderness on the television series Alone. When she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, she turned to the plants and to her own way of living. She credits her diet, time in nature every day, gratitude, and the remedies she makes herself (above all what she calls her “healing trinity” of elderberry tincture, usnea spray and a first aid salve, along with tinctures of medicinal mushrooms such as reishi, lion’s mane and turkey tail) with keeping her well.
With Claude Davis she wrote The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies, a field guide to nearly two hundred medicinal plants of North America, organized by where they grow: backyards, forests and woodlands, trees and shrubs, mushrooms and lichens, and water-loving plants, with a chapter of household remedies. Her teaching that runs through this chapter is simple: learn the plants around you before you need them. Make the remedies, use them, and keep them on hand, so that when an emergency comes you are not reading a book for the first time.
Identifying Plants Safely
Most of the harm done by wild plants comes from mistaken identity. A few of the deadliest plants in North America look like medicines or foods. These are the rules I teach:
- Be 100% sure, or do not use it. “Pretty sure” is not good enough for a plant you will put in your mouth or on a child.
- Learn the botanical (Latin) name. Common names change from place to place; “snakeroot” means at least four different plants. Achillea millefolium means only yarrow.
- Check several features, not one: the leaf shape, edges and arrangement (alternate, opposite or in a whorl); the stem (round or square, hairy or smooth, hollow or solid); the flower; the smell when crushed; the root; the habitat; and the season.
- Learn the families. The mint family has square stems, opposite leaves and a scent. The carrot family (Apiaceae) has umbrella-shaped flower clusters (umbels) and includes both healers (wild carrot, angelica, fennel) and killers (poison hemlock, water hemlock); never use a wild umbel plant unless you are certain. The mustard family has four petals in a cross. The aster family has composite flowers like daisies and dandelions.
- Use more than one source. Use a regional field guide, a plant identification app such as Google Lens or iNaturalist, and, best of all, a local herbalist or botanist who can show you the plant in person. Apps are a great start and sometimes wrong; confirm with a book or a person.
- Watch the plant through a season. Seeing a plant leaf out, flower and set seed is the surest way to know it.
Deadly Look-Alikes
| Medicine or food | Its dangerous look-alike | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|---|
| Wild carrot / Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) | Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum); water hemlock (Cicuta spp.), the most poisonous plant in North America | Wild carrot has a hairy stem, smells like carrot, and often has a single dark purple floret in the center of the flower. Poison hemlock has a smooth, hollow stem with purple blotches and a musty, “mousy” smell. Water hemlock grows in wet places and has chambered roots. When in doubt, leave every wild umbel alone. |
| Comfrey and mullein (first-year leaves) | Foxglove (Digitalis), the source of the heart drug digoxin | Comfrey leaves are bristly and rough; mullein leaves are thick and soft as flannel; foxglove leaves are softly hairy, with a network of veins and toothed edges, and the plant has no comfrey root. Foxglove is a heart poison. |
| Wild leeks / ramps and wild onion | False hellebore (Veratrum viride), lily of the valley, death camas | Smell it: ramps and onions smell of onion; the poisonous look-alikes do not. False hellebore has deeply pleated leaves. |
| Elderberry (Sambucus nigra and S. canadensis, blue-black berries) | Red elderberry (S. racemosa); unripe berries, stems and leaves of any elder | Use only ripe blue or black berries, cooked. Raw berries, stems, leaves and red elderberries can cause vomiting. |
| Pine needle tea | Yew (Taxus) | Yew has flat, single needles and red berry-like cones and is deadly. Pine needles come in bundles of 2–5. |
| Wild lettuce, skullcap and others | Jimsonweed (thorn apple, Datura), henbane, belladonna | Apelian describes these nightshade-family plants so you can recognize them, not use them. They are strongly poisonous. |
Harvest with Respect
The plants are a gift to be cared for, not used up. Every wildcrafter keeps these rules:
- Ask permission on land that is not yours, and know the rules of parks and public lands.
- Take no more than about 10% of a stand, and never the only plant you see. Leave the biggest, healthiest plants to seed the next generation.
- Be careful with roots. Taking a root kills the plant. Harvest roots only from abundant plants, replant root crowns where you can, and scatter the seeds.
- Never strip a tree. Peeling bark around a trunk kills it. Take bark from pruned branches or fallen limbs.
- Protect the plants at risk. United Plant Savers, founded by herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, lists plants being lost to overharvesting, including American ginseng, goldenseal, black cohosh, blue cohosh, lady’s slipper, false unicorn root, true unicorn root, bloodroot, osha, slippery elm, trillium and wild echinacea. Buy these cultivated, or grow them yourself; do not dig them from the wild.
- Gather from clean places. Avoid roadsides (exhaust and lead), sprayed lawns and fields, railroad tracks and power lines (herbicides), and polluted water.
When to Harvest
| Part | When | How |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves | Before the plant flowers, on a dry morning after the dew is gone | Snip the top third of the plant |
| Flowers | When just fully open | Pick the flower heads |
| Seeds and berries | When fully ripe | Strip or snip the clusters |
| Roots | In fall after the tops die back, or early spring before growth; biennials (burdock, dandelion) in the fall of their first year | Dig, wash and chop while fresh |
| Bark | Spring, when the sap is rising | Peel the inner bark from pruned branches |
| Resin and sap | Where a tree has bled on its own | Scrape gently, never wound the tree |
Drying and Storing
Dry herbs out of the sun, where air moves freely: hang small bundles upside down, spread them on screens or in paper bags, or use a dehydrator at about 95–115°F. Leaves are ready when they crumble, roots when they snap. Store in labeled glass jars away from light and heat (Chapter 2 gives the shelf life of each).
Plants Around You
Backyard Medicine
These are the weeds most people pull, and the medicines most herbalists treasure. Learn them first. Each has an entry in Part Two.
- Plantain (Plantago major, P. lanceolata): the first herb to learn. Chew a leaf and lay it on a sting, bite, splinter or cut (the “spit poultice”). Christopher’s cure for blood poisoning.
- Dandelion: leaf for the kidneys, root for the liver, all of it food.
- Chickweed: a cooling poultice for itching and rashes; a salad green.
- Yarrow: stops bleeding (Achilles is said to have carried it into battle) and breaks fevers.
- Cleavers: the sticky “goosegrass” that clears the lymph.
- Violet: leaves and flowers soothe the skin and lymph glands.
- Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris): a wound herb and a gargle for sore throats.
- Red clover: the blood purifier.
- Mallow: a soothing demulcent like marshmallow.
- Burdock: the deep-rooted skin and blood cleanser.
- Mullein: the lung herb, and its flowers make ear oil.
- Stinging nettle: the mineral-rich spring tonic (gloves, please; cooking or drying removes the sting).
- Goldenrod: a kidney herb and a remedy for congestion.
Trees and Shrubs
- White willow (and other willows): the inner bark is the original aspirin, for pain and fever.
- Pine: needle tea is rich in vitamin C (confirm it is pine, not yew); the resin makes a drawing, healing salve.
- Birch: the bark and leaves contain the same pain-relieving compound as wintergreen.
- Elder: flowers for fever, berries (cooked) for colds and flu.
- Hawthorn: berries, leaves and flowers for the heart.
- Black walnut: hulls for fungus and parasites.
- White oak: the bark for bleeding, diarrhea and sore gums.
- Slippery elm: the inner bark for the gut and throat (buy cultivated; the trees are at risk).
- Cottonwood and balsam poplar: the sticky spring buds make “balm of Gilead” oil for sore muscles.
- Juniper: berries for the kidneys and as a disinfectant.
Mushrooms and Lichens
- Usnea (“old man’s beard”): a pale green lichen hanging from branches, a strong antimicrobial for wounds and infections. To identify it, pull a strand gently apart: usnea has a white, stretchy inner cord. Gather it from fallen branches.
- Reishi: the shiny, varnished-looking shelf fungus, an immune and calming tonic, made as a double extraction (Chapter 2).
- Turkey tail: thin, banded fans on dead logs, an immune tonic.
- Chaga: a black, charcoal-like growth on birch trees. Harvest sparingly, because it grows slowly.
- Lion’s mane: a white, shaggy fungus that supports the brain and nerves.
Only use mushrooms you can identify with complete certainty; some poisonous mushrooms look like edible ones.
Water-Loving Plants
Cattail is food from root to pollen. Watercress is a powerful green, but gather it only from clean, flowing water, or cook it, because wild watercress from water near grazing animals can carry liver flukes.
The Medicinal Garden
You do not need much land. Apelian’s companion book shows how to grow a family’s core medicines in about 80 square feet, roughly a 4-by-20-foot bed or a few raised beds. A starter garden for the remedies in this book:
| Plant | Space | Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Calendula | 4 sq ft | Salve and oil for wounds and rashes |
| Chamomile | 4 sq ft | Tea for sleep, stomach and children; eyewash; steam |
| Echinacea | 4 sq ft | Root and seed tincture for infection |
| Comfrey | 4 sq ft (it spreads; plant it where it can stay) | Bones, bruises, sprains, the calcium formula |
| Yarrow | 4 sq ft | Bleeding, fever |
| Peppermint | a large pot (it spreads) | Stomach, headache, fever tea |
| Lemon balm | 4 sq ft | Calming, cold sores, children |
| Garlic | 4 sq ft | Infection, heart, food |
| Sage and thyme | 4 sq ft each | Sore throat, cough, fever, cooking |
| St. John’s wort | 4 sq ft | Nerve pain oil, wounds |
| Red clover | 4 sq ft | Blood cleanser |
| Evening primrose | 4 sq ft | Seed oil for skin and women’s health |
| Holy basil | 4 sq ft | Stress, immunity |
| Elder | a shrub in a corner | Flowers and berries for colds and flu |
Grow what you will use, and use what you grow.
A Survival Apothecary
Keep these on hand, in addition to the first aid kits in Chapter 3:
- Tinctures: cayenne, lobelia, echinacea, elderberry, usnea, valerian or skullcap, and black walnut.
- A first aid salve of calendula, plantain, comfrey, yarrow and St. John’s wort in olive oil and beeswax.
- Dried herbs: yarrow, plantain, comfrey root, chamomile, peppermint, ginger, slippery elm and a strong cold-and-flu blend.
- Household remedies (Apelian’s chapter of them): raw honey (for wounds, burns and coughs; not for babies under one), activated charcoal (for food poisoning and many swallowed poisons, though not for corrosives or petroleum products; take it apart from medicines, which it also binds), cayenne powder, turmeric, cinnamon and Epsom salt.
- Water treatment: if you have no clean water, boil it for one minute (three minutes at high altitude), or add unscented household bleach: 8 drops per gallon of clear water (6 drops if the bleach is 8.25%), stirred and left 30 minutes; double it for cloudy water. It should smell faintly of chlorine.
- Oral rehydration salts, or the makings: 6 level teaspoons of sugar and ½ level teaspoon of salt in 1 liter of clean water. This simple drink saves more lives in diarrhea and cholera than any herb.
When Help Is Far Away
Survival medicine is first aid that goes on longer, because help is hours or days away. These are the essentials. A first aid and CPR course will teach you the hands-on skills, and every family should have one person who has taken it.
First, the scene. Make sure the area is safe for you before you help; a hurt helper helps no one. Then check, in order: airway (is it open?), breathing, and circulation (a pulse, and any severe bleeding).
Severe bleeding. Firm, direct pressure with a cloth, held without peeking for at least ten minutes; pack deep wounds with cloth (or cayenne or yarrow powder) and press. If bleeding from an arm or leg cannot be stopped by pressure, a tourniquet 2–3 inches above the wound saves a life; note the time it went on. Give cayenne by mouth.
Shock. Pale, cold, clammy skin, a fast weak pulse and confusion after an injury mean shock. Lay the person down, raise the legs if there is no leg, hip or spine injury, keep them warm, and give cayenne tincture in the mouth.
The recovery position. An unconscious person who is breathing should be rolled onto the side, with the top knee bent and the head tilted back, so they will not choke.
Wounds and infection. Wash wounds with lots of clean water. Then use what you have: raw honey, usnea, yarrow, plantain, garlic, calendula salve. Watch for red streaks running up from a wound, which mean infection is spreading into the blood (“blood poisoning”): Christopher’s answer was fresh plantain poultices and plantain tea, three cups a day; if the streak keeps spreading or fever comes, get medical help.
Diarrhea and dehydration. Give oral rehydration drink by the cupful after each loose stool, astringent teas (red raspberry leaf, blackberry root, white oak bark), and activated charcoal for food poisoning. Babies and the elderly dehydrate fastest: watch for no tears, a dry mouth, sunken eyes and little or no urine.
Fever. Diaphoretic teas, fluids, rest and warm covers (Chapter 5), with the same warning signs.
Burns. Cool at once and keep cooling, then fresh aloe, honey or calendula (Chapter 3).
Cold injuries. For hypothermia (shivering, clumsiness, confusion), get the person out of the wind and wet, into dry clothes and blankets, warm the core first, and give warm, sweet drinks with ginger or a pinch of cayenne if they are awake. For frostbite, do not rub the skin; rewarm it in warm (not hot) water, about 104–108°F, and do not let it refreeze.
Heatstroke. Hot, red skin, confusion and a very high temperature is an emergency: cool the person at once with water and fanning, in the shade, and get help.
Stings and snakebite. Scrape a bee stinger out sideways and apply a plantain poultice. Swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, wheezing or faintness after a sting is anaphylaxis: use an epinephrine auto-injector if one is available and get emergency help. For snakebite, keep the person calm and still, keep the bitten limb at about heart level, remove rings and tight clothing, and get to a hospital. Do not cut the bite or apply ice. Dr. Schulze adds large doses of strong echinacea tincture.
Broken bones. Splint the limb as it lies, with padding, so the joints above and below cannot move, and get it set (Chapter 3).
The Field Poultice
When you are out on the trail with nothing in your pack, look around. Apelian teaches the field poultice: find a healing plant you know (plantain, yarrow, self-heal, or the leaves of a willow), chew or crush a few leaves, press them on the wound or sting, cover it with a larger clean leaf such as mullein or burdock, and tie it on with a strip of cloth or a vine. Change it when it dries. It is the oldest medicine there is.
Your Assignment from the Plants
Go outside this week with Google Lens or a field guide and identify five plants growing near your home. For each, learn the Latin name, two or three things it is good for, and the parts used, and look for its entry in Part Two. You will be surprised how much medicine is growing at your feet.
Sources and further reading
- Apelian, N., and Davis, C. The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies: The Healing Power of Plant Medicine. Global Brother, 2019 (plant identification, harvesting, field poultice, backyard plants, trees, mushrooms and lichens, water-loving plants, household remedies; “How I Manage Multiple Sclerosis”).
- Apelian, N. 80 Square Feet SHTF Medicinal Garden (companion booklet).
- Everyday Disaster Medicine Guide (companion booklet): first response, vital signs, life-saving techniques, shock, recovery position, serious injuries, wounds.
- Christopher, D. An Herbal Legacy of Courage (plantain and blood poisoning).
- United Plant Savers, “At-Risk” and “To-Watch” lists.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water.”
- World Health Organization and UNICEF, oral rehydration solution.
- American Red Cross, First Aid/CPR/AED course materials.